On #THCBGang I hosted the double trouble of vaunted futurists Ian Morrison (@seccurve) & Jeff Goldsmith, and medical historian Mike Magee (@drmikemagee) for an hour of conversation and banter about the health care system, the world in politics, and whether “Don’t Look Up” is a spoof or a documentary. Really good stuff, especially from Jeff on whether Medicare pays enough to keep hospitals alive. (Spoiler alter–he doesn’t think so!)
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.
Insight on what’s ahead for the future of clinical research, real-world evidence, and personalized healthcare from none other than former FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner and current President of Verily Life Sciences’ Clinical Research Platforms, Amy Abernethy.
Amy testified before Congress a few weeks ago to answer their questions about some of the buzziest tech and new virtual models emerging to re-shape the way clinical data is collected for regulatory approval of medical devices, drugs, and digital health applications. We get the inside scoop here on what they asked, how they reacted to her answers, and what she thinks is ahead in terms of the investments they might make and the policies they are likely to explore in order to use more technology and decentralized clinical trials to bring greater equity, diversity and safety to the development of new medical products and prescription drugs. And that’s not all! We also get into a little chat about 21st Century Cures 2.0 and how the FDA is thinking about leveraging real-world data and real-world evidence for high-level regulatory questions. Hot space to watch, and Amy is excited!
Beyond this “fresh off the Beltway” analysis of what’s ahead in health tech policy, Amy talks too about what’s next for Verily. Sounds like the business might have an acquisition in its future…
Transcarent raises a whopping $200 million Series C funding round that values the year-ish old business at over $1.6 billion – valuing the up-start higher than quasi-competitor, Accolade, which is sitting on the NASDAQ with a $1.3 billion dollar market cap. Executive Chairman & CEO Glen Tullman shares some very revealing details about the round, why he’s deliberately added leading hospital systems onto his cap table, and what he’s got to say to the doubters who might question whether not Transcarent is a billion-dollar business just yet. (Spoiler alert: Glen says Transcarent didn’t even take the highest valuation they were offered…)
The investors are interesting for all those who want to read into the strategic messaging there: late-stage Livongo investor Kinnevik led the round alongside Human Capital and Ally Bridge Group, existing investors came back in, and, probably most surprising, are hospital systems Northwell Health, Intermountain Healthcare, and Rush University Medical Center. Apparently, other hospitals wanted in too but missed the chance thanks to a tight timeline. Glen explains his rush and why the capital is essential to further build out Transcarent’s offering in light of the market opportunity he’s seeing among employers.
This is a payment model innovation play, folks, that is basically arming those large, self-insured employers with the bargaining power and healthcare ingenuity of Glen Tullman, and what he says is the best executive leadership team he’s ever assembled. The pieces are certainly starting to come together, and it looks a lot like a new age payer to me. Transcarent’s basically got the prescription drug pricing power of a PBM in its relationship with Walmart… a national network of top-end health systems who are either partners or have skin in the game thanks to this funding round… the centers of excellence business it bought with BridgeHealth… AND some ‘coming soon’ care-at-home, cancer care, and behavioral health offerings Glen teases us about here. All that is offered to employers at full risk to Transcarent, which takes no copays or coinsurance from members, doesn’t charge any per-employee-per-month fees to their employers, and is keeping providers happy with payment up-front. If it’s not a payer because it’s better than our current definition of a payer, that might be the only reason why!
Still, Glen tells us that partnerships with some of the market’s “most innovative” payers are coming soon, along with new customer announcements. And, what will he spend this $200 million on to further build-out Transcarent’s offering? I’m not afraid to ask if there’s a chronic condition management co he’s got his eye on acquiring!
After our Christmas break THCB Gang is back! Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang at 1pm PT 4pm ET Thursday for an hour of topical and sometime combative conversation on what’s happening in health care and beyond will be THCB regular writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard); fierce patient activist Casey Quinlan (@MightyCasey); futurist Ian Morrison (@seccurve) & patient safety expert and all around wit Michael Millenson (@MLMillenson)
You can see the video below live at 1pm/4pm or it’s kept here for posterity. If you’d rather listen than watch, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels
I went for an annual physical with my doctor at One Medical in December. OK it wasn’t actually annual as the last time I went was 2 & 1/2 years ago, but it was covered under the ACA, and my doc Andrew Diamond was bugging me because I’m old & fat. So in I went.
I had a general exam and great chat for about 45 minutes. Then I had blood work & labs (cholesterol, A1C, etc) and a TDAP vaccination as it had been more than 10 years since I’d had one.
