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Matthew Holt

HLTH & Healthcare — My tweetstorm on the HLTH conference

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By MATTHEW HOLT

This week was the very flash, very well marketed and apparently rather fun HLTH conference. As you might guess, given I’ve run a somewhat similar conference in a similar space for the past decade and this was the biggest market entrant in years, I was paying alot of attention, even though I wasn’t actually there. So I started writing a few tweets yesterday morning which basically became the equivalent of a blog post–so I made it one here!

    1. Since the fuss about & success of #HLTH2018 I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of health tech conferences and in some ways @HLTHEVENT is a perfect metaphor for the health care system as a whole  /1
    2. Bear in mind I co-founded & still am co-chair of @health2con which when it started was regarded as revolutionary & different – so this is tinged with professional envy. Also bear in mind that I was at #ythlive this week so didn’t actually go to Vegas. So grains of salt /2
    3. What @HLTHEVENT did was convince virtually every CEO who’s ever presented at @health2con @WHCCevents @hdpalooza etc over the past decade to come speak in Vegas at an unknown conference–albeit one that had a ton of money to burn, and great connections via VC @oakhcft /3
    4. Given the crap I’ve received over the years from certain CEOs who only want to keynote @health2con & were instead asked to be on a panel, or worse were put in a break out, I’m amazed they pulled it off. But they did & it seems all were happy /4
    5. OK, here’s the metaphor part. Once #HLTH2018 achieved essentially a “health tech co CEO monopoly” (for 4 days in one place), they were able to act like a health system that’s done the same thing with its providers & hospitals (cough cough @UPMC @SutterHealth et al)  /5

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A Public-Private Partnership to Fix Health Care

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By BILL ROSENBERG

The Administration proposal that would enable small employers to band together to purchase health insurance by forming Association Health Plans has several good features. Large companies do pay about 15% less, apples-to-apples, for health insurance than small businesses because they negotiate lower administrative fees, get larger discounts on health care prices and avoid premium taxes and risk charges by self-insuring. Allowing small business to replicate what boils down to volume discounts also appeals politically to many as a market-based alternative to government intervention. Reliance on Association Health Plans could result in substantial volume discounts, but, in the end, would be like paying $10 for a tube of toothpaste that retails for $100, a big discount and a rip-off price.

Even though the largest companies get very deep discounts, there is substantial research showing that their net costs are much higher than everywhere else because we in the United States pay higher prices for health care goods and services. One need to look no further than the benchmark large corporate purchasers who continue to pay about 40% or 50% more than Medicare for the same health care to see how excessive health care prices for private payers are. And this disparity is likely to get worse. While hospitals gobble up other hospitals and doctors’ practices and gain near monopoly market power to raise prices, employers of all sizes remain highly fragmented and, as a result, impotent price negotiators.

A better approach to health care cost containment than Association Health Plans hides in full view. Continue reading…

The AmWell – Avizia Merger and the Evolution of Telehealth

By ALAN PITT

Last week Avizia, where I’ve been the Chief Medical Officer since 2014, was acquired by American Well (AmWell). From my perspective, the merger made perfect sense. Avizia has been focused on chronically and acutely ill patients—those more directly attached to a hospital system. AmWell, on the other hand, has been the dominant solution for community-based care; it’s an online consultation service for folks who might otherwise have gone to an urgent care for problems like fever, headache, or a sore throat. Combining these entities provides a solution that spans the spectrum of care, which aligns with the needs of many healthcare systems. Issues related to patient access and satisfaction (think: less acute, community-based care) are top-of-mind for many administrators. However, with 80% of the dollars going to 20 % of the population, managing the continuum for the chronically ill (which is more in line with the mission of Avizia) is imperative to provide better care at a lower cost.

The merger also marks a predictable milestone in the common transition pattern for big ideas (internet, aeronautics, GPS, etc.)—from the military, to academia, to scalable business.

Telemedicine started as a military-run effort. NASA, concerned that astronaut healthcare issues would cause mission failures, was the first organization to devote significant funding to telemedicine research. Early ATA meetings were opened with military-sponsored presentations featuring the Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center, a branch of the Army.

