Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday June 9 were THCB regular writer and ponderer of odd juxtapositions Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard); fierce patient activist Casey Quinlan (@MightyCasey); Principal of Worksite Health Advisors Brian Klepper (@bklepper1) & Queen of all employer benefits Jennifer Benz (@jenbenz)
You can see the video below & if you’d rather listen than watch, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels.
BY JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Healthcare needs to move into 2022 and get away from the one-size-fits-all approach that healthcare takes almost everywhere and, instead, treat people like who they are matters.” That’s the challenge coming from SameSky Health’s founder & CEO Abner Mason whose business is helping some of healthcare’s most notorious “one-size-fits-all-ers” (health plans) improve the way they engage with diverse populations.
SameSky has built a proprietary tech platform that creates an ‘n of 1’ approach to member engagement that is focused on using data to understand who each individual member is at a “cultural” level which, as Abner defines it, is not just about ethnicity or race, but about ALL the factors that go into how a person makes a decision about whether or not to seek care, where to get that care, and who they ultimately trust to deliver it.
You can call it “micro-targeting-at-scale” and Abner compares it to the way Netflix customizes movie recommendations based on what it learns about its users. SameSky is hoping to achieve the same level of consumer-focused customization among Medicaid populations, and is working with some of the biggest names in the biz (UnitedHealthcare, Anthem, Humana and others) to tailor an annual “journey” to each member that helps members build trust with their plan, helps the plan get to know their members, and, in the end, helps both the plan AND the member satisfy mutual needs when it comes to getting things like annual health screenings done.
Will we eventually get to a more equitable and personally-tailored healthcare system? Stick around until the last few minutes to hear what Abner finds exciting about some of the new federal regulations that impact health data collection and what he sees as their big-picture impact on the future of health equity. PLUS, a bonus for all those who may have been wondering: What prompted the name change to SameSky Health from ConsejoSano?? Is this REALLY because Matthew Holt could never pronounce it? The shocking backstory is revealed!
Matthew has been out at the Going Digital Behavioral Health reception meeting all of Jessica’s fans, and discovering what they like about the show! Meanwhile a big funding round for Carebridge ($140m), with more $$ for Bicycle Health ($50m probably not to be spent on bikes) & Nava Benefits ($40m). Plus LeanTaas gets bought by private equity group Bain Capital.
BY KIM BELLARD
OK, how many of you had on your women-in-power bingo cards that, in 2022, Sheryl Sandberg would be out at Facebook but Queen Elizabeth II would still be Queen? It’s the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, marking seventy years on the throne. She’s getting a lot of love for that tenure, but it makes me think, geez, some people just don’t know when to step away.
Perhaps what sparked my cynicism about the Queen was an op-ed by Yuval Levin, Why Are We Still Governed by Baby Boomers and the Remarkably Old? Dr. Levin is, of course, referring to the U.S., and he’s spot-on about our governance problem. But I think the problem goes further: we have too many old people running our companies and major institutions as well.
Whether it is, say, healthcare, education, or the military, we’re so busy protecting the past that we’re not really getting ready for the future.
Continue reading…The question of the day: does 25 people leaving a several 100-person company REALLY count as a “mass exodus”? In this episode, Jess and I find out! Hey – it’s the startup world, things explode all the time. Some new deals: Aledade raises $123 million; Tripp raises $11 million; Socially Determined raises $22.7 million; Digital Diagnostics raises $46.3 million.
-Matthew Holt
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
What’s Lee Shapiro’s take on the health tech market’s state-of-play? 7wireVenture’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner stops by to talk early-stage investment, what’s hot and what’s not post-pandemic, and how he views the digital health funding frenzy of the past couple years which, one could argue, was kicked into high-gear by portfolio-company-slash-previous-employer Livongo.
Lee says there’s “enough broken business processes in healthcare to last a lifetime,” which means a lot of opportunity for consumer-minded health tech startups to change things, but does the recent slowdown in venture funding and pummeling of public market health tech stocks indicate that the category is in trouble before it even gets a chance to make a real impact? We get Lee’s opinion on whether or not the market is cooling, what he thinks will happen next with valuations, and what he views as the best way to scale a healthcare startup – particularly as we watch Glen Tullman run the ‘Livongo playbook’ at new business Transcarent. And, speaking of Glen… did Lee really teach him everything he knows?? We’re starting some trouble in this one!
Shots have been fired. Hear the crickets? Maybe it’s the chirping from health technology twitter, particularly on the lack of deals? NO! That sound you hear is the stunning silence from our epic burns this episode. Shoutout to our new sponsor AHIP – check out the AHIP Conference 2022 taking place in Las Vegas! Common (the rapper) will be there. Tickets are $100 off with code THCB. Some deals: Hint Health raises $45 million; Moxe Health raises $30 million; uMotif raises $25 million; Fairtility raises $15 million; Circles raises $16 million.
João Bocas is known as “The Wearables Expert” and has been talking, writing and innovating in health tech for a while. Last month he had me on his video series. It was a fun interview in which I talked about Flipping the Stack, the Continuous Clinic, and the slow pace of change in health care! With João’s permission I am reproducing that interview here–Matthew Holt
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday June 2 were regulars Grace Cordavano (@GraceCordovano); patient safety expert and all around wit Michael Millenson (@mlmillenson); and policy expert consultant/author Rosemarie Day (@Rosemarie_Day1). Gun control, hospital quality and much more all came up and were interlinked. Quite the conversation.
You can see the video below & if you’d rather listen than watch, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels.
BY KIM BELLARD
My heart says I should write about Uvalde, but my head says, not yet; there are others more able to do that. I’ll reserve my sorrow, my outrage, and any hopes I still have for the next election cycle.
Instead, I’m turning to a topic that has long fascinated me: when and how are we going to recognize when artificial intelligence (AI) becomes, if not human, then a “person”? Maybe even a doctor.
Continue reading…
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