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Jonathan Bush Launches Zus with $35M & “Build-Your-Own EMR” Proposition for Health Tech Startups

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By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

Jonathan Bush has “More Disruption Please-d” himself and is back at it with a new company, Zus (get it…like the father of Athena) backed by a $35M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, F-Prime Capital, Maverick Ventures, & Rock Health.

“It’s ‘Build-A-Bear’ for EMR, patient relationship management, CRMs…” says Jonathan, and meant to help digital health startups work around incumbent EMR companies by providing a developer kit of components common to the “middle” of a health tech stack — AND a single shared record backend where all Zus clients can land and access patient data.

The intention is to help digital health startups reduce the time and cost of developing their tech by eliminating the redundant, generic aspects of building a healthcare tech stack in the same way companies like Stripe or Twilio have taken the burden out of writing code to process payments or integrate messaging. Zus intends to be the go-to for code used to make an appointment, create a patient profile, connect to a telehealth platform, etc. And the shared record on the back end? Does that make Zus a next-gen EMR company?? Find out more about Zus’s business model, current client list, and why, exactly, Jonathan believes that NOW is the time that the dream of the shared patient medical record is within reach.

Community Health Plans Are Serious: Support Major Federal Action to Reduce Rx Drug Costs

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By CECI CONNOLLY

Equal treatment under the law. A foundational pillar of American life. Except when it comes to drug makers who benefit from favorable treatment by the federal government.

For far too long, prescription drug companies have profited immensely under a system that affords them monopolistic powers to set prices devoid of government or public scrutiny.

Even during the pandemic, while much of the economy took a beating, the pharmaceutical industry continued to benefit from the high prices they charge. In fact, 9 of the 10 biggest profit margins recorded last summer belonged to drug companies.

As the nation’s economy sputters back, Big Pharma continues to raise prices and block patient access to lower-cost alternatives. It is beyond time to tame the soaring prices of prescription drugs once and for all.

For years, health care players have skirted around concrete actions to truly impact drug prices. Efforts to cut costs for consumers have translated to higher costs for health plans, resulting in a cost shift instead of a cost reduction. We, as private, nonprofit insurers, believe in the ambition and innovation possible in a free market – but the  market has failed in this instance and it’s time for the government to take action.

That is why the Alliance of Community Health Plans (ACHP) is putting its support behind reforms that can make a real, lasting impact for consumers and the entire health system. For the first time, a national health care payer organization is stepping up and supporting pragmatic and progressive reforms that can truly begin to rein in the price of prescription drugs.

This includes backing the dramatic step to grant the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to negotiate lower prices for the highest-priced medications for which there is no competition, in addition to other actions.

Continue reading…

THCB Gang Episode 58 – Thurs June 17, 1pm PT – 4pm ET

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Episode 58 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); Consumer advocate & CTO of Carium Health, Lygeia Ricciardi (@Lygeia); and–after way too long an absence–economist & consumer expert Jane Sarasohn-Kahn (@healthythinker)

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

Matthew’s health care tidbits

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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! (And yes, this week’s is a tad late!) –Matthew Holt

In this week’s health care tidbits, you may be wondering what happened to health policy under Joe Biden. He said no to Medicare for All because instead he was going to create a public option and lower the Medicare age to 60. Yet both those two policies seem to have vanished into the night. Presumably that’s because they think they’re a hard political sell and maybe that’s right. But why? This past week a massive study of American consumers shows that Medicare recipients are much happier with their experience than people with employer-based coverage. And employer based coverage is no better than Medicaid! To wit, the study showed:

Compared with those covered by Medicare, individuals with employer-sponsored insurance were less likely to report having a personal physician and were more likely to report instability in insurance coverage, difficulty seeing a physician because of costs, not taking medication because of costs, and having medical debt. Compared with those covered by Medicare, individuals with employer-sponsored insurance were less satisfied with their care.

Compared with individuals covered by Medicaid, those with employer-sponsored insurance were more likely to report having medical debt and were less likely to report difficulty seeing a physician because of costs and not taking medications because of costs. No difference in satisfaction with care was found between individuals with employer-sponsored private health insurance and those with Medicaid coverage.

I guess the new AHIP slogan is, “we’re just as good as Medicaid!” But you have to wonder, why are the rest of us being forced to consume an inferior product?

Twins For Everyone!

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By KIM BELLARD

I have lived my entire life as a twin, and, while it isn’t an unalloyed blessing, on balance I’d recommend it.  Most of you, though, probably aren’t twins and have missed the experience.  Don’t worry: you may still get a chance – with a digital twin. 

It could have profound implications for your health and for healthcare generally.

A digital twin, in case you are not familiar with the concept, is a virtual representation of a physical object.  It is created from data about that physical object, and is fed ongoing data (e.g., via IoT) about it to keep the model accurate. 

The concept is not new, often attributed to Michael Grieves at the Florida Institute of Technology in 2002.  Dr. Grieves saw the value of the concept for manufacturing; for example, GE’s Aircraft Engines has been using them to make their engines safer and more efficient.  Other applications include building maintenance, data centers, and even creating a digital twin of the whole planet.

People have seen the potential of digital twins for healthcare for years.  Back in 2016, GE’s Digital CEO Bill Ruh predicted:

I believe we will have a digital twin at birth, and it will take data off of the sensors everybody is running, and that digital twin will predict things for us about disease and cancer and other things. I believe we will end up with health care being the ultimate digital twin. Without it, I believe we will have data but with no outcome, or value.

We’re not there yet, not nearly, but it’s coming.

