BIZ HITS Business & Strategy Updates.
Partnerships: Humana is expanding its partnership with PE firm Welsh-Carson over its primary care senior clinics into 12 more states. I feel as if this partnership, announced in 2020, is somewhat in the radar, but it's gaining serious traction. (Link)
It's Over: Providence is ending its affiliation with Hoag at the end of January. (Link)
M&A: Revenue cycle operator R1 RCM is acquiring Cloudmed, a fellow revenue cycle management platform, for $4.1 billion, or about 2.5 Transcarent's. Chump change. (Link)
M&A: Convey Health Solutions is acquiring HealthSmart International, a home health supplemental benefits company, for $77.5 million. (Link)
M&A: Circulo, a startup focused on the Medicaid population, acquired Huddle for an undisclosed sum. (Link)
Partnerships: Here's an interesting little announcement - HCA Healthcare is partnering with Diana Health - a maternal health startup - to open a location inside of one of HCA's facilities. Women's health space is heating up. (Link)
Retirement: Amedisys' Paul Kusserow is retiring from his CEO Role after about 7 years in the role. (Link)
Fierce JPM Week: I thought this was an interesting read on Verily and a dive into its 2022 strategy and expectations from JPM 2022. (Link)
Fundraising: Wheel raised $150M in to continue its investments in virtual-first care. (Link)
M&A: IBM finally sold Watson Health to a private equity firm for about a billion. (Link)
POLICY HITS
Reforms & Legislation.
CMS: After a long, drawn out saga, Medicare has decided to limit the coverage of Biogen's controversial Alzheimer's treatment Aduhelm to JUST clinical trial patients (AKA, only if patients are enrolled in ongoing trials). As a result of the significant coverage decrease, lawmakers are now pressing CMS to reduce Part B premiums. (Link)
Covid Response:
- The Biden Admin is giving away 400 million masks to Americans. (Link)
- You can now order at-home COVID tests thru the government...2 years in to the pandemic. In true infomercial fashion: "limit 4 per household." (Link)
Medicaid: Georgia sued the Biden Administration this week, saying CMS pulled a bait and switch on them after previously approving their proposal for Medicaid work requirements (under Trump) and then revoking that proposal (under Biden). (Link)
Imbecile: Fauci called a GOP senator a 'moron' during testimonies last week. I couldn't help but include it. (Link)
SCOTUS: Gear up for the next Roe v. Wade challenge in the Supreme Court. Here's an explainer for the challenge from Mississippi. (Link)
BBB: Here's a good read from the Commonwealth fund on how the Build Back Better Act might improve ACA coverage. (Link)
OTHER HITS
Random, Interesting Health Things.
Interoperability: How interoperability, increased reimbursement options will drive digital health in 2022. (Link)
Free Shkreli: Martin Shkreli was ordered to pay $65 million in fines and was banned for life from the Pharma industry after his wire fraud antics. Oof. (Link)
OPINIONS
Open your Perspective.
Violations: Instagram pulled an ad from mental health unicorn Cerebral (a close peer of Lyra) after the ad depicted a woman who was essentially 'cured' from impulsive eating by taking ADHD medication. I have a feeling that over-prescribed ADHD medication will continue to be a thing for a long time to come. (Link)
HEALTHY MUSE PICKS
Must-Reads. Packy's Not Boring took a deep dive into Oscar, albeit from more of a techy perspective. Keep in mind this is a sponsored post, so the bull case is presented pretty nicely - but no real challenges or bear case was presented. Still a good overview of what Oscar does. (Link)
Health Systems: This dive into health system incentives showed that fee-for-service, at least for the foreseeable future, is here to stay. (Link)
Headspace: This was an interesting watch from THCB about Headspace's merger with Ginger and its go to market strategy, and where it positions against the Lyra's of the world. (Link)
Shortages: You should be aware by now of the staffing shortages going on nationwide, but especially in healthcare. Here's a good read from NPR on how it's affecting nursing homes. (Link)
LifePoint and Scion: This was an insightful read into the integration between LifePoint Health and Scion Health. It sounds like all systems are a go at the combined organizations. (Link)
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