The Healthy Muse (hospitalogy)

healthy muse healthcare news.

• This week in healthcare: IPOs from Bright Health, Privia, & Walgreens-backed VillageMD, Microsoft’s $20 billion healthcare cloud play, Google’s newest EHR, United vs. Anesthesiologists, vaccinations ramp, hesitancy shrinks, re-upping Medicaid in red states, Encompass CEO steps down, a new UnitedHealth CEO, Verizon and telehealth, and more.

IPOs from VillageMD, Bright Health, Privia, and Others

A slew of healthcare IPOs across digital health and healthcare services were announced in early April.

VillageMD, a primary care provider backed by Walgreens, is planning an IPO at a valuation up to $10 billion, which would allow the firm to raise up to $1 billion, according to Bloomberg’s report. VillageMD runs an urgent-care like operation and is Walgreen’s competitive offering to other primary care providers, including CVS’ healthHUBS.

• I have to wonder whether VillageMD is trying to sell high here after a potentially great year stemming from increased volumes and COVID testing revenue. This is all pure speculation – we’ll see how VillageMD is faring after the firm releases public disclosures. (Link)

Bright Health is also aiming to raise $1 billion or more (spare change at this point) in its initial offering. According to reports, the digital health platform operates in 13 states and is seeking a valuation as high as $20 billion. (Link)

• The firm also recently acquired Zipnosis, a telehealth provider, to bolster its offering prior to going public. Besides, how could a digital health firm go public these days without a telehealth offering?? (Link)

Smaller Offerings:

• Physician enablement company Privia Health is planning a $100 million public offering. (Link)
• Aveanna, an in-home care firm, is also planning a $100 million IPO in the coming months. (Link)

Microsoft’s Nuanced $20 Billion Healthcare Cloud Play

In big news announced today, Microsoft is dropping about $20 billion to acquire Nuance for $56 a share. According to folks on Twitter smarter than me, the acquisition appears to be a smart, natural play for Microsoft to dive deeper into cloud-based healthcare infrastructure and physician workflow.

• I found this quote provided solid context for the acquisition: “Last year, Nuance launched nationwide an AI tool co-developed with Microsoft that — with a patient’s explicit consent — can listen in on a medical visit, transcribe the conversation into text, pull out relevant medical information and auto-populate that data into the EHR, for the physician to review and sign.”
• Link to press release
• Link to deal analysis

In related, recent April news, Google is also exploring an integrated health record tool for its patients. While only available to Android users, the application will allow patients to ‘opt in’ to collecting information from various provider portals. (Link)

Coronavirus updates.

Cases: Are picking up in certain states (Michigan) while dropping in others. The U.S. seven day average is 69k – up from last week’s report of 63k – as of this writing. Stable, but going in the wrong direction. (Link).

• Although you might be seeing a lot of fearmongering in the news regarding variants in Michigan, Fauci expects vaccinations to stymie a fourth wave in the U.S. (Link)

Vaccines: are trending at 3.21 million per day, up from last week’s 7-day average of 2.76 million. (Link). The U.S. vaccination rate is nearly five times faster than the world average. (Link)

• J&J: Had a major manufacturing snafu – their expected dose count is taking a major drop this week. (Link)
• The CDC said this week that fully vaccinated folks can safely travel. (Link)
• Hesitancy is decreasing among Americans as vaccinations ramp up, and surrounding friends and family get the vaccine with no problems. (Link)
• Pfizer’s vaccine is 100% effective in kids aged 12 to 15. (Link)

Quick Hits

Biz Hits

Agilon: After announcing its intention to go public in late March, MA player Agilon is targeting a $9 billion valuation. Check out our 3.22 edition for more info on Agilon. (Link)

Anticompetitive? US Anesthesia Partners, a multistate group of anesthesiologists, is suing UnitedHealth Group for alleged anticompetitive practices by forcing the doctors out of UNH’s network. I should note that anesthesia groups are notorious for being out of network and dropping surprise bills on patients. (Link)

