Month: February 2022

Aledade: Mandy Cohen joins, Farzad speaks

Feb 16, 2022

Aledade is the “build an ACO out of small independent primary care practices” company. It was founded by former ONC Director Farzad Mostashari and has been growing fast and profitably in the last few years, having raised just shy of $300m. Farzad recently both tweeted out the latest and put up a slide deck about their financial and business progress. Aledade also announced a major star signing in Mandy Cohen, previously Secretary of HHS in North Carolina, who is becoming CEO of a new division called Aledade Care Solutions. I had a wide ranging conversation with both of them about what Aledade has done and what it is going to do, as well as the general state of play in primary care and risk taking–Matthew Holt

TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity)

Matthew Holt:

Okay, it’s Matthew Holt with THCB Spotlight. I’m really thrilled to have Farzard Mostashari and Mandy Cohen with me. So, both of these two doctors have spent a lot of their time in public, much of their career in public service, Farzad for many years was in New York City, and then later was at ONC. Mandy was at CMS, and more recently, was Secretary for Health in North Carolina. In fact, towards the end of the Obama administration, Farzad was doing venture capitalism in a bar and got given a check and founded Aledade. And the news just recently, was that Mandy, who has just finished her term in North Carolina, is now going to join Aledade and start a new division there. So, I thought we would chat about how Aledade’s doing, what it’s doing, and what it’s going to do in the future and hopefully, yeah.

#HealthTechDeal Episode 10: ANDHealth, Ada Health, Minded, Expressable, and Curve Health

Feb 15, 2022

Valentine’s day…is awful. Check out this episode of HealthTechDeals to get Jessica’s and my more in-depth thoughts on the holiday. But let’s see which companies got some financial love this episode: ANDHealth gets $57 million; Ada Health gets another $30m; Minded gets $25 million; Expressable gets $15 million; Curve Health gets $12 million.

-By Matthew Holt

TRANSCRIPT

Jessica DaMassa:

Matthew Holt, was your Valentine’s Day filled with love and kisses and candies and flowers. Uh oh, I take it by the look on your face that’s a big fat no. It’s the February 15th episode of Health Tech Deals. So maybe these startups will feel a little bit more love than you feel right now. What happened?

Matthew Holt:

It’s just that Valentine’s Day in America is stupid, because your kids, I don’t remember this when you were young, because it was a long time ago, but your kids have to take Valentines to everyone in their class. It’s stupid.

Imaging a Different Future

Feb 15, 2022

By KIM BELLARD

Two articles have me thinking this week. One sets up the problem healthcare has (although healthcare is not explicitly mentioned), while the other illustrates it. They share being about how we view the future.

The two articles are Ezra Klein’s Can Democrats See What’s Coming? in The New York Times Opinion pages and Derek Thompson’s Why Does America Make It So Hard to Be a Doctor? in The Atlantic. Both are well worth a read.

Mr. Klein struck a nerve for me by asking why, when it comes to social insurance programs, Democrats seem so insistent on replicating what has been done before, especially in Western Europe. He asks: “But what about building here that which does not already exist there?” He worries “that the Biden administration’s supply-side agenda is stuck in the past and not yet imagining the future.”

Those are exactly the right questions we should be asking about healthcare.

Will Microbes Finally Force Modernization of the American Health Care System?

Feb 14, 2022

BY MIKE MAGEE

Science has a way of punishing humans for their arrogance.

In 1996, Dr. Michael Osterholm found himself rather lonely and isolated in medical research circles. This was the adrenaline-infused decade of blockbuster pharmaceuticals focused squarely on chronic debilitating diseases of aging.

And yet, there was Osterholm, in Congressional testimony delivering this message: “I am here to bring you the sobering and unfortunate news that our ability to detect and monitor infectious disease threats to health in this country is in serious jeopardy…For 12 of the States or territories, there is no one who is responsible for food or water-borne surveillance. You could sink the Titanic in their back yard and they would not know they had water.”

Osterholm’s choice of metaphor perhaps reflected his own frustration and inability to alter the course of the medical-industrial complex despite microbial icebergs directly ahead.

Quickbites: Equip; SameSky, Jenny Schneider (GC) & Calibrate

Feb 11, 2022

I’ve decided to try a new format for some interviews with digital health leaders. The other week I was at the Digital Health Innovation Summit in San Diego. I did a fair amount of tweeting from the conference but thought I’d also grab a few of the participants for some rapid fire interviews. They’re only 5 mins each but hopefully this “Quickbite” format will catch you up on some interesting players (even as they got buffeted a bit by the wind and the marine air corp!)–Matthew Holt

The Interviewees are. Kristina Saffran, CEO Equip; Abner Mason, CEO SameSky Health; Jennifer Schneider, ex-Livongo and now EIR at General Catalyst; & Isabelle Kenyon, CEO Calibrate: Their videos are below in order

Kristina Saffran, Equip

Abner Mason, SameSky Health

Jennifer Schneider, ex-Livongo, General Catalyst

Isabelle Kenyon, Calibrate

#HealthTechDeals Episode 9: Signify buys Caravan; Koneksa; Jasper; Vynca; Doximity

Feb 10, 2022

Jess & I are worried about Peleton’s CEO! Well that not worried. Signify Health buys Caravan Health for $250m ; Koneksa gets $45m; Jasper Health gets $25m; $30m for Vynca; & Doximity pays $82.5m for scheduling co Amion, while going gangbusters on its numbers. Matthew Holt

TRANSCRIPT

Jessica DaMassa:

Matthew Holt, you and our loyal listeners might recall how a few weeks ago I bring up the fact that no one is talking about Peloton and the fact that it’s killing TV characters left and right. Then what happens all of a sudden? Boom! Take out of Peloton. The stock has tanked. The CEO is gone. Thousands of people laid off. Am I the harboror of terrible things that are yet to come? It’s this episode, the February 10th episode of Health Tech Deals.