Next came academia. Millions of dollars in grant money were offered, but academics were no longer focused on the health of astronauts. Instead, the goal was providing care at a distance—to the citizens of Rural America. Many early leaders of the ATA came from the universities that built and deployed this technology.

Entrepreneurs are the third wave.Continue reading…

Health in 2 point 00, Episode 22

In this edition of Health in 2 point 00 the tables are turned! Jessica DaMassa is at the upstart HLTH conference, which will make those of you with long memories of the first ehealth bubble laugh. So today I’m asking Jessica the questions, including whether Jonathan Bush likes the buyout idea, what Alex Drane (Walmart’s most extraordinary cashier) said, and whether there was anything about sex at HLTH or whether that was just at YTHLive!–Matthew Holt

Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 21

Jessica DaMassa asks me everything she can about health and technology in just 2 minutes. Including the firing of Ron Gutman at Healthtap, what happened at Dev4Health, gesture company Klue’s deals & Tom Price’s temporary lobotomy reversal. It’s Health in 2 point 00–Matthew Holt

Health in 2 point 00, Episode 20

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Jessica DaMassa asks me about the biggest IPO in Digital Health ever, the Platform vs App question and what was Seema Verma tweeting about during #HDPalooza. All in 2 minutes–Matthew Holt

Interview with Brian Yarnell, Bluestream Health

As you may have noticed, we are picking up the focus on new tech companies here on THCB. Much of this is happening as I have a little more time to examine and work with startups as I’m no longer running the Health 2.0 conference day to day. Some of it comes from our new partnership with Jessica DaMassa and her WTF.Health series. But don’t worry, we are continuing to be the place to find great opinion pieces about the health care system as a home (This is an “add” not an “instead”)

Today I have an interview about an interesting new company I’m getting to know called Bluestream Health which is essentially a second generation telehealth video platform. Brian Yarnell is the President and I spoke with him about his company, and what makes their technology different. Brian will be at the ATA conference net week (while I’ll be at Dev4Health!) — Matthew Holt

Check Out The RWJF Opioid Challenge Semi-Finalists!

By JOHN EL-MARAGHY and CHANLY PHILOGENE

The opioid crisis has devastated countless families and individuals across the United States and abroad. What once started as a quiet concern has become a full-blown epidemic, requiring the full support and attention of the healthcare and tech communities to address it.

From the Surgeon General’s August 2016 letter on Opioid Addiction:

“I am asking for your help to solve an urgent health crisis facing America: the opioid epidemic. Everywhere I travel, I see communities devastated by opioid overdoses. I meet families too ashamed to seek treatment for addiction. And I will never forget my own patient whose opioid use disorder began with a course of morphine after a routine procedure.”

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Health in 2 point 00, Episode 19

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Jessica DaMassa asks me as much as she can about health & technology in just 2 minutes. In this episode there’s a lot of things not happening including, Amazon not supplying hospitals, and women CEOs not getting funded–Matthew Holt

WTF Health | Women in Health Tech, Crashing your ‘Mike Fest’ & Organizing for World Domination

By JESSICA DAMASSA

WTF Health – ‘What’s the Future’ Health? is a new interview series about the future of health and how we love to hate WTF is wrong with it right now. Can’t get enough? Check out more interviews at www.wtf.health. 

Lots of chatter lately about the disparity between men and women in health tech – both in and out of the the start-up space. I’m pulling together new interviews for a WTF Health ‘Special Report’ on women in health tech (stay tuned) but had a chance to have two great conversations on the topic while at #HIMSS18.

VEDA Data Solutions CEO Meghan Gaffney Buck talks about what it’s like to be a female founder in AI – raising millions and pushing new tech in a space usually dominated by guys. Find out what a ‘Mike Fest’ is and be sure to listen until the end for the good news about a trend she’s seeing in female-run investment funds.

Then, listen to Susan Williams, founder and CEO of Agency Other, on how women in our industry are starting to come together for world domination through orgs like Healthtech Women, a non-profit dedicated to such doings. Susan just launched the group’s newest chapter in one of the most eclectic healthcare markets in the country, Los Angeles, and also weighs in on what the health tech scene is like in Hollywood.