Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess asks me about the big news that Google Cloud has entered into a partnership with Amwell and invested $100 million into the company—looks like their IPO is really a thing! OneDrop gets $98.7 million in a partnership with Bayer, following at $40 million partnership last November, in a funding and development agreement. Outset Medical files their S1 and is going to go public, looking for $100 million for their portable dialysis system, and finally Podimetrics raises another $8 million for their foot ulcer detection platform for diabetics. —Matthew Holt
Above the Fold
Thriving in COVID Times
By KIM BELLARD
These are, no question, hard times, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the U.S., we’re closing in on 180,000 deaths in the U.S. Some 40 million workers lost their jobs, and over 30 million are still receiving unemployment benefits. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of small businesses are believed to have closed, and many big companies are declaring bankruptcy. Malls, retailers, and restaurants have been among the hardest hit.
Yes, these are hard times. But not for everyone.
Last week Target announced what CNBC called a “monster quarter.” Sales for online and stores open at least a year jumped 24% for the quarter ending August 1 – peak COVID-19 days – and profits were up an astonishing 80%. Its CEO specifically referenced the pandemic, as shoppers sought safe and convenient shopping options.
It is not just Target doing well. No one should be surprised that Amazon is doing well, as more turn to online shopping and Amazon’s quick delivery, but The Wall Street Journal reports that Bog Box stores generally are doing well, including not just Target but also Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Costco, and Best Buy. The efforts they were taking to compete with Amazon, such as increased online sales and curbside pickup, served to help them survive the pandemic’s effects.
Similarly, if you’re a streaming service like Netflix or Disney+, the pandemic has been great for business. Video conferencing services like Zoom are booming. Car dealers are struggling, but not online car sales.
And, of course, if you’re a cloud computing service supporting all these shifts to online, the world has become even more dependent on you. “Many customers are scaling beyond their wildest projections,” Carrie Thorp of Google Cloud told WSJ.
Continue reading…Change Healthcare’s CEO on Payers, Providers & The New Healthcare Economy
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
From his vantage point at the helm of one of healthcare’s biggest IT infrastructure companies, Change Healthcare’s President & CEO, Neil de Crescenzo, has an unrivaled perspective at how covid19 has impacted hospital systems and payers. His business builds the “connective tissue” that not only supports the administrative management and patient engagement aspects of “Big Healthcare,” but it also literally helps those organizations make money, processing about $1.5 Trillion in claims each year. So, what’s he seen so far in 2020? And what’s ahead for 2021? Neil stops by to talk about current challenges facing healthcare provider orgs and payers — and what’s ahead in the “new” healthcare economy where “change” is the only constant. From HHS’s new interoperability rules to telehealth and the more dispersed healthcare system it will inevitably create, we dive into all things future of health including the details behind Change’s two recent health tech acquisitions (each over $200M), what Neil thinks about the Teladoc-Livongo merger, and how digital health startups have an unprecedented opportunity to help expand the healthcare system beyond its traditional footprint.
Physicians Should Lead on Healthcare Reform
By KEN TERRY
(This is the first in a series of excerpts from Terry’s new book, Physician-Led Healthcare Reform: a New Approach to Medicare for All, published by the American Association for Physician Leadership.)
Even before COVID-19, healthcare reform seemed to be stuck between a rock and a hard place, but there is a rational way forward. This approach, which I call “physician-led healthcare reform,” would engage doctors in building a healthcare system that was safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable, to use the Institute of Medicine’s set of foundational goals in its landmark book, Crossing the Quality Chasm: a New Health System for the 21st Century.Primary care physicians, rather than hospitals, would be in charge of the system, and they’d work closely with specialists and other healthcare professionals to produce the best patient outcomes at the lowest cost.
It would take a decade or more to restructure the healthcare system so that this goal could be achieved. Similarly, the transition to a single-payer insurance system needs to be accomplished gradually—although the pandemic might accelerate that timetable. Most people are not yet ready to abandon employer-sponsored insurance, and there’s still a lot of distrust of the government. Providers are more likely to accept changes in how they’re paid over time than all of a sudden. Additional benefits can also be brought online slowly. Ideally, we could transform healthcare financing over a 10-year period while rebuilding the care delivery system at the same time.
That is why implementing Medicare for America—a reform plan devised by the Center for American Progress and embodied in a current House bill–makes more sense than going directly to Medicare for All: it changes the system incrementally while achieving universal coverage fairly quickly. Medicare for America would do this by enrolling the uninsured, people who purchase individual insurance, and those now in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). People would also be enrolled automatically at birth. Companies could enroll their employees in Medicare for America, and employees could opt out of employer-sponsored plans and enroll in the public plan.
Continue reading…Catalyst @ Health 2.0 Launches Rapid Response Open Call with Grapevine Health
SPONSORED POST
By CATALYST @ HEALTH 2.0
Attention digital health innovators! Do you have innovative text message-based health tech solutions that can disseminate health-focused video content? Apply to the Grapevine Health Rapid Response Open Call!
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the importance of health literacy and communication is more apparent than ever. Catalyst @ Health 2.0 is proud to host a Rapid Response Open Call (RROC) in collaboration with Grapevine Health. Five semi-finalists will receive $1k each and will have the opportunity to demo their technology. A grand prize winner will receive $5k and the opportunity to collaborate with Grapevine Health!
