Search Results for david shulkin

Opinion: Further thoughts on Teladoc, Amwell, and the future of telehealth–what happens next?

...and the shareholders. Did they get caught in the hype or hope that BetterHelp would save the company? Did something else happen? (Fun fact: Mr. Gorevic remains on the board.) A track record of flawed judgment and recovery. In December 2018, their COO/CFO was dismissed after charges of insider trading and sexual misconduct. There have been two COOs since then, the first, David Sides, moving to CEO of NextGen Healthcare in 2021. In May 2019, Teladoc’s NCQA accreditation, first won in 2013, was placed under an unusual “corrective action” by NCQA which was termed by the CEO ‘much ado about... Continue Reading

Teladoc CEO Jason Gorevic steps down immediately in shock announcement

...others. But the picture didn’t seem to be clearing. Telemental health provider BetterHelp, which last year was touted as the company’s salvation, wasn’t, falling flat in 2023 revenue. Teladoc’s 2024 forecast was downbeat as well [TTA 22 Feb], but management in the announcement reinforced that they are standing pat on their Q1 and full year 2024 financial guidance. The usual anodyne statements followed. “We thank Jason for his many achievements and contributions during the 15 years he led Teladoc Health. We wish him success in his future endeavors,” said David B. Snow, Jr., Chairman of the Teladoc Health Board of... Continue Reading

Davids (AliveCor, Masimo) v. Goliath (Apple): the patent infringement game *not* over; Masimo’s messy proxy fight with Politan (updated)

...that Apple broke off, but Masimo then accused Apple of hiring its employees working on the project [TTA 27 Oct 23]. AliveCor hasn’t been quite so successful as Masimo in challenging Apple, but it has been fighting Apple as a David v Goliath on multiple fronts for years. In February, AliveCor lost a round in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on the heart rate algorithm changes Apple made in 2018 that made their SmartRhythm app provided to Apple non-functional. That decision reportedly is still under seal. However, AliveCor has multiple Federal patent infringement lawsuits going... Continue Reading

Mid-week roundup: Cotiviti’s $10.5B stake to KKR; Cigna buys back $3.2B shares; VA Oracle Cerner faulty med records; LockBit ransomware websites cold-busted at every level, principals indicted; Trualta partners with PointClickCare

...government watchdog. David Case, deputy inspector general for the VA, reported at a House Veterans Affairs Committee Technology Modernization Subcommittee meeting last week, that while VA had no reports of harmful drug interactions, Case had at least one instance of a veteran not given a critical medication for adrenal insufficiency, leading to a near-disastrous outcome. The VA has also not informed the 250,000 veterans with prescription records in the Oracle Cerner system that the records may have errors.. In the VA facilities that have Oracle Cerner, providers, pharmacists, and frontline staff must perform complex manual medication safety checks to replace... Continue Reading

Short takes: Humana’s big MA loss (updated); Medicare telemental care bill back in Senate; HHS releases cybersecurity performance goals; Texas Healthcare Challenge hackathon 23-24 February

...the earnings call, their CFO cited increased inpatient costs, especially for short stays, and more spending in outpatient surgeries and supplemental benefits–trends that Humana expects to continue into 2024 and even into 2025. Home health under CenterWell were tidily profitable and growing. Perhaps MA’s sector problems were the reasons why Cigna, selling off their MA plans, backed out of their acquisition/merger? Q4 press release, management remarks, Becker’s, Healthcare Dive Updated Humana announced the appointment of a President of Enterprise Growth, David Dintenfass, to spearhead customer growth and retention. His background is not healthcare but Fidelity Emerging Growth Markets, with previous... Continue Reading

Wrapping up many changes at Walgreens, VillageMD, CVS Health, Oracle Health

...FierceHealthcare Oracle Health also has the music up and the chairs out. General Manager Travis Dalton is departing on 1 March to join MultiPlan as president and CEO. He succeeds Dale White, who moves to executive chairman replacing the retiring chairman Mark Tabak after 23 years with the company. MultiPlan is a payer cost management company that serves about 700 payers in payment and revenue integrity, network-based and analytics-based services. Dalton is the fifth of 10 senior executives from Cerner to depart after the late 2021 sale to Oracle.MultiPlan release, HIStalk 1/5 Oracle Health’s chairman, Dr. David Feinberg, has also... Continue Reading

Short takes: a rumor of merger/buy with Cigna and Humana–what are the odds? (updated) And what’s up with the low number of HIMSS 24 exhibitors?

...David Cordani is a sprightly 57 and likely not to go anywhere. The overlap area that could be problematic is pharmacy benefit management (PBM) with each having about 17-18 million in Express Scripts (Cigna), the second largest in the US, and Humana Pharmacy Solutions. Liking it on paper is one thing–FTC, DOJ, and 50 states may not feel so enthusiastic. It’s established through their actions that both Federal agencies are reining in M&A with new and restrictive merger guidelines scheduled to go into effect next year [TTA 20 July]. Healthcare is a major political hot button for this administration for... Continue Reading

Breaking: ITC bans Apple Watch imports on violating Masimo blood oxygen measuring patents (updated!)

...appeal.” Masimo: Chief Executive Officer Joe Kiani said the decision “sends a powerful message that even the world’s largest company is not above the law.” Masimo primarily sells clinical monitors to hospitals, but has its own consumer products in the W1 and the upcoming Freedom watch. Reuters, 9to5Mac, Yahoo!Finance The other David is AliveCor. Earlier, the ITC found that the Apple Watch’s ECG reading tech was in violation of AliveCor’s (the other David) patents. Apple’s appeal is pending in the US District Court of Northern California. The last word on this was in July [TTA 19 July and prior]. The... Continue Reading

Echoes of Theranos in Babylon Health? And additional information on GP at Hand.

Was Babylon Health all a fraud, and where would it place on the Theranos scale? There is an excellent article in MedCityNews that if true, exposes Babylon’s technology as, at minimum, far less than ever claimed. From the perspectives presented, their crash was inevitable. MedCityNews returns to the original debunker, best known to our UK Readers as @DrMurphy11. In February 2020, while Babylon rode a tide of UK hype (not yet in the US), Dr. David Watkins, a consultant oncologist, revealed himself publicly via BBC’s Newsnight [TTA 27 Feb 2020]. He had been documenting Babylon’s chatbot diagnosis problems in GP... Continue Reading

Mid-week short takes: Amwell lowers 2023 outlook, DocGo goes up, Imprivata + PFH win Ireland HSE contract, Oracle Health’s Nashville move, layoffs at 23andMe, Doximity

...development. Oracle Health chair David Feinberg, MD and Seema Verma, a SVP there, were at a healthcare meet and greet there last week. This adds to the de-Kansas City-ing of Oracle and perhaps more attrition among long-time employees. Becker’s Two healthcare companies reported layoffs and revenue rethinks this week: Genetic tester and data merchandiser 23andMe announced layoffs of 11%. This affects 71 employees primarily in their therapeutics segment, a cut of 47% in that segment and 11% of the company’s workforce. The staff downsizing reflected the end of a five-year partnership in therapeutics development with GSK and adds to April... Continue Reading