An ‘insider’ point of view on the Connect America acquisition of Philips Lifeline

July 9, 2021 | by | 2 Comments

This Editor, through a search initiated due to reader Adrian Scaife’s comment on the article below, happened on a back article from a news source on the Connect America acquisition of Philips Lifeline. Who knew (as they say) that there was a newsletter solely devoted to the PERS business? The article was written from a real insider point of view with a complete background on Connect America, Lifeline, and also why Philips put Lifeline up for sale.

  • It’s likely that Philips bought high and sold low. In 2006, Philips purchased Lifeline for a reported $750 million, then HealthWatch for an additional $130 million. At the time of the announcement, PE Hub put the value of the company in the $200-400 million range. It’s understandable that with the rise of smartphones and mobile, wrist-worn band-type PERS, the value of what is largely a traditional PERS company would suffer, but the best case is a 60 percent loss over 14 years.
  • The industry believes that Philips mismanaged the company. Example: dealers did not have 4G/LTE cellular equipment to replace the 3G in the field. The phrases ‘a mess’ for the organization and ‘run the Lifeline name into the ground’ aren’t used lightly.
  • For the past few years, Lifeline has been in the shadow of Philips’ other clinically-oriented healthcare systems. As this Editor noted, Philips has divested or spun off multiple businesses in North America.
  • Philips ran the business without understanding its unique dynamics, including dealer networks and a B2B +B2C market of home health agencies and senior housing combined with direct-to-consumer sales. They focused on the latter and kept it on short rations for the past few years.
  • They were also slow to market with innovations and had a significant amount of negative publicity on the performance of AutoAlert for fall detection starting in 2011 (Editor Steve) and in 2014.

The Philips Lifeline saga was a longer and more costly version of Tunstall’s acquisition of AMAC. At the time of sale, Lifeline was #1 in PERS, and AMAC was #3. Even with Tunstall’s expertise and the addition of remote patient monitoring, the US market was Too Tough For Tunstall. They sold in 2019 to…drum roll…Connect America.

The article includes excerpts from an interview with CEO Janet Dillione, a review of the Connect America team, and well wishes from those insiders. PERS Insider (Subscription to the weekly newsletter is free and found here.)

Another irony: Just prior to the acquisition, Dennis Shapiro, the former head of Lifeline, passed away on 16 February, aged 87. Mr. Shapiro was responsible for the company creating the first modern PERS radio pendant, telephone-connected base unit, and call center monitored service in 1980.

 

News/deals roundup: Connect America finalizes Philips aging/caregiving buy; Amedisys-Contessa $250M hospital-at-home; UK’s Physitrack $20M IPO, Dutch motion tracker Xsens

July 7, 2021 | by | 2 Comments

Kicking off our week….

Connect America closed today (6 July) the purchase of Royal Philips’ Aging and Caregiving line of business. This includes the top basic personal emergency response system (PERS) device provider, Lifeline. Purchase price by Connect America’s owner, Rockbridge Growth Equity, was not disclosed. For Connect America, they now top 900,000 subscribers to PERS and monitoring services. At this point, the combined business will have 1,500 employees and 3,000 provider partners. Lifeline also includes services such as 24/7 response with their products: the HomeSafe traditional home PERS with and without AutoAlert fall detection and GoSafe2 mobile PERS with AutoAlert.

There is no indication from the company release or the brief Mobihealthnews article on whether the Lifeline brand name or others from Philips will be retained. Lifeline’s history dates back to 1974, with Philips adding the AutoAlert, HomeSafe, and GoSafe product after their purchase in 2006. Other undisclosed considerations are integration and rationalization of the current Connect America PERS and monitoring products with Lifeline. There is also a promotional partnership agreement with AARP that likely–but not necessarily–will transfer with the purchase. This Editor can tell you that a seat at AARP’s poker table requires a tall stack of chips.

Our earlier article on the acquisition profiles Connect America, Lifeline, and the decline of traditional/mobile PERS with the rise of accessible wristwatch and band forms that don’t scream ‘I’m at risk of falling and not being able to get up!’

