Today on THCB Spotlights, Matthew Holt interviews CJ Wilson, the CEO of MyHealth.US. MyHealth.US provides wearable QR codes for instant access to emergency health information, as well as a digital platform to track your health data and house medical records. CJ shows us some of their offerings and explains how they’re working with unions and schools in NYC along with the company’s future plans for funding and growth.
Matthew’s health care tidbits
Each week I’ve been adding a brief tidbits section to the THCB Reader, our weekly newsletter that summarizes the best of THCB that week (Sign up here!). Then I had the brainwave to add them to the blog. They’re short and usually not too sweet! –Matthew Holt
In this week’s health care tidbits, we are talking about medical debt. Oh, not all medical debt. No, not that debt being garnished from the wages of health care workers by their own employers. Today we are just discussing the debt that has already gone to collections. Yes, the debt sold off by doctors and hospitals for pennies on the dollars so that debt collectors can hound people until they pay or despair.
This week a Harvard/Stanford team reported that the total in collections is $140 Billion! Way more than anyone thought, Nearly ONE in SIX Americans currently has a medical bill in collections. No prizes for guessing that those most likely to be being pursued are living in the poorest zip codes in the country and even more likely to be in a southern state that never expanded Medicaid.
Glad we are all proud to be American.
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 224 | b.well, Quit Genius, Doktor.se, Sweetch, Kno2, and HealthifyMe
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I chat about the staggering medical debt in this country before diving into some more health tech deals. First up on Episode 224, personal health record company b.well Connected Health raises $32 million, bringing their total to $57 million. Next, Quit Genius raises $64 million in a Series C, bringing the digital addiction clinic’s total to $78.6 million, and Swedish telehealth company Doktor.se raises €29.5 million – there are some interesting investors in this one. Sweetch, a Bayer G4A company, raises $20 million for its behavior change app and Kno 2 raises $15 million in a Series A in yet another interoperability play. Finally, Healthify.Me raises $75 million, bringing its total to $100 million – this is like Noom plus exercise in India. —Matthew Holt
THCB Gang Episode 63 – Thurs July 22
Episode 62 of “The THCB Gang” was live-streamed on Thursday, July 22nd. Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) was joined by regulars: patient safety expert and all around wit Michael Millenson (@MLMillenson); fierce patient activist Casey Quinlan (@MightyCasey); and futurist Ian Morrison (@seccurve).
We got into it on delta variant, medical debt at $140bn, the NYPD vaccination rate being 20 points below the state average, diversity as structural problem in medical school and beyond, and whether we could give everyone in America concierge primary care (the numbers add up! Almost…)
Then video is below. If you’d rather listen, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels.
Next week #THCBGang is off on vacation!
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 223 | Carbon Health, Woebot, Eight Sleep, Aidoc, and OM1
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
#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
THCB Gang Episode 62 – Thurs July 15, 1pm PT- 4pm ET
Episode 62 of “The THCB Gang” will be live-streamed on Thursday, June 17th at 1pm PT -4PM ET. Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) will be joined by regulars futurist Jeff Goldsmith; policy expert consultant/author Rosemarie Day (@Rosemarie_Day1); Suntra Modern Recovery CEO JL Neptune (@JeanLucNeptune); and medical historian Mike Magee (@drmikemagee).
If you’d rather listen, the “audio only” version it is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels a day or so after the episode — Matthew Holt
#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
Matthew’s health care tidbits
Each week I’ve been adding a brief tidbits section to the THCB Reader, our weekly newsletter that summarizes the best of THCB that week (Sign up here!). Then I had the brainwave to add them to the blog. They’re short and usually not too sweet! –Matthew Holt
In this week’s health care tidbits, a little bit of light was shone on two of the dirty tricks health insurers play. First San Diego is suing Molina, Centene (owner of Healthnet) & Kaiser for misleading patients about which providers are in their networks. Apparently Healthnet & Kaiser’s directories were 35% inaccurate and Molina 80%! Now this may be incompetence, but it is not only false advertising, it’s also a way of weeding out high cost patients who may leave when they can’t find a specialist that will take them–and of course avoiding a high cost patient is a nice earner for health plans.
The next trick is double billing. In this lawsuit unearthed by Bob Herman of Axios, Aetna which was being paid to manage an employer’s health network subbed out PT care to an Optum network. Optum then also charged an admin fee. Meaning the provider got less and the patient had to pay more. So while Aetna and United Healthgroup may appear to be fierce competitors, they’re happy to cooperate when it comes to ripping off their clients.
More bad behavior by health plans and I didn’t even mention them cheating on Medicare Advantage RAFs! But the CEO of Chenmed did.
If we are going to let health insurers profit from handling employer and taxpayer business, we should see those arrangements in the clear light of day. Time for some heavy handed Federal regulation, methinks.
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 220 | Olive’s massive raise, Ro buys Kit, plus funding for Tendo & SWORD
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, I’m cheering England’s win against Germany this week – but Jess keeps us on track with health tech deals. Olive gets another $400 million, bringing their total up to $902 million – with $802 million of that since March 2020. Tendo Systems gets $50 million in a Series A, working on communication between providers and consumers. General Catalyst strikes again, this time in a round with SWORD Health raising $85 million in a Series C, bringing their total to $135 million. This is an MSK company, with a lot of good investors here. Finally, Ro buys Kit an at-home testing company – how does Hims stack up now? And, in case you missed it, Sharecare hits the NYSE today – get the scoop from Jess’s interview with their CEO yesterday. –Matthew Holt
