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Category: Health Tech

Forget Micro-Networks: How Avaneer Health is Building The One Health Data Exchange to Rule Them All

By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

What BIG thing is Avaneer Health building with its $50 million SEED round backed by not-just-investors-but-also-partners CVS Health, Aetna, Anthem, Cleveland Clinic, HCSC, PNC Bank, Sentara Healthcare and IBM Watson Health? CEO Stuart Hanson stops by to clear-up the mystery that IS Avaneer Health, and how the massive data exchange platform it’s building is meant to connect the data coming out of the biggest payers and biggest providers in healthcare, directly and in real-time.

Hang on – is this the blockchain-based data exchange healthcare has been talking about for more than a decade?? It sure is trying to be. And what Stuart says is different about Avaneer’s effort is, indeed, the fact that it’s backed by some of the biggest brands in the business and that they see the business case in being able to more effectively share their data with one another. As he explains it, “this problem of data interoperability and data fluidity is bigger than any competitive business model that they need to worry about…”

Stuart is careful to explain what Avaneer IS and what it IS NOT, and this is critical to the company’s growth plans and revenue model. Avaneer is NOT a data intermediary; it’s not about aggregating data, normalizing it, de-identifying it, or applying any fancy machine learning algorithms to it to deliver “insights” on it. Avaneer is strictly a platform for secure, compliant data exchange, so, for example, Anthem can connect to Cleveland Clinic in real-time and verify insurance coverage. The revenue model is currently built around access to the network and will one-day-soon also take in fees from ‘Solutions Innovators’ (aka data-aggregating, algorithm-loving, insights-dropping health tech companies) that will offer their services as add-on’s to Avaneer’s customers who are plugged into the network.

What’s ahead for this stealthy start-up as it scales? Could they REALLY be looking to raise a follow-on seed round?? Find out what kind of investors they’re looking for and what’s ahead on their product roadmap in this in-depth chat.

AHIP in Vegas next week. Not too late!!

If you want to come see the best of health plans and health tech aimed at them, plus try your hand at the craps tables, it’s not too too late to get a ticket to AHIP 2022 in Las Vegas next week! Plus meet Matthew Holt & Jess DaMassa as they tour/troll the exhibit hall and look for parties!. And you can still get $100 off if you use the code “THCB”

https://www.ahip.org/conferences/ahip-2022

Inside Boulder Care’s $36 Million Series B & Scaling Telehealth Addiction Treatment in Medicaid

BY JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

Telehealth addiction treatment clinic Boulder Care just closed a $36 million Series B. I’ve got Founder & CEO Stephanie Strong here to talk about the virtual care company’s medication-assisted approach to opioid and alcohol use disorder treatment, and its growing-bigger-by-the-day presence in the Medicaid market.

In fact, more than 95% of Boulder Care’s revenue comes in from Managed Medicaid plans, and this focus on making medications like Suboxone accessible to traditionally marginalized patients is not only better for patients (drugs like these can cut all-cause mortality rate by half or more) but also compelling for payers. Stephanie says patients suffering from opioid addiction who go untreated are 550% more expensive to the plan than those who are not, and these types of medications facilitate recovery by making it bearable, blocking withdrawal symptoms.

We get into the details behind Boulder Care’s approach, which includes a number of wrap-around support services, including those provided by the startup’s care delivery team that is set to grow as a result of this Series B funding. And speaking of scaling… Does Stephanie have any concerns about challenges that Boulder Care might face prescribing-and-managing controlled substances as a result of the scrutiny created by Cerebral’s bad behavior? Any additional concerns about changes to the clinic’s telehealth practices when the Covid19 public health emergency comes to an end? And…what about competition in this space?? Particularly as similar-looking Bicycle Health announced its $50 million Series B just days earlier? A great inside look at how virtual care is changing the specialized mental health care space.

THCB Gang Episode 95, Thursday June 9

Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday June 9 were THCB regular writer and ponderer of odd juxtapositions Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard); fierce patient activist Casey Quinlan (@MightyCasey); Principal of Worksite Health Advisors Brian Klepper (@bklepper1) & Queen of all employer benefits Jennifer Benz (@jenbenz)

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.

