🏥 Summer Recap

We're getting home from vacation and catching up on healthcare news today

PARTNERED WITH Hospitalogists, To all of you playing CFB 25 and pretending to work, I hear you. Welcome. Since I've been taking the past week or so to catch up on all the news over the summer, today's post will be an executive summary style bullet-point format with nascent points about ongoing healthcare stories and some memes to really get the point across.   I hope it's helpful, and if so, would love for you to pass along my newsletter to friends and colleagues. Onward! Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe Here SPONSORED BY HOME HEALTH CARE NEWS, A WTWH MEDIA BRAND Wondering what a big focus of health care will look like in the coming years?   Discover it at FUTURE, the flagship event of Home Health Care News, happening in Nashville, TN, from August 21-23, 2024.   This exciting gathering is a must for leaders in home-based care and health care visionaries who are big fans of moving U.S. health care into the home.   With dynamic content across two tracks and unbeatable networking opportunities, FUTURE is your chance to engage with the biggest names in the industry.   I think it's pretty awesome how exciting and forward-thinking this gathering is — mark your calendars and check below for additional details. Register for FUTURE Healthcare Summer Recap Trump seems to lock in presidency - and healthcare implications After surviving an assassination attempt and Biden's dismal showing at the presidential debate, Trump is a heavy White House favorite. What are some healthcare policies Trump championed or allowed during his first term? Generally speaking - returning healthcare decisions to the states. Notable policies: Medicaid block grants Medicaid work requirements Price transparency rules ICHRA Abortion (indirectly through SCOTUS) No Surprises Act Removing pharmacist gag clauses Cutting the price of insulin Other healthcare actions Other issues to look out for include the expiration of ACA subsidies in 2025, which hold a much more uncertain future under the Trump administration. Quantified impact of subsidy expiration to an ACA player like Oscar shown below: Overall, Trump does not have any form of major healthcare overhaul in mind - at least, not publicly. So the ACA ain't going anywhere pending something drastic and unforeseen. A merger between health systems who can't merge Sanford-Marshfield merger announcement in July. Combined = 56 hospitals, $10 billion in revenues. Both have notably gone through several failed mergers over the past several years and undoubtedly incurred millions in legal and consulting fees. A net win for the professional services industry, as is par for the course in healthcare! Sanford recent failed mergers → Fairview, Intermountain, Unitypoint Marshfield recent failed mergers → Essentia, Gunderson (Yes, the Hospitalogy meme department is back): For context on health system mergers in 2024, read this Kaufman Hall hospital M&A Q2 report. Highlights = increased emphasis on cohesive go-forward strategies rather than pure size; realignment of health system portfolios; new partnerships like Risant Health making moves (Cone Health)   Relatedly, Ascension is one of the more notable names under a notable strategic shift. The health system has been busy between its selling spree and a major cyber attack, adjusting its portfolio and exiting undesirable markets and assets coming off a $3B operating loss in 2023.   You can likely connect the dots here to see the health system's future areas of focus. The FTC goes full-on activist mode in Election Year The FTC is gunning for literally everyone: Beyond healthcare, the FTC is coming after antitrust and anticompetitive practices everywhere - even in industries like franchising. But within healthcare, the FTC is working overtime: Challenging hospital mergers (Novant-CHS being the most recent example) and finding success in many instances - even if the FTC would eventually lose, in the case of Novant, the agency strung out the case enough to shut it down Challenging the dialysis duopoly with a focus on non-competes and medical directors Investigating UnitedHealth Group Hosting workshops and commentaries on private equity involvement in healthcare Banning non-competes Launching an investigation and report into PBM practices, including a lawsuit over insulin prices In fact, a quick general Google search of "FTC Probe" can give you a quick rundown of the frosty environment in 2024. Nvidia, Microsoft, OpenAI, Teva Pharmaceutical, Big Tech AI investment, ConocoPhillips-Marathon Oil, Adobe (and Adobe-Figma)…every industry is affected, and the FTC is taking an aggressive, hands-on approach in 2024. Walgreens' Woes: VillageMD write-off, store closures Long-time Hospitalogists are likely unsurprised at Walgreens' latest bad news. The company is shutting down up to a quarter of underperforming stores as part of its 8,700+ footprint nationwide. Its stock is trading at its lowest point in multiple decades of operation. Recall also that Walgreens took a $6 billion write-down on its VillageMD investment and exited several markets. Every quarter it appears as if Walgreens is making major structural changes, including store closures, write-downs, and cost-saving initiatives, which is never where you want to be as an operator. In summary, Walgreens: Cannot convince investors of its healthcare transformation story Operates a stagnant to declining retail pharmacy business (and broader headwinds in the pharmacy space) Bought some pretty bad healthcare assets (outside of say, Shields) All of this being said…Walgreens is still a massive enterprise, generating over $100B in annual revenue. So…more to come here, including perhaps, a re-breakup of VillageMD? One Medical Drama: Amazon rolls Clinic into One Medical, and