News and funding roundup: patient outreachers Relatient, Radix merge; health apps top 350,000; Morgan’s $50M in Vera Health; Communicare247, Doro, TeleAlarm join Scottish Digital Telecare’s list

August 11, 2021 | by

Patient engagement meets…patient engagement. Two relatively small players in patient outreach, Relatient and Radix Health, are merging. By no coincidence, the former announced that they received $100 million in growth equity capital from Brighton Park Capital and its affiliates. Brighton Park led an undetermined investment round for Relatient in November 2019. No valuation or management transitions were announced.

Tennessee-based Relatient sends text messages to patients as appointment reminders, patient chat, and broadcast messaging. It is a 2020 Best in KLAS winner for Patient Outreach. Relatient claims that in 2020 it sent 200 million messages and integrates with over 85 practice management systems and electronic health databases. Atlanta-based Radix Health has a somewhat different software set for patient scheduling, contactless check-in, appointment reminders, and reminders for medical groups, health centers, and hospitals prior to procedures. Earlier this year, Radix rolled out a Covid-19 vaccine location and scheduling system for their mid-sized and large provider clients, which by February scheduled 200,000 appointments and about 100,000 vaccinations. Both companies were founded in 2014. The merged organization will be headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, with offices in Cookeville TN, Atlanta, and Pune, India. Release, Mobihealthnews

Consumer health apps top 350,000. The IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science latest report on digital health trends tracked over 90,000 released last year alone. Managing health conditions makes up nearly half (47%, up from 28% in 2015) of apps. About two-thirds of digital therapeutics and 40% of digital care products treat either neurologic or mental health conditions. At this point, who’s counting? And are all of them working? Mobihealthnews, link to IQVIA report (registration and download required).

JP Morgan Chase’s new Morgan Health invested $50 million in Vera Whole Health, a western US primary practice group. Vera Whole Health operates on a membership flat-fee model and is fully at risk in a value-based, technology-enabled coordinated care model. Morgan Health adds to Vera’s coffers after the majority sale of the company to CD&R for an undisclosed amount and a valuation at $400 million. JP Morgan sunsetted its unsuccessful three-year joint venture, Haven, in January, but remains interested in health for profit and for employees, who will be given the opportunity to join Vera. Healthcare Dive, Mobihealthnews

Communicare247, Doro, and TeleAlarm receive Scottish Digital Telecare nod for digital alarms. Communicare247’s Archangel Care Cloud, Doro’s CareIP Mobile, Eliza 4G, and the icareonline platform, and the TeleAlarm TA74 GSM and TeleAlarm Cloud Services have been added to the Scottish Digital Telecare Security-Assessed Suppliers Scheme. They join Alcuris and Enovation, as reported in the past two weeks. Communicare247, Doro, and TeleAlarm releases.

Breaking news confirmed: Bosch exiting healthcare and telehealth in US–UPDATED

June 19, 2015 | by

Breaking News–UPDATED with Bosch response

Bosch has confirmed they are closing their telehealth business in the US. Please see their statement at the end of this article.

A home care industry newsletter, along with our own reliable industry sources, have confirmed the recent industry discussion that Bosch Healthcare, since January a solely US operation, is winding down its business without a definite turnover to a buyer. This Editor, in calling various departments in their Palo Alto, California offices for confirmation on Thursday, was (when she reached a human being) forwarded to HR where she could leave only voice mail. An email to marketing also received no response. All sources indicate that staff layoffs took place last Monday.

Editor’s Note: Bosch’s official press response follows this article. We have also made certain corrections to this article (see in red).

  1. The Home Care Technology Report, published by industry consultant Tim Rowan, on Wednesday posted two articles stating that Bosch laid off nearly all of its staff on Monday (15 June) save for customer service and some key operating areas. His information indicated that Health Buddy sales–new and existing orders–have been terminated. This includes orders placed through its McKesson partnership. Non-VA service will be terminated in 60 to 90 days.
  2. Home Care Technology also reported that Bosch’s business with the Veterans Health Administration (VA) will be maintained through April 2016, which is near to the contract end in May, but no new units will be delivered. The original contract was with Health Buddy hub developer Health Hero Network, sold to Bosch in 2008. With the later acquisition of ViTel Net, Bosch developed into one of the two leading VA Home Telehealth remote monitoring hub suppliers–the other being Cardiocom. VA Home Telehealth is the largest telehealth program in the US with over 156,000 patients (Federal Year 2014) (Ed. Note: VA has a third authorized and active VA supplier, Viterion).

As Mr Rowan did, this Editor will speculate on the reasons why there is this reported exit without a sale or spinoff, despite the substantial VA and other healthcare placements of Health Buddy. Our take is somewhat different than his: (more…)