BIZ HITS Business & Strategy Updates.
Digital Health M&A: This acquisition had the whole #healthtwitter world rockin' Vera Whole Health is acquiring healthcare navigation company Castlight Health in a $370M deal. (Link)
Hospital M&A: NorthShore and Edward-Elmhurst completed their merger to create Illinois' 3rd largest health system at 9 hospitals. (Link)
Watson: IBM is trying to sell off its Watson Health division once again, for a reported $1 billion. (Link)
Molina: The managed care player closed on its $60 million acquisition of Cigna's Medicaid contracts in Texas. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that valuation analysis as a valuation nerd myself. (Link)
POLICY HITS
Reforms & Legislation.
Cali: Democrats are pursuing a highly progressive bill in California which would jack up taxes but also let the state fund a single-payer healthcare system. Pretty crazy stuff going down there, can't imagine why there's a u-Haul shortage in the state at all. (Link)
Biden: Is mandating that insurers cover 8 'Rona tests per month. (Link)
- In other 'Rona news, Biden advisers are calling for several policy changes to be made, including changing risk thresholds, stepping up testing and therapeutics, and a slew of other recommendations. Read em all here and I have to say candidly it's pretty ridiculous the state we're in 2 years in to this thing. (Link)
Study: This was an interesting study into the differences in coverage denials between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage. The study, from Health Affairs, found that traditional Medicare coverage makes up the bulk of denied services, a finding that I consider to be counterintuitive but hey, that's why studies exist. (Link)
OTHER HITS
Random, Interesting Health Things.
NFL Fraud: A scheme involving medical devices that were never delivered caused several former NFL players to pay up big time for their role in the ring. Among them was Clinton Portis, a pretty successful running back for the Washington (ahem) Football Team. I love it when healthcare news overlaps with mainstream coverage. (Link)
Turtleneck & a deep voice: Elizabeth Holmes, former esteemed founder of Theranos, was found guilty on 4 of 11 charges, ironically none of them involving harming patients despite incredibly inaccurate blood tests. She was convicted on wire fraud involving lots of money, though. Always follow the money, folks. (Link)
OPINIONS
Open your Perspective.
Goldman: Ironically, Goldman Sachs is forecasting a positive outlook for insureres in 2022 as a result of the shifting to value-based care. Not panning out so hot so far. (Link)
HEALTHY MUSE PICKS
Must-Reads. PE: This was a good overview from Keckley on where private equity is at headed into 2022. (Link)
Telehealth: This was a great overview of the current dynamics facing the telehealth industry. Has the bubble actually popped? What do you think? (Link)
Dialysis: This was a great deep dive by ProPublica into how the pandemic ravaged dialysis and end-stage renal disease patients, an extremely vulnerable population, and that nobody really noticed how big of an impact it made on this patient population. (Link)
Noom: This article from Inc was a fantastic deep dive into Noom, a weight-loss company with real weight and lots of momentum behind it (Ha!) Read it here. (Link)
In case you missed it: I wrote about every major healthcare story in 2021 in one long-form read, in chronological order. Support me by sharing it!! (Link)
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