ZocDoc, which helps patients find doctors and schedule appointments, has raised an additional $152 million at an apparent valuation of $1.6 billion, with the new funds to be used to expand into wellness for the employer market. Another absurd investment and valuation.
An article in the Wall Street Journal, based on data from Innovalon, finds that the new enrollees through the insurance exchanges have much higher rates of chronic and other illnesses than projected, likely explaining the proposed increases in 2015 premium rates in many states for exchange plans.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has sent a letter to CMS regarding problems ACOs are having in their early Medicare experience, including patient attribution and quality reporting issues.
Emdeon, the large claims clearinghouse and revenue cycle management company is acquiring Capario, which has a cloud-based unified revenue administration system.
House was right, patients lie. According to new research, however, they will lie less to a virtual physician. In an experiment reported in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, participants disclosed more fully in an interview they believed was conducted by a computer than one controlled by a human.
West Corporation, a public communications technology and services firm, has purchased Health Advocate for $275 million. Health Advocate provides wellness and care management services.
Equian, which sells cost containment services to the medical and workers' compensation industries, has acquired AfterMath Claim Sciences, which does post-payment error review.
Xerox, through its ACS division, has acquired ISG Services, a large workers' compensation program vendor which includes StrataCare and Bunch, for $225 million.
Research in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association studied the Veterans Health Administration electronic medical record system and found that EHRs are associated with frequent patient safety issues, some from poor user actions, but the majority from issues with the software itself.
Linden Care, a pain management specialty pharmacy and portfolio company of BelHealth, is acquiring Quick Care to expand its presence to the West Coast.
KPMG is buying Zannet Commercial Solutions, which provides health care information technology consulting to the health care industry, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.