Can SameSky Health Fix the ‘Trust Issues’ Minority Populations Have with Big Healthcare?

BY JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

Healthcare needs to move into 2022 and get away from the one-size-fits-all approach that healthcare takes almost everywhere and, instead, treat people like who they are matters.” That’s the challenge coming from SameSky Health’s founder & CEO Abner Mason whose business is helping some of healthcare’s most notorious “one-size-fits-all-ers” (health plans) improve the way they engage with diverse populations.

SameSky has built a proprietary tech platform that creates an ‘n of 1’ approach to member engagement that is focused on using data to understand who each individual member is at a “cultural” level which, as Abner defines it, is not just about ethnicity or race, but about ALL the factors that go into how a person makes a decision about whether or not to seek care, where to get that care, and who they ultimately trust to deliver it.

You can call it “micro-targeting-at-scale” and Abner compares it to the way Netflix customizes movie recommendations based on what it learns about its users. SameSky is hoping to achieve the same level of consumer-focused customization among Medicaid populations, and is working with some of the biggest names in the biz (UnitedHealthcare, Anthem, Humana and others) to tailor an annual “journey” to each member that helps members build trust with their plan, helps the plan get to know their members, and, in the end, helps both the plan AND the member satisfy mutual needs when it comes to getting things like annual health screenings done.

Will we eventually get to a more equitable and personally-tailored healthcare system? Stick around until the last few minutes to hear what Abner finds exciting about some of the new federal regulations that impact health data collection and what he sees as their big-picture impact on the future of health equity. PLUS, a bonus for all those who may have been wondering: What prompted the name change to SameSky Health from ConsejoSano?? Is this REALLY because Matthew Holt could never pronounce it? The shocking backstory is revealed!

7WireVentures’ Lee Shapiro: What’s Ahead for Investment in Health Tech

By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

What’s Lee Shapiro’s take on the health tech market’s state-of-play? 7wireVenture’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner stops by to talk early-stage investment, what’s hot and what’s not post-pandemic, and how he views the digital health funding frenzy of the past couple years which, one could argue, was kicked into high-gear by portfolio-company-slash-previous-employer Livongo.

Lee says there’s “enough broken business processes in healthcare to last a lifetime,” which means a lot of opportunity for consumer-minded health tech startups to change things, but does the recent slowdown in venture funding and pummeling of public market health tech stocks indicate that the category is in trouble before it even gets a chance to make a real impact? We get Lee’s opinion on whether or not the market is cooling, what he thinks will happen next with valuations, and what he views as the best way to scale a healthcare startup – particularly as we watch Glen Tullman run the ‘Livongo playbook’ at new business Transcarent. And, speaking of Glen… did Lee really teach him everything he knows?? We’re starting some trouble in this one!

An interview of, err, me by João Bocas

João Bocas is known as “The Wearables Expert” and has been talking, writing and innovating in health tech for a while. Last month he had me on his video series. It was a fun interview in which I talked about Flipping the Stack, the Continuous Clinic, and the slow pace of change in health care! With João’s permission I am reproducing that interview here–Matthew Holt

THCB Gang Episode 94, Thursday June 2

Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday June 2 were regulars Grace Cordavano (@GraceCordovano); patient safety expert and all around wit Michael Millenson (@mlmillenson); and policy expert consultant/author Rosemarie Day (@Rosemarie_Day1). Gun control, hospital quality and much more all came up and were interlinked. Quite the conversation.

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.

Russ Johannesson, CEO, Glooko

Russ Johannesson has been CEO of Glooko since 2018. In that time the diabetes data platform has expanded internationally, made a couple of acquisitions, and added support for digital therapeutics and distributed clinical trials. He brought me up to date with the latest–Matthew Holt

THCB Gang Episode 93, Thursday May 26 1pm PT, 4pm ET

Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday May 26 were medical historian Mike Magee (@drmikemagee); Suntra Modern Recovery CEO JL Neptune (@JeanLucNeptune); and fierce patient activist Casey Quinlan (@MightyCasey). Plenty of conversation about guns as a public health crisis, and also much about data use, data reidentification and controversy there.

You can see the video below live (and later archived) & if you’d rather listen than watch, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels.

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