Home healthcare provider Amedisys announced their $250 million acquisition of Contessa Health, extending into hospital-at-home and skilled nursing-at-home. As our Readers who looked at Ziegler’s analysis [TTA 25 June], this is a hot and tech-driven care area. Amedisys is claiming that they are the first home health, hospice, and personal care service provider to expand into Contessa’s business, which is hospital-at-home and skilled nursing facility (SNF) at-home including palliative care services launched recently with Mount Sinai Health System (NY). Contessa will operate as a separate division of Amedisys, which plans to invest in both the future growth of Contessa and their proprietary informatics platform CareConvergence with the aim of creating a “premier home-based health system”. The acquisition is expected to close on 11 August. Contessa has both hospital partnerships, which are the bulk of Amedisys’s client business, and joint venture/payer partnerships. Amedisys release, Hospice News

The UK’s Physitrack quietly went public with a raise of over $20 million. The IPO was listed on 18 June on the Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market (Nasdaq Nordic, Sweden and Finland) earlier this month with an original offering of SEK 40 ($4.69) per share with 4.4 million shares in the offering. The market value is estimated at SEK 624 million ($72.5 million). Unfortunately, you cannot look beyond this investor page if you are in the US, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, South Africa, or South Korea as citizens of these countries cannot invest in their shares. Physitrack is a digital physical therapy plus patient engagement company headquartered in London with offices in Santa Monica, Houston, and Utrecht. It was in the first group of the NHS’ Digital London accelerator program and now is distributed in 100 countries serving 1 million patients. Mobihealthnews, Baker McKensie (legal advisor announcement)

And keeping it physical, Xsens, a Dutch 3D motion capture and attachable sensor company for therapy and ergonomics study, is extending into Automatic Reporting as part of its online MotionCloud platform. A full report, graphs, and a digital recording of an avatar completing the movements can be available to physiotherapists, health specialists, and ergonomic consultants in under two minutes. In addition, they announced a new Awinda Starter system which has their proprietary motion-tracking technology at a more affordable price. Xsens press release, Mobihealthnews

Philips dives into global consumer health tech with new wearables ‘ecosystem’

August 3, 2016 | by

Philips has made another substantial, if traditionally risky, move into the direct to consumer (DTC) health monitoring segment with a limited wearables ‘ecosystem’ under a new Personal Health Solutions division. It contains five FDA-cleared products for monitoring vital signs. Four peripherals download via a watch to iPhone/Android phone apps which run on version 2.0 of the Philips HealthSuite (with Salesforce1) mobile app. Earlier the apps were marketed in NL and BE.

While the release states they are globally available, initially it appears they are being marketed direct to consumer for the US only. Purchase is direct on the site. All devices are Bluetooth LE and sync with the watch and smartphone app/dashboard (available on Google Play and the Apple Store). The watch/app also tracks exercise with activity recognition, calorie tracking and sleep patterning, with the app providing some education content.

  • Watch $249
  • Body Analysis Scale (weight, body fat, BMI) $100
  • BP/pulse (upper arm) $100, (wrist) $90
  • Ear Thermometer $60

Interestingly, their existing DTC PERS enterprise, Lifeline, is not linked to or mentioned.

Prices are mid-range to high, making this a prima facie tough sell. (more…)

Tunstall Goes Hawaiian with Kupuna Monitoring acquisition

June 11, 2015 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Big-T-thumb-480×294-55535.gif” thumb_width=”150″ /] Tunstall Americas is acquiring Kupuna Monitoring Systems of Aiea (northwest of Honolulu), Hawaii, a medical alarm and medication manager provider. In the press release, CEO Casey Pittock confirmed that Tunstall Americas’ strategy is to acquire regional monitoring services, as we noted in their Mountain Home (Denver) purchase last year. Locally owned (kama’aina) and serving the four major islands, Kupuna (‘elder’) is currently using Philips Lifeline monitors and Philips med dispensers. We hope they are welcomed with warmest aloha. (Hawaii as a market and culture is like no other in the US, and in this Editor’s experience in a totally different industry, can be fiercely local.)