Continue reading…

#Healthin2Point00, Episode 216 | Datavant acquires Ciox, plus deals for AllyAlign, Cerebral & more

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Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess is trying to replace me with the other Matthew Holt. But on Episode 216, I am still around to talk about some deals. First, Datavant acquires Ciox Health in a $7 billion deal, aiming to create the nation’s largest health data ecosystem. Next, Avenue Health is a new company that has just been launched, working on seamless, end-to-end data integration and blockchain, and AllyAlign Health raises $300 million as a new Medicare advantage plan. Finally, Cerebral raises $127 million – this is like a Ro or Hims but specifically for mental health. —Matthew Holt

Why “Radiopharmaceutical” Should be Part of your Healthcare Vocabulary

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By JAY T. RIPTON

Not to sound too alarmist, but the radiopharmaceutical industry is on the verge of an explosion. But don’t worry; it’s not the type of explosion one often associates with nuclear materials… I love those movies too! It’s the beginning of a new wave of innovation for the diagnosis and treatment of certain cancers and other diseases.

This new radiopharmaceutical boom quite literally has the life sciences industry in a nuclear arms race of sorts, as companies like Y-mAbs, Novartis and others are pushing through clinical trials for the next blockbuster for the treatment and detection of hard-to-treat diseases like medulloblastoma and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. But all this excitement has many wondering, “what are radiopharmaceuticals anyway?”   

Radiopharmaceuticals are simply a group of pharmaceutical drugs containing radioactive isotopes. They are being used primarily for the treatment and detection of certain types of cancers, but they are also being developed for cardiac disease as well. And what makes radiopharmaceuticals so unique is that they can be targeted to extremely precise areas in the human body.

Although gaining ground with more precision today, this type of therapy actually began in the 1940s with I-131 – which has become an important agent for the treatment of benign and malignant thyroid disease. The development of radiolabeled antibodies began in the 1970s, and Radium-223 dichloride was approved by the FDA in 2013 for the treatment of castrate-resistant metastatic prostate cancer. Lu-177 PSMA is one of several recent developments that are making their way through FDA approvals.

“The radiopharmaceutical industry has actually been around for some time, but today it is at a tipping point,” says SpectonRx president Anwer Rizvi. “Over the next few years, it is estimated that our industry will triple. With more radiopharmaceuticals making their way through clinical trials and FDA approval, we are starting to see more data that highlight their effectiveness. This is why we are now starting to see more life sciences organizations committing real resources to radiopharmaceuticals.”  

Continue reading…

#Healthin2Point00, Episode 215 | Monogram, LetsGetChecked, Transcarent, Lenus, and Ada

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Amazon Cares already has customers, Clover has become a meme stock, Transcarent has got a Series B that they closed already, and OneDrop has hit 25 billion biometric data points – what the hell is going on in digital health? Today on Health in 2 Point 00, we still have lots of deals to cover. Monogram, an end-stage kidney disease company, raises $160 million. LetsGetChecked raises $150 million in a Series D – all of these at-home testing companies are getting a push because of COVID. Next, Lenus raises €50M in a Series A, making it the biggest ever single A round in Denmark. Transcarent gets $58 million in a Series B already, and Ada Health raises $90 million for their symptom assessment chatbot. —Matthew Holt

UpHealth Hits the NYSE: CEO & President on SPAC Merger Completion, Virtual Care Competition & More

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By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

Another virtual care company hits the New York Stock Exchange as UpHealth ($UPH) emerges from the combined merger of UpHealth Holdings and Cloudbreak Health with the GigCapital2 SPAC. We’ve got UpHealth’s CEO Ramesh Balakrishnan and President Jamey Edwards here on “Listing Day” to catch us up on the strategic developments and integrations that have occurred since UpHealth’s SPAC IPO was first announced at the end of 2020.

You might remember this deal as the one that brought together six different companies across four of the fastest growing areas of digital health: global telehealth, integrated care management, digital pharmacy, and behavioral health. The story there is still the same, but the value proposition around the combined offering has gelled. UpHealth views itself as a partner to local healthcare providers around the world who need a hand building the integrated digital care model needed to meet growing patient demands and economic realities of a “digitally transformed” healthcare experience. How is this different than what we’re seeing from other publicly-traded telehealth companies like Amwell, Teladoc, and Hims? Or, what about those telehealth-empowered retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, and CVS Health who, like UpHealth, see a lot of upside in the duality of both making care more convenient digitally, while also seamlessly integrating with local in-person care centers? We’ve got all the talk you’ll want about UPH’s positioning, business model, revenue guidance (still $180M-190M for 2021) AND even some client name dropping (Amazon? Really?!) as the stock hits the market.

Bonus: Want to go deeper into this deal? For more on UpHealth, check out our earlier chat with Chairman Chirinjeev Kathuria, Jamey Edwards, and Al Gatmaitan from February 2021. The link is right here: https://youtu.be/50PIVdUjnPU

THCB Gang Episode 57 – Thurs June 10

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Episode 57 of “The THCB Gang” will be live on Thursday, June 10, 1pm PT 4pm ET. Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) will joined by regulars: medical historian Mike Magee (@drmikemagee), THCB regular writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard) and futurist Ian Morrison (@seccurve). And we have a special guest, health care equity analyst at Hedgeye, Emily Evans (@HedgeyeEEvans)

You might guess that the latest meme stock Clover Health (CLOV) might make an appearance! But that won’t be all!

The video is below. If you’d rather listen, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on Fridays on our iTunes  & Spotify channels

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