INSIDE THE ACQUISITION: Signify Health Adds Caravan Health’s ACO-building Expertise for $220M

Feb 10, 2022

By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

Get the details behind the deal! Signify Health (NYSE: SGFY) is acquiring Caravan Health for $220 million in cash and common stock in effort to create one of the largest networks of at-risk healthcare providers in the country. For all those who love healthcare payment model innovation, this is a story about scaling both value-based care and accountable care organizations (ACOs), and we have Signify Health’s CEO Kyle Armbrester and Caravan Health’s founder and Chairwoman Lynn Barr here to explain the model and market potential this creates for Signify Health.

Signify Health is best known for its value-based, care-at-home focused approach in the Medicare Advantage space, and Caravan Health brings both tech and expertise to support the creation of accountable care organizations (ACOs) and the ongoing smart management of their patient populations. Caravan got its start with “safety net providers” in rural areas and pioneered what’s known as the “Collaborative ACO” approach that pools smaller health systems together based on practice similarities (instead of geography) to achieve the right kind of patient scale needed to mitigate risk. This is really important to scaling ACOs nationally, as you’ll hear both Lynn and Kyle explain, and, of course, we ask Kyle to zero-in on how this will extend Signify Health’s reach into new markets as well.

Beyond the acquisition, we also celebrate Signify Health’s one-year IPO-iversary. The company rang the bell on the New York Stock Exchange (then stopped by WTF Health to talk about it!) on Feb 11, 2021. Looking past the Caravan Health acquisition and to what it will lead to next, Kyle and Lynn (who will now be activating even more payment model innovation as Signify Health’s VP of Innovation) get fired up about what’s ahead.

THCB Gang Episode 82, Thursday Feb 10th

Feb 10, 2022

Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang for an hour of conversation on the happenings in health care and beyond were writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard), delivery & tech expert Vince Kuraitis (@VinceKuraitis); and policy consultant/author Rosemarie Day (@Rosemarie_Day1).

Rosemarie very recently had some personal experiences with end of life care. We talked a lot about hospice and palliative care (and dementia) and, as Rosemarie says, about how little people seem to know about these incredibly important topics.

You can see the video below. If you’d rather listen than watch, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels

#HealthTechDeals Episode 08: M&A special! ThirtyMadison & Nurx, Concerto Care, Kindbody, Calm, Withings all at it!

Feb 9, 2022

Will Jessica stop laughing? Will we get the intro right? Who knows! 2022 is a big M&A year and this episode is no exception: ThirtyMadison and Nurx have merged, combined they have $300 million in revenue; Concerto Care acquires Crown Health; Kindbody buys Vios Fertility Institute; Calm merges with Ripple Health; Withings buys 8Fit.

-By Matthew Holt

TRANSCRIPT

Jessica DaMassa:

I can’t.

Matthew Holt:

I’ll start.

Jessica DaMassa:

No, you can’t start.

Matthew Holt:

Welcome to Health Tech Deals. The show where Jessica DaMassa normally does this part, but she’s can’t because she’s laughing too much. It must be February the 9th, 2022 edition. Possibly? Yes? Maybe? I don’t know. Maybe Jessica will stop laughing after the break.

BREAKING: Thirty Madison and Nurx Merge, CEO Steve Gutentag Takes Us Inside

Feb 9, 2022

By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

Thirty Madison and Nurx are merging and here’s what Steve Gutentag, CEO of Thirty Madison and the soon-to-be-combined entity, is saying about the deal!

This is a merger of two well-funded, direct-to-consumer, virtual-care-plus-pharmacy startups that deliver specialty and expert care and prescription drugs to a combined 750,000 active patients, with or without insurance. To-date, Nurx has raised a total $110 million, and Thirty Madison closed a Series C in June 2021 that brought their total funding to $210 million with a then-valuation of over $1 billion.

Thirty Madison currently deals with migraines, allergies, GI issues, and men’s hair loss, while Nurx (once referred to as “the Uber of birth control”) brings a predominantly women’s health-focused portfolio of chronic condition care focusing on sexual health, contraception, STIs, and dermatology.

So, what makes sense about this combination? And, what’s the big-picture plan for differentiation against rivals like Hims&Hers or Ro’s Rory or Roman brands – OR, the myriad virtual-first primary care clinics that have popped up in-person and online and offer more traditional routes to care for these same such conditions?

Steve talks extensively about the chronic care focus of both businesses, how each is providing access to specialists and experts patients wouldn’t otherwise be able to see, and how both companies’ tech platforms are built to scale along with the addition of new conditions. Still…why bring together care for this assortment of conditions instead of, say, either Thirty Madison or Nurx looking to find a merger partner who could expand their platform into high-demand chronic care areas like diabetes management, heart health, or mental health care? Is that what’s next, after the paperwork on this merger is signed? Tune in for more on Steve’s plans for the future of the NEW Thirty Madison and how “longitudinal care models” factor into its strategy to win over more patients AND their employers and payers.