Home telehealth now focused on the ‘superusers’ of healthcare

May 28, 2015 | by

A noticeable trend in telehealth has to do with focusing less on the generic virtues of at-home vital signs monitoring for routine patient care and more on managing specific high-cost populations to avoid or reduce costs. Some of the impetus in the US has come from new regulations by CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) intended to move Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patients into a reimbursed chronic care management (CCM) model. Banner Health is Arizona’s largest private employer (which does say something about Arizona as a retirement haven) and since 2006 has been experimenting with remote monitoring since 2006. Starting in 2013 Banner piloted Philips‘ post-discharge program now called ‘Hospital to Home’ as Banner iCare, combined with Philips Lifeline PERS, but made it available to those only with a stunning five+ chronic conditions–the top 5 percent that is reputed to account for 50 percent of healthcare spend. Banner combined the tech with intense support by a multi-layered care team. At ATA they announced the following results with the initial cohort of 135 patients, now up to 500:

  • 27% reduction in cost of care
  • 32% reduction in acute and long term care costs
  • 45% reduction in hospitalizations

The article in Forbes is a bit breathless in profiling the program and the ‘superusers’ of healthcare (with a windy but false analogy from John Sculley) but provides a level of detail in the program that most articles do not. One wonders how Philips makes money on supplying what is at least $2,500 worth of kit, with peripherals that must all be Bluetooth LE. It’s also not stated, but the TeleICU and TeleAcute programs also appear to be Philips’. Video

Philips finally gets to GoSafe

November 4, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/img-gosafe-button.jpg” thumb_width=”160″ /]At long last… the Philips Lifeline GoSafe mobile PERS with fall detection and GPS, announced with fanfare at International CES 2013 and delayed well over 18 months from its original debut date, has quietly entered the market. The chunky and somewhat ‘cartoon alien’-ish pendant, while connected in-home to a conventional base station communicator, also uses GPS, ‘intelligent tracking’ to determine the user’s last known location, Wi-Fi, audio beaconing and voice response via cellular to alert for assistance. Pricing has settled at $149 for the device and a $54.95 monthly subscription. GoSafe joins the Philips Lifeline mPERS smartphone app introduced in August [TTA 28 Aug] and Lifeline with AutoAlert extensively debated here. No indication of distribution outside the US. PRNewswire release, Lifeline website, Mobihealthnews.

Philips, Salesforce dive into health data integration

July 2, 2014 | by

Philips Healthcare and Salesforce announced last week their partnership to construct a connected, multi-point and collaborative data platform to benefit providers, payers and patients. The initial step is the launch later this summer of the Philips eCare Coordinator app for healthcare providers and a patient-centered Philips eCare Companion app, which will uptake data from Philips Healthcare medical devices into a variation on the Salesforce1 cloud platform. What’s emphasized in the releases and information from media sources is that it will be designed as an open platform for other device and software providers. (Data security problems down the line are anyone’s guess.) While Philips’ global CEO was part of the announcement and it’s expected that Philips will be lead dog for this, the only two customers mentioned were US and Salesforce’s. There were also few details on how clinical staff would access and use the data.

Cui bono from this? Philips of course, which of late has been lagging (more…)

Tunstall’s unhappy lenders and the consequences of debt service

May 22, 2014 | by | 2 Comments

A ‘slipped under the radar’ story (in this Editor’s judgement, based on the lack of news references) is Bloomberg News’ exclusive on last week’s (12 May) meetings between Tunstall Group Ltd and its creditors over the company’s recent performance. According to Bloomberg’s sources, the meeting was called “after income plunged and management changed following a refinancing in September.” In a statement from Charterhouse that cleverly tap-danced past the reason for the meeting, “Tunstall continues to be a successful, profitable, cash-generating business and comparable to many other organizations, experiences short-term fluctuations in performance.” and “The group has been impacted by a number of factors including specific market factors and the continued strength of sterling against the major-trading currencies.” The business has also been hurt by delays in awarding major contracts, according to the statement.

