Healthcare Management Systems has been picked to provide its electronic health records system and several other products to Hutcheson Medical Center, a 240-bed facility just across the state from Chattanooga. Hospital CFO Farrell Hayes has used HMS before and says the company will be a big part of his facility's turnaround efforts.

Keith Pitts, the vice chairman of Vanguard Health Systems, has been named to the board of San Antonio-based health IT company AirStrip Technologies. The news comes shortly after Vanguard and AirStrip — which is partly owned by HCA Holdings — said they are expanding their relationship to include all of Vanguard's nearly 30 hospitals.

William Bates has told the executive team at digiChart, the health IT company he founded in 1999, that he will retire as chairman at the end of the month. Bates will be chairman emeritus of digiChart but pursue new business and teaching opportunities. What exactly those are is not yet clear, and Bates and other digiChart execs were away from the office Thursday. Stay tuned for more...

HealthTeacher has named Dr. Kevin Wildenhaus, vice president of science and innovation at SocialWellth, as a senior advisor.

The team psychologist for the Pittsburgh Steelers for more than a decade, Wildenhaus (pictured) will advise Cummins Station-based HealthTeacher in the areas of behavior change, healthy habit formation and program outcome research. Previously, he served as senior director of science and innovation at Wellness & Prevention, a Johnson & Johnson company.

“Kevin Wildenhaus is a leading authority on health innovations and programs that positively impact the health and well-being of consumers,” Scott McQuigg, CEO of HealthTeacher, said in a release. “He uniquely understands how to optimize health promotion and prevention efforts to drive successful outcomes. Kevin will add extraordinary value and insights as HealthTeacher continues creating the tools and resources kids and families need to live life well.”

SEE ALSO: Yale professor to advise HealthTeacher

M*Modal officials say they have signed a deal with longtime client Johns Hopkins Medicine to expand its network to the entire system, which includes four other hospitals and a number of clinics. The company also will install its cloud-based quality assurance system at the two Johns Hopkins hospitals where its transcription services already are being used.

Vanguard Health Systems has agreed to roll out to all 28 of its hospitals the patient data information systems developed by AirStrip Technologies. The two companies have been working together in San Antonio for a while in the perinatal area but will now add other products as well as geographies to their relationship. AirStrip earlier this year opened a Nashville office led by a former KPMG health care exec.

Local revenue cycle manager nTelagent has joined marketing forces with Vantiv, a public payment processor based in Cincinnati. The two companies will take to market each other's services to their customers aiming to get a bigger slice of the growing number of consumers who are handling more of their medical bills directly.

The evolution of high deductible insurance plans and increasing patient payment responsibility is requiring healthcare providers to reevaluate and redesign their patient payment processes. Nearly 25 percent of patient service revenue is paid by the patient today, and this number is expected to double by 2017.