Call Center Snafus Amazon rebrands Amazon Clinic under the One Medical umbrella, completely destroying its previous platform strategy in telehealth. Disappointing. One Medical also received some flak from the fellow Bezos-owned Washington Post on some poor call center management with patients. And now here I am left wondering whether Amazon regrets buying One Medical considering its healthcare strategy has taken somewhat of a hit. And Iora Health? What's going on there? Someone has to know!! Other Stuff to know SCOTUS Chevron overturned which seems to have important implications for agencies' abilities to enforce regulations   The VA continues to extend its EHR deal with Oracle-Cerner in the most sunk cost of all sunk cost effects   Optum backs out of Steward Health's professional practice deal   UnitedHealth & Amedisys reached a home health agency divesture plan to pave the path toward acquisition after a long tie-up.   Amazon expands RxPass to Medicare enrollees   Vizient acquires Kaufman Hall in some interesting consolidation in the health system consulting and advisory world   Two must-reads from the Wall Street Journal (paywalled): Insurers Pocketed $50 Billion From Medicare for Diseases No Doctor Treated (AHIP took major issue with this one) When Hospital Prices Go Up, Local Economies Take a Hit (the AHA took major issue with this one); obviously this is incredibly nuanced and needs more time than a cursory read from yours truly. But as a non-policymaker / researcher it would be fascinating to look at this methodology and understand how researchers managed to reduce the noise in data enough to suggest the following: "As hospital prices went up 1%, so did the percentage of people who ended up out of a job. The layoffs dealt a blow to their communities. Income-tax revenue dropped and payments for tax-funded unemployment insurance increased 2.5%." In general, the consensus take on hospital mergers continues to be prices increase while quality stays the same or drops. And if you're a non-healthcare company, you're wrong. Every company is a healthcare company as benefits expenses inflates year after year. For those with more nuanced takes on this issue, feel free to respond to this email!   Notable digital health fundraisings (non-exhaustive): HarmonyCares secures $200M to expand access to in-home primary care. Sidecar Health selects Koch Disruptive Technologies to lead $165M Series D financing. Talkiatry secures $130M Series C funding to mainstream value-based behavioral health care. Form Health raises $38M Series B led by Sound Ventures, focusing on science-based obesity care. Regard raises $61M to close the clinical insights gap in healthcare with leading AI solution. Just had a great chat with Regard's co-founder Eli Ben-Joseph and I may include some additional context on their raise in the future. Pretty cool stuff they're doing. Function Health raises $50M Series A led by a16z and emerges as the fastest-growing health platform in the US. K Health, The Leading AI Primary Care Platform, raises $50 Million Equity Funding Round. Hopscotch announces $50M Series C to continue to execute on its mission to transform healthcare in rural communities. Link Pomelo Care scores $46M for virtual maternity care platform and more digital health funding. Adonis raises $31 Million, led by Point72 Private Investments, to improve healthcare financial outcomes and patient experiences through AI. Humata Health pulls in $25M funding round for prior authorization AI solutions. Better Health raises $14M to deploy expanded payer partnerships. Marigold Health secures $11m in Series A Funding to expand peer support. Canary Speech secures $13M for AI-enabled speech recognition software. Heyday Health raises $12.5M to scale house calls combined with telehealth for Medicare patients. JOBS IN HEALTHCARE Here are some jobs that I'm curating for the healthcare industry. You can see the full list of jobs I've curated here. If you're looking to hire, use the promo code HOSPITALOGY to get your first job listing free on my curated job board. MISCELLANEOUS MADDENINGS Random personal anecdotes and musings from me There has been some awesome stuff happening across the board in July! Here's what's on my mind and what I'm consuming over the summer months: Acolyte: yes, it's a not-so-great series from Disney and the Star Wars universe. But it holds my attention and light sabers, alright? House of the Dragon: a return to form for the GoT universe. The Dance with Dragons episode was must-see TV Copa America and the Euros delivered big-time. Hate to see Messi go out like he did. That ankle looked gnarly. Wimbledon: domination from Alcaraz. His forehand and serve game...unbelievable! College Football 25 debuts as a video game a decade after NCAA 14 leading college football dudes everywhere to rejoice The Open Championship this weekend. Morikawa, Aberg playing great. Bob McIntyre with the huge win this weekend!! How can you not love him? I am currently in the midst of the Blade Itself - the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Other books I've read this summer include the Will of the Many; Tress and the Emerald Sea; Yumi and the Nightmare Painter; and The Poppy War trilogy. Thanks for the read! Let me know what you thought by replying back to this email.   — Blake   Share Hospitalogy, Earn Rewards Have friends who'd love Hospitalogy too? Click the link below to share Hospitalogy with your friends and earn awesome rewards! PS: You have referred 0 people so far Share Hospitalogy! Get your brand in front of 31,000 executives and healthcare decision-makers. Let's Partner The Board Room  I'm building an exclusive community for top healthcare executives. Join the Movement Here. Workweek Media Inc.  1023 Springdale Road, STE 9E Austin, TX 78721   Want to ruin my day? Unsubscribe.