Today on Health in 2 Point 00, it’s time for the silliness to end, and for Jess DaMassa and I to take digital health deals seriously. Groups gets $60 million from a bunch of famous investors. Oura, they of the tracking ring used by the NBA, gets $100m, and TPA substitute Collective Health gets a whopping $280m from a big Blues plan. And our favorite privacy maven Deven McGraw gets a mention as her company Ciitizen buys interoperability tech company Stella. Did we maintain our serious demeanor? You’ll have to watch to find out but you can probably guess the answer! —Matthew Holt
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 204 | Vida, Headway, & Neuroelectrics, plus RCM acquires VisitPay
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, I am over the moon excited about Chelsea’s Champion’s League semi-final win. But on Episode 204, we have some big deals to cover too. First, Vida Health gets $110 million in a Series D bringing their total to $188 million. Next, R1 RCM acquires VisitPay for $300 million, integrating patient financial engagement into their revenue cycle management offerings. It’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and mental health startup Headway raises $70 million – do they have a chance in that crowded space? Finally, Neuroelectrics gets $17.5 million for their neurostimulation cap helping with epilepsy and depression. —Matthew Holt
Inside Vida Health’s $110M Series D & Big Push into Digital Mental Health
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
It’s another mega-round for a digital health chronic condition management startup, as Vida Health closes its $110M Series D – AND adds a pair of big-name insurers to their cap table. Vida’s Founder & CEO, Stephanie Tilenius, gets into the good news about the funding round, which was led by growth equity fund, General Atlantic, and brought managed care giant Centene (a Vida customer) and multinational insurer AXA into the mix.
Beyond the funding – and the extra “insurance side” endorsement it gives to the virtual chronic condition care space – what’s interesting about Vida now is how its “whole person” approach, which integrates physical health care and mental health care, is very much tilting to mental health these days.
While overall revenue has tripled since last year, Stephanie talks about how the 6000% year-over-year growth for her mental health services has played into that rise, and how the new funding will be used to further expand those offerings.
Does this mean we need to start naming Vida as a competitor to digital mental health companies like Ginger, Modern Health, and Talkspace? And, how does this impact their positioning among the field of other health tech chronic care co’s? For those who may have forgotten, Vida went out the gate with a platform that was designed to treat both the mental-and-physical aspects of chronic disease, while others like Omada and Livongo-now-Teladoc acquired-and-integrated behavioral health providers to augment their physical-first offerings and satisfy customer demands. Will it now prove easier for Vida to scale-up and scale-out, having been built for both “mind and body” from the very beginning? Stephanie’s got her opinion, big plans, and now a treasury to rival those key competitors across both fields of care. Tune in for all the details!
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 203 | Privia goes public, Vocera acquires PatientSafe Solutions & more
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess hardly knows the value of $100 million anymore – is it a salary, is it an entire fund, is it one single round? On Episode 203, Jess and I cover Vocera buying PatientSafe Solutions and Privia going public with a $3.7 billion market cap. Cash-paid healthcare services company Sesame gets $24 million in a Series B, Ceribell gets $53 million in a Series C for its portable EEG, and Summus Global gets $21 million in a Series B providing virtual specialist care. —Matthew Holt
Digital Mental Health Hits Mainstream: Cigna’s Behavioral Health CMO on National Rollout of Ginger
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Cigna is making digital mental health services available to its entire nationwide network of 14 million members, and it’s selected health tech startup, Ginger to deliver the new benefit. Cigna’s Chief Medical Officer for Behavioral Health, Doug Nemecek, and Ginger’s CEO, Russ Glass, stop by to discuss the deal and why Cigna is making such a commitment to expanding its behavioral health offering.
This is about more than just dealing with mental health in the aftermath of Covid; Cigna is actually looking at Ginger’s behavioral health coaching model as preventative. Will other health plans follow suit? Could expanded coverage for lower-acuity mental health services become commonplace? Doug talks about what’s ahead for mental health care from a population health standpoint, and how services like Ginger’s give primary care docs a standard, trusted provider to which they can refer patients when it comes to increasingly common concerns like depression and anxiety. For Russ and Ginger, who talk about using virtual care to right the “supply-and-demand imbalance” in mental health care, what will more than doubling their current client base (from 10 million to 24 million) do to their own ability to provide supply? It’s a moment-of-truth for the business of digital mental health and we’ve got the details!
