Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess has finally reclaimed her Twitter account! On Episode 223, Jess asks me about Carbon Health raising $350 million, this is a big competitor for One Medical with retail clinics plus telehealth. Next, for digital mental health care, Woebot gets $90 million for its mental health chatbot. Eight Sleep raises $76 million working on sleep fitness, with lots of celebrities in this one. Aidoc raises $66 million in a round led by General Catalyst, using AI to analyze medical images for chronic conditions. Finally, real world evidence company OM1 raises $85 million, bringing their total to $170 million. —Matthew Holt
Ginger for Teens Puts “Full-family Approach” to Mental Health Care in Hands of Employers
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Digital mental health unicorn Ginger has just launched ‘Ginger for Teens’ in an effort to help the 1-in-5 teens currently suffering from mental health disorders, amid what’s being called a “teen mental health crisis.” No doubt parents are at their wit’s end searching for care, and Ginger is hoping that its teen-friendly bundle of self-guided content, behavioral health coaching, and video therapy will support a “full-family” approach to mental health care that will help everyone feel a bit better.
Ginger’s Chief Clinical Officer, Dr. Dana Udall, and Adolescent Services Coordinator, Dr. Dena Scott, share their insights on the teen mental health crisis, including the myriad factors they had to consider as they re-tooled Ginger’s offering to meet the needs of this new client base. Ginger for Teens will roll out to all of Ginger’s nearly 650 employer clients by the end of the year, helping teens gain access via their parents’ health plans at work. And beyond Ginger’s employer-sponsored health plan base? Will Ginger for Teens roll out to its health plan clients too? Don’t think we forgot about that first-of-its-kind national contract with Cigna and the potential that partnership could hold to help millions of families nationwide. So, what are the big plans for bringing up the supply-side of teen mental health care? Find out more by tuning in…
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 222 | Funding for Availity, VisiQuate, Truveta, and Bayesian
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I cover Availity raising $50 million bringing their total to $200 million and a valuation at over a billion. Revenue cycle management company Visiquate raises $50 million, bringing their total to $70 million. Truveta raises $95 million for its data analysis platform, and finally Bayesian gets $15 million using AI to predict sepsis. —Matthew Holt
Meet Wheel: The Mysterious, White-Label Telehealth Startup Bolstering ‘Next-Gen’ Virtual Care
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Stealthy telehealth startup Wheel just closed a $50M series B and CEO Michelle Davey is here to reveal the mystery behind the company’s very behind-the-scenes approach to selling white-label virtual care. The business model is built on a network of clinicians that Wheel has curated and credentialed specifically for virtual care delivery – for a rotating cast of clients, under any brand, at any time. Unlike the market-leading incumbent telehealth co’s that also sell virtual care infrastructure, Wheel does NOT have a patient front door, isn’t angling for one, and is so protective of its clients’ brands that Michelle won’t even name names about who her company is working with. She simply describes her clientele as those in the biz of “next gen” virtual care: retail players, care-plus-pharmacy-delivery startups, asynchronous care providers, labs, remote patient monitoring companies, and so on.
Wheel experienced 300% year-over-year growth — and 1200% growth from Q4-2020 to Q1-2021 — but is it sustainable as the pandemic wans and other plug-and-play telehealth infrastructure services also gain market traction and funding? And, what about the common criticism that telehealth is too transactional and that both patients AND physicians prefer the opportunity to build deeper relationships? Do providers really want to practice for multiple companies at the same time? We get a look inside Wheel’s 90% clinician retention rate to see what else might be satisfying the clinician’s need to connect, and talk about areas for growth now that the company’s received fresh funds.
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 221 | Funding for Novacardia, Wellthy, Osso VR, and Form Health
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, the funding reports are out: Rock Health is saying $14.7 billion for the first half of the year, and Startup Health is saying $20.1 billion. Those numbers are pretty much what the numbers were for ALL of 2020. Now onto some deals: on Episode 221, Jess asks me about Novacardia raising $57 million for its cardiology practice management business. Wellthy raises $25 million, bringing its total up to $50 million – this is a caregiving navigation concierge firm aimed at employers. Osso VR raises $27 million in a Series B, less than a year after closing their A, working on virtual reality for practicing surgery. Finally, Form Health raises $12 million in a Series A for its obesity telehealth platform. —Matthew Holt
Does Newly IPO’d Privia Health’s Climbing Stock Price Prove Value-Based Care Can Scale?
