Search Results for CVS-Aetna merger

News roundup: Verma’s rumors, DEA’s new (?) telemedicine rule goes to OMB for review, Cityblock Health goes rural with Homeward buy, Scottish housing sensor tech could save millions–study

...billion, up 77% year-over-year. Homeward serves around 50,000 rurally-based Medicare Advantage (only) members and 5,000 providers in Michigan and Minnesota through a Michigan clinic, mobile clinics and telehealth. It partners with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Aetna for Medicare Advantage. Further financial arrangements were not disclosed. Homeward’s CEO Dr. Jenny Schneider will remain connected with Cityblock as a “trusted advisor” according to a Cityblock spokesperson and Homeward’s brand and operation will remain. According to her LinkedIn post announcing the acquisition, she previously served as a Cityblock board member. She and another Livongo alumnus, Amar Kendale, launched Homeward Health... Continue Reading

News roundup #1: AI governance ‘in’ with Feds, ATA; Centene’s shrinking but more profitable future; repositions and partnerships for DispatchHealth, WHOOP; Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand modernization

...subsidies expired at the end of 2025, effectively causing premiums to double for nearly everyone. Aetna exited this year and Cigna will be out in 2027. Share price is also sunny side up. Since April, shares have gone from the $31/share bottom in April to the $60 plus range since June. Centene is reportedly working hard to improve their plan STAR (CMS) and HEDIS (NCQA) ratings. What is not so sunny is the number of people being shed at Centene. They’ve reported a cut of about 1,200 people as of Q2. It’s unknown how many have accepted the voluntary separation... Continue Reading

Chutes, and chutes: Microsoft’s $3B Oracle cloud leasing deal goes sideways, Defense Health Agency to replace Leidos as system integrator for MHS’ EHR, Centene offering voluntary buyouts to most employees

...provider. But its memberships in both are shrinking. As of March, Medicaid membership was down 4% and ACA membership was down a stunning 54% (2 million members). The latter drop is puzzling, since insurers have exited or cut back on their ACA Marketplace plans, notably Aetna for this year and Cigna after this year. ACA plans are offered on a state, then county-availability level. 2026 is the first time since 2018 that the average number of insurers participating in the ACA marketplaces has dropped, according to KFF cited in MedCity News. The ACA premium tax credit subsidies expired at the... Continue Reading

Chutes & Ladders: MA sues UHG on Medicaid fraud, Teladoc joins Walmart’s Better Care Services, raises for Signos and H1

...is $127/month including two sensors a month on the six-month plan. Mobihealthnews, Yahoo Finance Healthcare provider data and directory company H1 raised $40 million, led by CVS Health Ventures. Across ten lettered and unlettered rounds, funding to date is $233.9 million. It has developed an AI-powered platform for identifying and engaging the right doctor across life sciences, payers, providers, and patients. The H1 Doctor Graph platform is a structured representation of physician identity, expertise, relationships, and behavioral signals that identifies and engages the right doctors for critical workflows across pharma, health plan, health system, and technology companies. CVS Health and... Continue Reading

Some more Ladders, tall and short: telepsych Grow Therapy’s $150M Series D, UnityAI’s $8.5M Series A; Health Recovery Solutions buys Rimidi

Standalone telementalhealth continues to be generously funded. Grow Therapy’s $150 million Series D brings their total funding to $328 million and their valuation to $3 billion. Their combination of in-person and telehealth visits with clinicians and psychiatrists is targeted to health plans, employers, and health systems. In-network plans include Humana, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare and Aetna. The fresh funding will be for expansion to the employer benefits market, within health systems for integration with primary care, and additional advanced AI tools. Grow claims that in 2025, they facilitated seven million visits, for a total since inception of 10 million therapy and medication... Continue Reading

Must Read: an excellent analysis on Carbon Health’s bankruptcy–and the Ominous Parallels

...started to pursue multiple lines of business without a solid track record on their main lines as it gobbled up smaller companies. It started to go sideways as early as 2020, it repeatedly failed in high profile pilots with major healthcare organizations, parts were sold off, then the remainder sold by IBM by July 2022. Most of it still does business as Merative, maintaining a very low profile. Carbon started to fail in 2022 as the pandemic tide receded, their overextension was revealed, and their growth plans collapsed; despite buckets of cash extended by CVS and other investors, it was... Continue Reading

Chutes and Ladders w/o 9 Feb: Biofourmis’ ex-CEO faces 7 major Singapore fraud charges (updated), Doximity’s 17% drop; Devoted Health’s big $366M raise, Garner Health garners $118M, Synthpop’s $15M Series A

...health that took over Biofourmis’ business in in-home delivery of complex care for health systems, payers, and pharmaceutical companies. It was announced by CopilotIQ. This oddity didn’t square with other financial reporting indicating that Biofourmis was the acquiring party, yet was reasonable considering that CopilotIQ’s CEO and his management were running the combined company. Yet Biofourmis was a much larger company, a unicorn with over $400 million acquired in 10 rounds of financing. Another oddity: Mr. Rajput transferred his 96.6 million shares (!!) in Biofourmis to 19 existing investors immediately prior to the merger, according to filings with ACRA, Singapore’s... Continue Reading

Chutes & Ladders: UnitedHealth’s disastrous day and industry portents; Sword Health buys Kaia for $285M and gains German entry, $250M Series D for OpenEvidence, Pomelo’s $92M Series C, NOCD buys Rebound Health

...recovered about 11% today to close at $294.02. UHG’s stock drop was the 6th worst since 1987’s Black Tuesday. The rule changes also swatted other insurers with major MA markets such as Centene, CVS Health (Aetna), Elevance, and Humana. Congress is also going hard after health insurers, with hostile House Ways and Means committee and House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearings last week skewering CEOs from UnitedHealth, CVS, Cigna and Elevance over their compensation, rampant vertical integration with pharmacy benefit management (PBMs) and providers (including rate setting), prior authorization, and care denials. Fun fact: non-insurance business can be as much... Continue Reading

Editor Donna’s selective roundup: One Medical’s Amazon Rx kiosks, VillageMD sells off Texas, digital health investment’s Q3 boost

Amazon keeps trying to integrate healthcare and make One Medical work, using Pharmacy as leverage. Like CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens, Amazon succumbed in 2022 to the Gold Rush of buying up a health clinic network and attempting to integrate primary care delivery into its retail model–after stumbling badly and failing with Amazon Care (2019). While the former have either ditched (Walmart), pivoted (CVS–Oak Street), or spun off their primary care providers (Walgreens–VillageMD/Summit Health), Amazon is testing yet another integration with One Medical, their first being with Amazon Prime. In its latest tweak, Amazon is delivering limited onsite pharmacy services via... Continue Reading

Need to knows: Omada’s $158M IPO at flat valuation, AZ lawsuit on Centene plan’s ‘ghost network’ fatality, UHG shareholders OK reduced package for CEO Hemsley, new ASTP/HIT-ONC leader, NJ’s Cooper Health patient data breach, Net Health buys Limber Health

...of $339,000. Whether he will enjoy all of this based on 2024’s disappointing performance is not disclosed, as he resigned effective 13 May 2025 after Q1 results and a suspended forecast for 2025 were disclosed. Runner-up was Karen Lynch, who departed CVS Health last year but with a comp package of $23.4 million. FierceHealthcare 2 June, 12 May Short takes: The Trump Administration has named Thomas Keane, a software engineer and interventional radiologist, as Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, formerly the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). According to his ASTP bio, Dr. Keane previously served in... Continue Reading