Do you have a solution that can fit this need? Apply HERE today! Applications close 8/27.
THCB Gang Episode 22, 8/20
Episode 22 of “The THCB Gang” was live-streamed on Thursday, August 20th! Watch it below.
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) today are some of our regulars: writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard), patient safety expert Michael Millenson (MLMillenson), MD & hospital system exec Rajesh Aggarwal (@docaggarwal), data privacy expert Deven McGraw (@healthprivacy), and Casey Quinlan (@MightyCasey). The conversation revolved around the responsibilities of the CDC & HHS, why the data hasn’t been shared properly around COVID19 transmission, and why payers & providers are cautiously innovating health care.
If you’d rather listen to the episode, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels — Zoya Khan
THCB’s Bookclub, August 2020 – UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance
By JESSICA DAMASSA & MATTHEW HOLT
The THCB Book Club is a discussion with leading health care authors, which will be released on the third Wednesday of every month. And this is the first one!
We kicked off with the new book from Hemant Teneja (VC at General Catalyst who has been writing many big checks lately) and Stephen Klasko (CEO at Jefferson Health System and one of the most unusual hospital system bosses in America). Their book is called UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance which is a how-to for creating a platform for a revolutionary future for health care. You can go buy the book here (eVersion only $6!) It’s an easy read (about 130 pages on your iPad “Books” app).
UnHealthcare is about a new concept called Health assurance– which Tenaja says is “an emerging category of consumer-centric, data-driven healthcare services that are designed to bend the cost curve of care and help us stay well.”
Sitting in on the interview because we can’t get rid of him was Glen Tullman from Livongo (Just kidding, Glen!). He weighed in on how this connects with his new idea of Consumer Directed Virtual Care and the Teladoc-Livongo merger.
This was a great discussion. We had them explain the concept, and pushed them pretty hard on how realistic it was! And you can see it in the video below (and the podcast version will be in our iTunes & Spotify channels very soon)
In September the THCB BookClub will feature Jane Metcalfe with her 2020 book NEO.LIFE
Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 144 | Magical Forests, PsychCentral’s History, & More Funding Rounds
On Episode 144 of Health in 2 Point 00, Matthew has gingerly emerged from his office and gone into a Magical Forest! Jess asks me about Healthline media acquiring PsychCentral, the first-ever online psychiatry support group and I explain the history of how it has been passed around from Corporates to PE firms, Bridge Connector getting 25.5M for its interoperability platform, Cecelia Health raising $13M for its chronic condition management service, and Reify closing $30M to help pharma companies run clinical trials from home. Also, we had our first book club discussion with authors Hemant Teneja (VC at General Catalyst) & Stephen Klasko (CEO at Jefferson Health System) on their book “UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance”. Glen Tullman also made a special guest appearance during the discussion. The episode will be released soon! – Matthew Holt
An Epic Fight for the Metaverse
By KIM BELLARD
You might have missed it amongst all the headlines about the U.S.P.S., the 2020 elections, and, of course, that little thing we call the pandemic, but Fortnite got kicked off Apple’s App Store (and subsequently Google Play).
I’m not a gamer, but I am fascinated by gaming, because, as Steven Johnson put it, “The Future is where people are having the most fun.” Tim Sweeney, the founder and CEO of Epic Games, Inc., which makes Fortnite, seems to be having a lot of fun. And he thinks the future is the Metaverse.
Healthcare, take note.
The tech giants were reacting to Epic allowing “permanent discounts” on developer fees for in-game purchases made directly, rather than going through Apple or Google. Developers thus avoid the 30% commission charged in those Stores. Mr. Sweeney has been railing about the commission level for some time, leading to the recent decision.
Apple tried to justify its action:
Today, Epic Games took the unfortunate step of violating the App Store guidelines that are applied equally to every developer and designed to keep the store safe for our users. As a result their Fortnite app has been removed from the store. Epic enabled a feature in its app which was not reviewed or approved by Apple, and they did so with the express intent of violating the App Store guidelines regarding in-app payments that apply to every developer who sells digital goods or services.
Continue reading…Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 143 | Lumeon, Nurx, Thirty Madison, & More
On Episode 143 of Health in 2 Point 00, we have all the alphabets in the raising series represented ;)! Jess asks me about Lumeon raising a $30M Series D for their care orchestration centers, Nurx raising a $22M Series C to develop out its online pharmacy presence, Thirty Madison getting $47M and Johnson & Johnson is an investor this round, Bodyport closing an $11.2 M Series A for their weighing scale platform that can detect early cardiovascular disease, and Kumanu raising a $3M Series A to grow out its platform that helps people figure out their lives’ purpose.
Be sure to check out our talk from the 7 competitor CEOs to Teledoc & Livongo who weigh in about the $19B merger. If you want to join our book club, we are reading UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance, which is a how-to for creating a platform for a revolutionary future for healthcare, by Hemant Teneja (VC at General Catalyst) and Stephen Klasko (CEO at Jefferson Health System). We will have a video on our discussion with the authors which will be published on the 3rd Wednesday of every month! —Matthew Holt