Today, about one month later, I got an email asking me to pay One Medical. So being a difficult human, I thought I would go through the process and see how much a consumer can be expected to understand about what they should pay.
Here’s the email from One Medical saying, “you owe us money.”
This is the last THCB Gang of what has been a long, grueling, but enthralling year. And every week (well almost every week) we have had a group from across the health care luminescence to discuss it.
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang at 1pm PT 4pm ET Thursday for an hour of topical and sometime combative conversation on what’s happening in health care and beyond will be THCB regular writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard); delivery & tech expert Vince Kuraitis (@VinceKuraitis); privacy expert and entrepreneur Deven McGraw (@HealthPrivacy); WTF Health host & Health IT girl Jessica DaMassa (@jessdamassa); and three occasional gang members making very welcome appearances–venture investor & soccer mogul Marcus Whitney (@marcuswhitney); surgeon & startup guy Raj Aggarwal (@docaggarwal); and health economist Jane Sarasohn-Kahn (@healthythinker).
And towards the end of the show we should have our now traditional (or 2nd time) visit from as many other gang members who can make it!
The video will be below but if you’d rather listen to the episode, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels.
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) for an hour of topical and sometime combative conversation on what’s happening in health care and beyond were — medical historian Mike Magee (@drmikemagee); futurist Jeff Goldsmith; fierce patient activist Casey Quinlan (@MightyCasey); and policy consultant/author Rosemarie Day (@Rosemarie_Day1).
Plenty of talk about voting rights, the future of American “democracy” and much more, and we did get back to health care eventually. A great & fun, while important, conversation!
You can see the video below where it’s kept for posterity. If you’d rather listen than watch, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels
Health tech infrastructure startup, Innovaccer, announced its $150M Series E and newly assigned $3.2B valuation today, and I’ve got CEO Abhinav Shashank with the essential intelligence on how this company is pursuing health IT’s holy grail: the single patient health record.
This is a story of cloud technology’s uptake in healthcare, which has lagged behind other sectors like banking and retail in terms of industry-wide adoption. Abhinav tells us that the “economic incentives” are finally aligned for cloud to really take-off in healthcare, as the technology will be critical to any models where care is longitudinal instead of transactional and a singular view of a patient’s clinical data, labs, scans, and claims will be essential to healthcare organizations taking on more risk.
So what, exactly, does Innovaccer do? What’s the work, and how do they get paid? Who has access to the data they’re landing in the “Innovaccer Health Cloud”? Will patients one-day be able to access this single record themselves? And, what stops Epic or Cerner from just doing this and owning the space outright? No detail left unexplored in this one and – for the benefit of those of us who are not very plugged into the IT underpinnings of the EHR – Abhinav breaks it all down for us in a way that even us non-techie health tech market watchers can understand!
Digital mental health startups are leaning into the fact that mental health care is not “one-size-fits all” and, as a result, we’re seeing new offerings hit the market that seek to combine typical therapies and their human-plus-machine delivery in novel ways in order to better meet different patient needs. In this interview, we hear about Resony, a digital therapeutic that’s tackling anxiety and stress through a completely autonomous, AI-driven program that brings together resonance breathing and physical relaxation exercises with cognitive behavioral therapy. In other words… working on the physical side of that mind-body connection for the overall benefit of mental well-being.
Resony is just the first DTx coming out of Rcube Health, one of four early-stage startups that have gained the backing of Bayer G4A as part of their Digital Health Partnerships Program Growth Track. CEO and co-founder Ravi Janapureddy introduces us to the business that he’s building on the thesis that true scalability for digital therapeutics in mental health care relies on full automation – no clinical intervention. In a crowded space, how will Resony stand-out as a stand-alone business, instead of a ‘feature’ for a larger, full-service virtual-first mental health care provider? Is this where Bayer might see the opportunity for an “around the pill” or “alongside the pill” approach? Another digital mental health use case to explore!
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang at 1pm PT 4pm ET Thursday for an hour of topical and sometime combative conversation on what’s happening in health care and beyond were Queen of all employer benefits Jennifer Benz (@Jenbenz); THCB regular writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard); futurist Ian Morrison (@seccurve) and two investor guests — Super smart AI doc from GSR Ventures (@GSRVentures) Sunny Kumar; and the “I make unicorns” King Bill Taranto from Merck GHIF (@BillTaranto).
We got some forecasts and some reviews of the money and the movers in health care this past year, and looked at the world of employment inside and outside of healthcare, RPM and the public vs private financial markets.
The video is archived below. If you’d rather listen to the episode, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels
