Menteal health
Talkspace offers therapy through Amazon now
As virtual mental health company Talkspace aims to grow its business, it's added a very large entry point to the top of its funnel. Amazon users will now be able to discover Talkspace on the retailer's website and check whether it's covered by their insurance — the company boasts 150 million covered lives. Talkspace sits next to diabetes and chronic disease management company Omada's tools on a landing page for "employer-covered programs." I also found it by searching for "Talkspace" on the Amazon homepage, though a search for "therapy" turned up a manual on DBT skills and other educational materials for sale.
It's interesting that Amazon doesn't seem to offer a link to Talkspace's cash pay, direct-to-consumer services. That might just be Talkspace: Several years ago the company switched its focus from selling to consumers to getting insurers to cover its services. The deal with Amazon reflects Talkspace's ongoing effort, described on earnings calls, to help the millions of people who are covered discover its services. As for Amazon, it's staying true to it's legacy as an online store.
cybersecurity
The Ascension hack cost how much??
The cyberattack that forced Ascension to shut off access to its electronic health records cost the nonprofit hospital system roughly $1.3 billion, STAT's Bob Herman reports.
It's one of the costliest hacks that has been reported. UnitedHealth Group estimated that the February ransomware attack on it Change Healthcare subsidiary cost the company $1.9 billion after taxes.
Bob had to do a bit of math to arrive at the large number. In the 10 months that ended April 2024, the health system lost $332 million, a fraction of the $1.9 billion Ascension lost in the same period of 2023. But including May and June, the months affected by the cyberattack, Ascension's operating loss ballooned to $1.8 billion for the 2024 fiscal year. He compared those operating loss figures, and removed some impairments losses, to arrive at the estimated $1.3 billion cost of the cyberattack.
Read more here
business
23andMe board abandons ship
23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki stands alone on the company's board after everybody else quit this week, citing a difference of opinion on the company's direction. "... because of your concentrated voting power, we believe that it is in the best interests of the Company's shareholders that we resign from the Board rather than have a protracted and distracting difference of view with you as to the direction of the Company," the former board members wrote in a letter. The company is well known for selling genetic tests and is working on experimental drugs.
In July, the Wojcicki filed a proposal to take the company private, which the board immediately rejected. The company's stock has plummeted since it went public in 2021. Wojcicki argued it would be wise to take the company private to avoid "the short-term focus of the public markets." The company showed declining revenues and expanding losses at the end of its last fiscal year. It still had $170 million in cash on hand at the end of June.
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