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Privia Health ($PRVA) went public a few weeks ago and the stock not only popped when it hit the market, but has continued to rise. When you look at the numbers – and hear about the business model from CEO Shawn Morris – it’s easy to get excited and see why. Privia calls itself a “physician enablement” business, which is the two-word marketing way of saying that they bring together different docs in a region and give them the systems to become part of a value-based care network while also maintaining their private practices. They’re more or less building accountable care organizations (ACOs) in a hub-and-spoke fashion, uniting docs around Privia’s common tech systems, workflow processes, value-based care strategies, and contracting power with commercial and government payers. The model is appealing to docs who want to make the switch to value-based care, but still want the autonomy of their own practices. The value prop has already attracted more than 2,700 providers in 650 different locations netting the biz $817 million in revenue in 2020 – and Shawn says they’ll only expand from here. What’s the growth plan? Value-based care models are often criticized as “un-scalable” – what does Shawn say to combat that? A great, detailed chat that pitches a hopeful end to fee-for-service healthcare and a promising future for a newly public healthcare co.
Sharecare ($SHCR) Hits NASDAQ Tomorrow, CEO Jeff Arnold on Closing the SPAC IPO
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Sharecare ($SHCR) starts trading on the NASDAQ tomorrow and CEO Jeff Arnold has come back to catch us up on what’s happened since April when we first spoke and took a deep-dive into Sharecare’s population-health-slash-care-navigator-slash-health-security business model. That interview (watch here: https://youtu.be/P6DzFbtiLWg) digs into the $400 million/year revenue model Jeff’s built so far, and now THIS CHAT picks up where we left off — mere hours before Sharecare heads into the public market. valued at just under $4 billion dollars, with ZERO Debt and $400 million in cash to invest in scaling up.
Turns out a lot can happen while you’re waiting for your paperwork to be signed! So what’s new? How about the $50 million dollar private placement Anthem has made into business? Jeff explains how this kind of backing from the country’s second largest health insurance company is not only a win when it comes to securing a customer base, but also how it will likely impact product roadmap. The Anthem investment was closely linked to Sharecare’s January acquisition of health tech startup Doc.AI, which had been working with Anthem on some very payer-friendly tools that will likely be expanded. And speaking of expansion? Jeff’s already made more than a dozen acquisitions to build up Sharecare’s three main verticals over the years– what else could they possibly need now? Tune in for all the last-minute news and numbers before $SHCR pops tomorrow!
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 219 | Health Catalyst acquires Twistle, Hims acquires Apostrophe, & more
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess claims that I am to blame! But for what?? On Episode 219, Jess and I talk about home care software company AlayaCare raising $225 million CAD. Next, Health Catalyst acquires Twistle for $104 million and Hims acquires teledermatology company Apostrophe. Finally, Spiras Health raises $14 million for at-home chronic care management. —Matthew Holt
Did Glen Tullman Just Launch Another New Category? Transcarent the ‘Health Experience Company’
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
For those keeping score at home, Glen Tullman is scaling up Transcarent faster than he did Livongo. The startup just closed a $58M Series B, bringing its total funding just shy of $100M. In less than 8 months. What’s the hurry? Have we ordered the balloons for the IPO yet? Glen says he’s out to fix the core problem first, and, in this interview, we get into the details about what that problem statement is all about and you might be surprised.
This is more of a payment model story than anyone may have all initially realized. And, while we may keep trying to put Transcarent into the “healthcare navigator” box or call it a “second opinion service” or a “centers of excellence play,” the truth is that those are all means to achieve a much larger end, which is about redefining the healthcare experience and its payment model for self-insured employers. Remember when Livongo created its own category of care (applied health signals) because they didn’t fit in with what a ‘chronic condition management’ company meant to the market? Well, I think Glen just used this interview to soft-launch a new category of healthcare company here again with Transcarent…
“People always try to put us in a category,” says Glen. “Are you a navigator? No, we’re not a navigator. We do navigation. Are you a health management company? No, we’re not. Are you a supplier? No, we’re not. Are you a PBM? No, we’re not. But we do all of those things to create an experience and that’s why, when you think about it, we’re a health experience company and that’s a new category that no one has.”
I get Glen to talk specifics about what this really means — directly managing healthcare spend for employers in a ‘category-creating’ completely at-risk way – and the examples really do help bring it to life. So does hearing about how he sees Transcarent as completely different than Accolade or Grand Rounds, which are often listed as competitors.
What other trouble do we get into in this 30-minute mega chat? OF COURSE I get his take on this year’s record-breaking investment into health tech, whether or not he thinks we’re in a bubble, and how Amazon, Walmart, and other non-traditional players are going to impact healthcare moving forward. Lots of insights in this one!
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 218 | Bicycle, NexHealth, Stork Club, DrChrono & Pear Therapeutics
On Episode 218 of Health in 2 Point 00, it’s a big week in digital health for IPOs. Today Jess asks me about Bicycle Health’s $27 million Series A, bringing the substance use disorder startup’s total to $32.3 million. NexHealth, which is like Shopify for doctors, gets $31 million in a Series B, Stork Club raises $30 million in a Series A, and DrChrono raises $20 million for its EHR. Finally, Pear Therapeutics is SPAC-ing out with a $1.6 billion valuation. As we all know, DTx is my favorite category of health tech so tune in for what I have to say about this one. —Matthew Holt
