healthy muse healthcare news.
- This week in healthcare: Amazon scales its telehealth presence, Big healthcare data analytics M&A, a new mental health PE platform, all about Cityblock Health, Definitive Healthcare’s IPO, perspectives on recent transactions, and more.
Noteworthy Headlines
Data: Health data giants Ciox and Datavant are merging in a $7 billion deal to form a ‘health data ecosystem’ conglomerate. Post-merger, the firm will be called Datavant and generate about $700 million in revenue. The goal – according to Bloomberg reporting – is to exit via IPO someday, joining the digital health party going on there. (Link to article)
Geode Health: on June 9, private equity player KKR announced its intention to create Geode Health, a new platform company focused on in-person and virtual outpatient mental health treatment in the U.S. The formation news comes at a time when LifeStance health, another similar mental health player, announced its IPO plans just last week. (Link)
Amazon Scales Telehealth: Another headline that made waves this week – after Teladoc shrugged off concerns of Amazon as an entrant into telehealth during its Q1 call, a Wall Street Journal report this week disclosed that Amazon has signed ‘multiple companies’ to its new Amazon Care telehealth service.
- Remember that Amazon just took this operation nationwide and already offers it to employees. To continue scaling, Amazon will need to hire ‘thousands of employees.’ Very interesting to see the telehealth arms race heat up! (Link)
Definitive Healthcare: Another healthcare data analytics firm Definitive Healthcare announced its intention to go public via IPO. S-1 to come, but there are some interesting data platform announcements this week. (Link)
Convey: Yet another health tech platform, Convey Holdings focuses on working with payors and PBMs to ‘improve government-sponsored health plans.’ The firm plans to IPO at a $1.1 billion value. (Link) (Link to S-1)
Coronavirus Resources.
Since this section will be discontinued next week, I wanted to provide you guys with the resources and news sites I usually read for this section:
- Cases: The New York Times has a great infographic and latest news on the state of the virus. (Link)
- Vaccinations: I’ve always referenced Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker for this newsletter. It gives vaccinations from a global and national perspective. (Link)
- Axios‘ coronavirus dashboard does a great job as does their healthcare newsletter, Axios Vitals. (Link to Dashboard)
- Twitter follows I recommend include Eric Topol, Scott Gottlieb, and Andy Slavitt.
Quick Hits
Biz Hits
Clover: The MA plan has had quite the trading experience so far in 2021. After being subject to a short-selling attack, Clover has become a meme stock, following in the footsteps of GameStop and AMC. (Link)
Generics: In recent weeks over the summer, both Walmart and Amazon have added cheap generic discounts to their respective memberships (Prime and Walmart+). (Link)
Costs: PwC is estimating a 6.5% rise in healthcare costs in 2022 after a flat year in 2020. Interestingly, the report expects 2021 to maintain muted healthcare spending as the effects of the pandemic seem to be sluggish in shaking its way out of healthcare. (Link)
Blood: CNBC profiled several new types of blood testing breakthroughs that are close to commercialization. (Link)
Policy Hits
ER Denials: Remember last week when UnitedHealthcare announced its plan to deny claims for improper ER usage? They’re backtracking on the policy already. (Link)
Money: According to Stat, Big Pharma contributed to 2,400 state lawmaker campaigns during the 2020 election cycle. They have a slick infographic to prove it, too. (Link)
Other Hits
E-mails: Dr. Fauci gets 2,000 of them a day. (Link)
Value: This was an insightful read on how behavioral health firms can market themselves to payors, including interesting value propositions payors are looking for when choosing partners in the space. Super interesting to read from an operator perspective. (Link)
Genomics: I stumbled across a new substack related to breaking down how genomics works – and – given that one of the primary missions of this newsletter is to provide readers with the best healthcare news, tools, and resources – I thought I’d pass it along. (Link)
Thought-Provoking Editorials
Bear: Here’s a bearish take on Babylon, which recently announced a multi-billion dollar SPAC deal. (Link)
Hospitals: The Incidental Economist argues against a hospital merger in Rhode Island. The points brought up are reminiscent of talking points that larger national regulatory bodies are considering too when determining whether or not to challenge hospital mergers. To me, it seems like a key theme is preventing local care monopolies. (Link)
Healthy Muse Top Picks
Cityblock: Here’s a solid read from a great newsletter – Not Boring – giving a great operational overview of Cityblock Health, a super interesting player in healthcare. (Link)
Iora Health: Read more about Iora’s deal with One Medical from Kevin O’leary. I really enjoy his summaries and perspectives from both a bull and bear point of view. (Link)
Thanks for reading.
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