Health IT Business News – December 6, 2017

TOPICS:

Posted By: Annmarie Budniak December 6, 2017

CVS Health to Acquire Aetna; Combination to Provide Consumers with a Better Experience, Reduced Costs and Improved Access to Health Care Experts in Homes and Communities Across the Country
CVS Health (@CVSHealth), a pharmacy innovation company and Aetna (@AetnaNews), a diversified health care benefits company, announced the execution of a definitive merger agreement under which CVS Health will acquire all outstanding shares of Aetna for a combination of cash and stock. Under the terms of the merger agreement, which has been unanimously approved today by the boards of directors of each company, Aetna shareholders will receive $145.00 per share in cash and 0.8378 CVS Health shares for each Aetna share. The transaction values Aetna at approximately $207 per share or approximately $69 billion[1]. Including the assumption of Aetna’s debt, the total value of the transaction is $77 billion.

GetWellNetwork Expands Patient Education Library with Top-Rated Elsevier Videos
GetWellNetwork®, Inc. (@GetWellNetwork), the Precision Engagement™ health care company, has added Elsevier educational videos to its library of health education content, currently the largest in the Interactive Patient Care™ industry. The joint announcement was made at the Next Generation Patient Experience (NGPX) Conference (Nov. 28-30 in San Diego, Calif). GetWellNetwork will distribute Elsevier videos to health care providers and their patients through its cross-continuum engagement platform, which educates and empowers patients across all care settings.

For more about GetWellNetwork and the organization’s CEO, Michael O’Neil (@GetWellCEO), listen to this episode of Healthcare De Jure with host Matt Fisher and hear the two discuss why patient engagement needs to involve precision engagement.

Oxford Finance Provides $20 Million Senior Debt Facility to VitalConnect, Inc. CHECK SITES
Oxford Finance LLC, a specialty finance firm that provides senior debt to life sciences and healthcare services companies, recently announced the closing of a $20 million senior secured term loan with VitalConnect, Inc. (@VitalConnectInc), a provider of wearable biosensor technology for wireless monitoring in hospital and remote patient populations. The funds are being used to further the commercialization of the VitalConnect solution suite for both hospital and remote patient monitoring markets.

Prognos, Healthcare AI Company, Raises $20.5 Million Towards Predicting Disease the Earliest
Prognos (@prognosAI), an innovator in applying artificial intelligence (AI) to clinical lab diagnostics, has completed a $20.5 million Series C round of financing, bringing the company’s total funding to $42 million. The investors include Cigna, GIS Strategic Ventures (the venture capital arm of the Guardian Life Insurance Company), Hermed, Hikma Ventures, Maywic, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (GHI), and Safeguard Scientifics. The support validates Prognos’ leadership position in the market as the only healthcare AI company capable of delivering forward-looking and real-time insights based on laboratory and diagnostics records.

Revel Secures Growth Equity Investment from TT Capital Partners to Accelerate Market Expansion
Revel (@revelhealth), a health engagement company, announced it has secured a growth equity investment of over $17 million from TT Capital Partners (@tripletreellc). The investment will accelerate Revel’s expansion into new target markets and advance the innovation and technology development for Revel Connect, the industry’s leading health engagement platform. Revel is known for its unique ability to engage health insurance members in their own healthcare, enabling the healthcare system to support the individual, deliver better health outcomes and reduce unnecessary costs.

DSS, Inc. Partners with Jvion, Inc. to Improve Health Outcomes for Veterans Through Cutting-Edge Innovation
Document Storage Systems, Inc. (@dsshealthit), a provider of health information technology solutions for federal, private and public healthcare organizations, announced a partnership with Jvion, Inc., developer of the Cognitive Clinical Success Machine, an award winning Artificial Intelligence solution. The partnership will deliver patient-specific risk propensity and clinical action recommendations that will improve the health of Veterans.

Change Healthcare Teams with Zebra Medical Vision to Bring Artificial Intelligence to Medical Imaging
Change Healthcare and Zebra Medical Vision (@ZebraMedVision) announced an agreement to create solutions that deliver artificial intelligence solutions to complex radiology reporting environments. Change Healthcare’s proven radiology solutions, along with Zebra Medical Vision’s algorithms, will benefit radiologists and other imaging specialists by improving the efficiency of routine tasks and the effectiveness of workflow in the radiologist reading environment.

Change Healthcare Acquires Credentialing Technology from Docufill, LLC
Change Healthcare recently expanded its capabilities and product offerings with dental provider credentialing software technology acquired from Docufill, LLC. The cloud-based technology allows providers to use a single shared form across the organization to streamline the otherwise administratively complex and redundant credentialing process. As a result, provider organizations can reduce the time and cost associated with credentialing, and can also help reduce the administrative burden for the payers they work with.