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 202 | Virta, Seqster, Kaia, Capsule & Accolade acquires PlushCare
On Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I talk about TDOC earnings before getting into today’s deals. First, Virta Health scores $133 million in a round led by Tiger Global for its keto diabetes reversal program. Seqster raises $12 million in its Series A, and there are some interesting investors in this one. MSK startup Kaia Health raises $75 million, bringing its total to $123 million. Online pharmacy Capsule raises $300 million, bringing its total to $570 million. Finally Accolade acquires virtual primary care platform PlushCare in a $450 million deal. —Matthew Holt
THCB Gang Episode 52, Thursday April 29
Thursday’s #THCBGang was another with a special guest. Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) was joined by regulars, employer health expert Jennifer Benz (@jenbenz); patient safety expert and all around wit Michael Millenson (@MLMillenson); WTF Health host & Health IT girl Jessica DaMassa (@jessdamassa); & Consumer advocate & CTO of Carium Health, Lygeia Ricciardi (@Lygeia).
Our special guest was Shantanu Nundy @DrNundy who is Chief Medical Officer of Accolade and more importantly author of new book Care After Covid. We dug into the question about what the post-covid health care system will look like, while I let slip why I’m grumpy Accolade just paid $450m for Plushcare! (You have to wait for the very end for that!)
Then video is up below. If you’d rather listen, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels.
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 201 | European Funding Deals – complete with accents!
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, we’re back from our 200th episode celebration! In Episode 201, we have an all-European funding deals episode for you, and I even attempt to answer every story in an accent relevant to the company. First, French insurance company Alan raises €185 million. Scottish company Current Health raises $43 million in a Series B for remote patient monitoring. Thankfully we have an English company in the mix, Proximie raises $38 million, bringing their total to $48 million – they do AR for the OR. Kry, a Swedish telehealth company with 3 million visits, raises $316 million bringing their total to $570M. Finally, German company Caresyntax raises $100 million bringing their total to $177M doing data analytics around surgery. —Matthew Holt
Sharecare’s SPAC IPO: A Second Success for WebMD Founder Jeff Arnold?
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Sharecare, the population-health-slash-care-navigator of the stars (literally, celebrity doc Dr. Oz is a co-founder, and Oprah’s Harpo Productions, Sony Pictures Television, and Discovery Communications are partners) is about to hit the public market via a $4-Billion SPAC IPO with Falcon Capital. Jeff Arnold, co-founder, CEO, and Chairman drops in to talk about how he plans to make Sharecare even more successful than the first healthcare business he founded-and-exited, WebMD.
The Sharecare ecosystem is sprawling. The company’s been around for more than a decade, acquired about a dozen digital health point solutions and health tech businesses, and built a population health analytics platform that’s interwoven consumer, employer, provider, and health plan data for years. Now, the business is even getting into providing Health Security verifications for hotels, restaurants, and the like to prove that their facilities meet guidelines for health and hygiene protocols, cleaning standards, physical distancing and other health requirements implemented in the Covid-19 era.
So, how does Jeff anticipate meeting shareholder expectations for growth? The investor deck touts a future of recurring revenue driving sustainable 20% year-over-year growth; Jeff talks through each of Sharecare’s verticals in detail so we can learn how.
Health in 2 Point 00 — The 200th Episode Special!
Believe it or not, Jessica DaMassa and I have been banging out digital health tech & funding news for 200 episodes of this oh-so-cute little show. To celebrate, after several takeover episodes when Jess replaced me with a number of special guests, this time four of the digital health & health care digerati replaced Jess to ask me some oh so serious questions. It’s a special edition with guest appearances from Glen Tullman, Eugene Borukhovic, Lisa Suennen & Ian Morrison, as well as plenty of BS from us two regulars! — Matthew Holt
