ICYMI
From the health tech desk: What we're tracking in 2024
My team has churned out a dizzying number of stories since our last edition, spanning from urgent investigations to keen year-end analyses and looks ahead. Here's just a few you may have missed:
special investigation
UnitedHealth's secret rules for restricting care
Yet another revelation following Bob Herman's and Casey Ross's previous blockbuster investigation into the health plan's reliance on algorithms, which sparked a class action lawsuit: UnitedHealth used secret rules to limit rehab care requested by certain groups of seriously ill patients, such as those living in nursing homes, internal documents showed. Those records show that many patients in Medicare Advantage plans were shunted into a quick denial pipeline based on factors neither they nor their doctors knew about.
Lizzy's device digest
What's Apple's future in health?
As the important ban iPhone maker's Apple Watches takes effect following the International Trade Commission's conclusion that its blood oxygen measurement was too close to competitor Masimo's, the company faces crucial questions — including whether to pay Masimo to use its technology, Lizzy Lawrence writes. Apple has temporarily paused sales of the devices to comply with the ban, but it could also tweak its technology to mollify the ITC or slash it altogether. Since then, a federal judge allowed Apple to continue selling the devices while the court reviews ITC's import ban. Read Lizzy's analysis of the company's options.
the business of health tech
Trends to watch in 2024
We're far afield from health tech's funding frenzy back in 2021, and some of the industry's erstwhile darlings are stumbling in a much tougher funding environment. Jon Swope, of Barclays, told Mario Aguilar that it's not all bad news, and that funding evaporating doesn't reflect the value of digital health. "Tech innovation in health care is not going away," he said. "This cycle just had an abrupt end." Among trends Mario expects to see, especially for publicly traded companies: A renewed focus on efficiency to appease antsy investors. Read more.
AI, efficiency will drive providers' tech spend
Providers spanning from community clinics to large multi-state hospital systems are bracing for an icy 2024, though it'll likely present slightly wider margins than 2023, analysts and executives tell me. They'll likely funnel those extra funds into additional tech spending, especially tools that will help them and a continually strained workforce do more with less.
"The percentage of the budget [going to tech] is absolutely going up," Fitch analyst Kevin Halloran said. "If I'm an organization and I've got the extra cash, I'm upping my spending in IT, and not only is there a classic 'I need an EMR or an EHR put in,'…but also exploring these new technologies in the AI space," he said. Read more about where providers expect to spend this year.
Workforce
Health tech hiring tips back in favor of employers
As with funding, gone are the days of abundant digital health jobs, and the scales have tipped back in favor of the companies who have managed to withstand 2023's market turbulence. Compared to previous years, companies selling apps, telehealth, and other health tech tools and services face far less competition for open positions, Fay Rotenberg, CEO of Firefly Health, told me in December. "It's a lot easier to hire great people this year than it was last year," she said. "Now we post a job, and within two to three days there's 600-plus really great applicants," she said. Read more on hiring trends.
cyber Security
2023 was a banner year for data breaches, Katie Palmer writes: As many as 116 million people were impacted by large data breaches reported last year to the federal government's Office for Civil Rights, which enforces HIPAA. That's largely because of a spike in hacking and ransomware attacks on providers. Read more on the threat landscape here.
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