Elizabeth Holmes is married.
Lord help us all.
Therapy through your Phone, and the growth of the mental health industry.
Therapy as a Service.
A slew of mental health apps have been making their way through the app store and onto people’s phones in a big way. Whereas apps like Headspace and Calm are focused on meditation and mindfulness, newer platforms such as BetterHelp, a subsidiary of Teladoc and leader in the online therapy space (makes sense) and Talkspace, which recently raised $50 million and is partnering with Optum, are bringing counseling and therapy services directly to your phone.
Mental Health’s growth.
The apps point to a larger trend. The mental and behavioral health industry is growing like wildfire and is projected to continue at a 7% clip through 2024. Just last week, Anthem acquired Beacon Health, a huge behavioral health organization.
Easy Money.
Now, mental health startups like BetterHelp, Talkspace, and Quartet Health are popping up. Just this week, the startup announced a successful $60 million Series D funding round courtesy of Centene (another big Medicaid player). To date, Quartet Health has raised almost $153 million so far, which is only one example of not only the deep pockets of healthcare venture capital, but also the ease of fundraising in 2019.
Are Patients a big part of the U.S. healthcare spending problem?
Fat Americans.
An interesting article this week brought up a fascinating topic of discussion: should consumers be blamed at all for the high cost of healthcare in the U.S?
I’ll take a Big Mac.
The Atlantic article published this week argued that Americans have unhealthy behaviors rooted in cultural norms, which leads to poorer outcomes for the population (hello, pizza night!). It goes on to state that Americans tend to be over-treated, disregard preventive and routine care, undergo dangerous elective surgeries, and treat physicians like deities. It concludes that a high cost healthcare system is enabled by the poor healthcare choices made by Americans.
The story only covers the consumer side of the healthcare cost argument, but it’s an interesting perspective, and one not touched on as often. Don’t forget – American’s aren’t exactly healthy.
Who do people normally blame for high healthcare costs?
AMA Spurns Medicare for All…for now…and other highlights from the conference
AMA vs. Medicare for All smackdown.
During its annual Chicago meeting, the American Medical Association, or the advocacy group for physicians, voted on various policies and stances to support over the next year.
Of course, the big ticket item this year was whether or not the AMA would support any single payer, or as the media so fondly calls it, ‘Medicare for All’ proposal. While the vote was ultimately struck down, it was much closer than most expected – 53% of participants voted against the policy.
In other developments, the AMA voted to adopt more technology and A.I. friendly policies, including working toward developing applications for A.I. in healthcare, technology training for physicians, and generally deeper integration of tech in healthcare.
Pfizer buys Array Biopharma in huge $11.4 billion deal
In a deal that led to an across the board biotech rally, Pfizer announced its intention to acquire Array BioPharma for a total of $11.4 billion, or $48 per share – which is a gigantic 60ish% premium over its most recent share price.
Array was a pretty attractive buyout option given its super innovative cancer therapies along with its licensed revenues and medicines.
It’s been a pretty good 30ish months for biotech M&A:
California expands health insurance to illegal immigrants
On the taxpayers’ dime?!?!?!
This week, California unveiled a public health plan that would be made available for illegal immigrants in the state. The plan would more or less be an extension of Medicaid and is expected to cover about 90,000 19 to 25 year old individuals. Although the plan hasn’t passed yet, it’s expected to move through Cali’s legislature quickly.
Quick Hits
State Hits:
Where does your state rank on healthcare performance and outcomes? And Maine just became the 8th state to legalize medically assisted suicide.
Business Hits:
Ever wondered what a healthcare startup pitch deck looked like? Novant Health just launched its Institute of Innovation & Artificial Intelligence. As we all expected, U.S. drugmakers filed a lawsuit against requiring drug prices in TV ads. And Medidata just got snatched up for $5.8 billion
Policy/Other Hits:
Trump is planning on rolling out a new healthcare plan in the next couple of months – stay posted! What happens when the medicine your child needs isn’t available in your country’s single payer system? And the U.S. healthcare system is full of monopolies – which might cause problems with any price transparency disclosure.