hospitals Transcarent is now partnering with health systems
Livongo founder Glen Tullman's latest venture Transcarent, which coordinates health care benefits for self-insured employers, is now partnering directly with a network of health systems across the country — a bid to expand customers' employees choices for health services at cheaper, pre-negotiated bundled prices, Tullman tells me. And participating health systems get a chance to market their virtual and in-person specialty services to a national potential customer base they might otherwise have missed, he says.
The 10 partners include Advocate, Atrium, Corewell, Hackensack Meridian, Intermountain, Mass General Brigham, Memorial Hermann, Mount Sinai, and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health.
Niyum Gandhi, chief financial officer at Mass General Brigham, says this is the beginning of the health system's relationship to Transcarent, but that the agreement aligns with his team's efforts to make health care prices more predictable and transparent. "We're comfortable agreeing up front with Transcarent to an episodic pricing model," he said. "Anything we can do to improve predictability for employers is of value," he said.
It's unlikely, he said, that such a partnership will draw large volumes of patients from across the country — but it could still boost the health system's visibility. "We're in the early innings, but we'd rather be on the side of early innovating [than] sitting on the sidelines."
Tullman told me Transcarent charges employers one of three ways: a per member, per month fee; an at-risk per member per month fee that allows customers not to pay if they don't save money, or a pay-nothing model that allows Transcarent to take a share of the employers' health care savings.
Telehealth Costco introduces telehealth visits for $29 and up
The membership-based wholesale retailer is now working with telehealth marketplace Sesame to offer the site's lowest prices to Costco members — including virtual primary care visits for $29, standard lab panels and consultations for $72, mental health care for $79, and discounts on other Sesame-linked services including in-person visits, Bloomberg reported this week. Sesame, which doesn't accept insurance at all, primarily markets to uninsured patients or people with high-deductible plans. We'll be watching as the deal unfolds, and I welcome your thoughts on costs and benefits to such arrangements.
abortion
A closer look at telemedicine abortion
Also on virtual care, online abortion medication provider Hey Jane — which did recently began accepting insurance — published a white paper this week maintaining that its efficacy and safety rates without ultrasounds or pelvic exams were similar to in-person screenings. Among other interesting tidbits: In a survey of almost 800 patients, the most important factor driving their decision to seek care at Hey Jane was privacy, followed by the convenience and speed of the service.
venture funding
Telehealth weathers venture funding slump
We noted Pitchbook's Health IT report in a previous edition, but the research firm has another look at quarterly trends in digital health — blending technology like telehealth or apps into the actual provision of care. Among bright spots in a series of tough quarters for digital health funding (deal volume was the same as the previous quarter, but a 25% drop in combined value) are teletherapy and general telehealth, which continue to score venture dollars, according to Pitchbook. Mental health care companies Spring Health and Author Health, for instance, brought in $71 million and $115 million respectively in an early round and Series D.
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