From the Bloomberg article:

As Tunstall’s profits have declined, its ratio of debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased to 5.6 times as of March, from 4.7 times in September, the people said. The loan terms in the March test dictated that the leverage ratio shouldn’t exceed 6.3 times, they said.

Lenders are expecting the company to give a new profit forecast today for the 12 months to September 2014, according to the people. The company didn’t comment on earnings targets or leverage in its statement.

AND: Its 350 million pounds ($590 million) of loans dropped to as little as 77 pence on the pound, according to broker quotes, from 99 pence in September. (Ed. note: these loans are publicly traded and a lowered value is highly significant as to the debt quality.)

The outcome of the meeting is not yet known.

As our readers know, private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners LLP acquired Tunstall Group in 2008 from Bridgepoint Capital  for £514 million (US$ 1 billion), funded in part with over £242 million in debt and with Bridgepoint and management retaining small shares (FT.com). The September 2013 refinancing was for £350 million ($590 million). This paints a picture of a highly leveraged company beholden to many beyond its owners and its contractors in local authorities and housing associations. Tunstall and Charterhouse also received negative publicity when the Guardian did an exposé on their use of the (wholly legal) ‘Quoted Eurobond Exemption’, where they pay loan interest at high rates to their parent companies through a mechanism via the Channel Islands Stock Exchange.

Management changes over the past six months have also rocked the top layers of the company. (more…)

The ‘grey’ market is where it’s at for ‘quantified selfing’

April 29, 2014 | by | 1 Comment

Surprisingly in the tech-addicted (and young-skewing, based on subject matter) Gigaom is this short piece on how health tech companies are missing the boat by targeting the young, healthy fitness addict or plain addicted-to-the-data Quantified Self (QS) market, rather than those over 50 and their families. ‘Simple’ and unobtrusive are the keywords, especially for what the late and much missed MetLife Mature Market Institute termed the ‘old-old’–those over 80. Mentioned are home activity monitoring systems such as Lively, BeClose and GrandCare Systems supplanting the PERS pendant (Lifeline) and the additional alert capabilities offered by GreatCall/Jitterbug. (This Editor will also mention a new telecare system entering the European and Americas markets, Essence Care@Home, which premiered at Mobile World Congress 2014. More on this in the next few days.) What’s notable about the article is the emphasis on the market size (via expert Laurie Orlov): $2 billion now, ten times that in 2020. What’s incomplete about the article is no ‘look-ahead’ to how devices like smartwatches (and watch-like forms such as AFrame), sensor-based wearables which connect to smartphones–and sensor-equipped smartphones, tablets and even Glass-type devices with simple apps which can help with self-or group-monitoring, prompts for those with cognitive difficulties, and more. Worldwide, we are also running out of carers [TTA 24 April]. Who will crack the code on tech for seniors?

Delays in ‘game-changing’ PERS

October 14, 2013 | by

Both Philips GoSafe and Lifecomm have apparently blown past at least two in-market dates.

Philips Lifeline GoSafe: Announced at CES in January [TTA 11 Jan], it is a mobile, souped-up PERS chunky neck-worn pendant with the fall detection features of Lifeline Auto-Alert plus GPS detection through multiple systems such as Skyhook, Wi-Fi and ‘intelligent bread crumbing’. The CES-announced debut was March, reconfirmed in February to Leading Age [TTA 14 Feb]. Then a small blog, The Senior List, confirmed with Philips in June that in-market would be delayed till fall. Now that fall is here, an industry insider tipped us to the further delay till December, confirmed by a later article in the The Senior List blog. Notably Philips is beefing up its website and video demo presence, apparently building up to an announcement near the end of the year. In the PERS category, one of the peak selling seasons is post-New Year’s, after holiday get-togethers bring the realization that a loved one is getting frailer and in need of some protection.

On the polar opposite, the Lifecomm PERS (from the Qualcomm/Hughes Telematics-now-Verizon/AMAC-now-Tunstall JV) seems to be hanging in limbo–again. (more…)