Come and Go: Encompass Health announced that April Anthony is stepping down as CEO of its home health and hospice segment. She is the original founder of the business and will step down over the summer officially. (Link)

• In related executive news, Brian Thompson was named CEO of UnitedHealth Group (the insurance segment, at least) in early April. (Link)
• Finally, Walmart’s chief medical officer is quitting. (Link)

Antitrust: As a trend expected to continue under the current regime, the FTC is challenging the recently announced Illumina-Grail $7 billion biotech deal. (Link)

Hospital finances: The latest Keckley Report dives into hospital financials during the pandemic with insights from Kaufman Hall’s hospital flash report from March. Mr. Keckley notes that, while from a high level perspective hospitals appeared to come out unscathed from 2020, there are major headwinds facing these healthcare stalwarts. Worth a read if you have 5-10 minutes. (Link)

• Deals: On a related vein, Kaufman Hall noted that the value of hospital deals rose during Q1 2021; however, total volume of deals decreased year-over-year. (Link)

Interesting partnerships:

• Despite shutting down its Watson Health segment, IBM and Cleveland Clinic are launching a 10-year quantum computing deal. (Link)
• CommonSpirit Health and women’s health startup Tia are partnering on a primary care network. (Link)
• Publicly traded medical device operator Medtronic inked an interesting value-based care deal with Spectrum Health in early April. The deal is centered around preventing readmissions in patients who use a certain Medtronic device. (Link)

M&A: SOC Telemed is acquiring Access Physicians, a telehealth provider, for $194 million. (Link)

• Speaking of telemedicine, Verizon of all companies is joining the telehealth trend with its Bluejeans provider platform. How bizarre. (Link)
• Radiology Partners, the largest radiology physician group in the country, is continuing its rapid rollup and acquired 6 more deals in 8 states. After these deals and the Mednax Radiology Solutions acquisition, RP is up to a 33-state geographical footprint. (Link)

Integration: Take a peek at what HCA’s plans are for its recent acquisition of Brookdale’s home health biz. Hint: integration of HCA’s existing services with Brookdale’s post-acute services. (Link)

Policy Hits

Medicaid: After Biden’s recent stimulus bill allowed for more expansion funding, Medicaid expansion is under consideration in red states. (Paywall – WSJ)

• In related news, Missouri legislature is attempting to back out of its voter-approved Medicaid expansion plan. (Link)

Medicare to 60: As another key provision of Biden’s healthcare plan, Democrats are now looking at lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60 as part of a larger healthcare package. (Paywall – WSJ)

Info Blocking: As a part of the 21st Century Cures Act, providers are now required to share patient information among one another (e.g., interoperability) along with a host of other changes effective April 5. As with any major change in healthcare, the transition has been slow and full of confusion. (Link)

Racism: The CDC deemed racism a ‘serious public health threat’ earlier in April. (Link)

Other Hits

Pharma: the top 20 pharma companies by 2020 revenue. (Link)

Charity: Nonprofit hospitals spent less on charity care than for-profit, government facilities: Health Affairs. (Link)

Thought-Provoking Editorials

Money Printer: Nikhil Krishnan discusses whether there is too much money pouring into digital health, and the ramifications of such inflows. (Link)

LGBTQ: Dr. Rachel Levine: Transgender Health Care Is An Equity Issue, Not A Political One. (Link)

Healthy Muse Top Picks

Epic: This was a fascinating read about one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in the U.S.: Judy Faulkner, who founded Epic Systems. (Link – soft paywall – Forbes)

Therapy Apps: How great are therapy apps, anyway? Diving into the therapy app fantasy. (Link)

Telehealth: employer tele-mental health is new branding on an old model. (Link)

Supply Chain: Read this fascinating deep dive into the drug industry: a drug’s convoluted journey from factory to patient. (Link)

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