...in the unprofitable Cigna co-branded small group program will exit [TTA 10 May]. Oscar release, FierceHealthcare Back in Mr. Bertolini’s old stand, Aetna, results weren’t so cheerful–and their president walked the plank after less than one year. The reorganization announcement was made on the earnings call yesterday, effective immediately. CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch will oversee the daily operations of the health benefits segment along with Aetna’s CFO. CVS VP/chief strategy officer Katerina Guerraz will move over to become Aetna’s chief operating officer. What initiated it: while health benefits’ revenue stayed in the black, going the wrong way were operating... Continue Reading
Search Results for CVS-Aetna
Breaking: Walgreens considering sale of entire stake in VillageMD
...estimated VillageMD’s 2023 losses at $800 million last April. WBA took a writedown last quarter, a $12.4 billion non-cash impairment charge related to VillageMD goodwill. Cigna also wrote off $1.8 billion of its 2022 $2.2 billion investment which gave it a ‘in the teens’ share [TTA 2 May]. Even CVS is trying to amortize its $10.6 billion buy of its own Money Pit–much smaller Oak Street Health–by finding a joint venture private equity partner [TTA 29 May]. This filing, coupled by the announcement of a third sale of Cencora stock to generate cash [TTA 7 Aug], points to no end... Continue Reading
First half digital health investment — a true rebound or a ‘dead cat bounce’? A Gimlety look at Rock Health’s H1 report.
...and as of May, up for sale, despite having positive revenue. Added context: the failure of melding retail health with clinic operations–Walgreens’ VillageMD, CVS scaling back Oak Street, Amazon folding Clinic into One Medical. AI is also proving to be ‘not all that’. Health systems are using them to automate procedures and some interfaces with patients. But the investment/payout equation is still tilted heavily to the former. Conclusion: this Editor is leaning towards ‘dead cat bounce’ through this year unless something drastically changes, as in improves. Agree? Disagree? Comment below! Referenced: Rock Health FY 2023 report, Rock Health Q1 2024... Continue Reading
Short takes: fundings for Huma, Truvian, Headway, ThymeCare, Freshpaint; Headspace’s new CEO; UK M&A RLDatix-Carebeans; Elevance earnings news, another Steward shocker; Meta’s Reality Labs AR unit sinking–is Meta?
...of 15% last July and a $105 million senior debt financing to get by [TTA 27 July 2023]. Release Value-based cancer care platform Thyme Care announced a capital raise of $95 million. The Series B round of equity funding was led by Concord Health Partners with participation from all existing investors, including CVS Health Ventures, Town Hall Ventures, a16z Bio + Health, AlleyCorp, Echo Health Ventures, Frist Cressey Ventures, and Foresite Capital. Adding to this was a $40 million debt financing from Banc of California. The fresh funding brings their total to $178 million. According to MedCityNews, “Thyme Care manages... Continue Reading
Walgreens’ Mound of Misery piles higher with shareholder class action lawsuit, skeptical industry opinion
...the patient blending between the pharmacies and primary care has proved to be extremely difficult. Walgreens, in trying to create a pharmacy/VillageMD closed system, now sees it as low margin/high cost, and wants to offload the cost onto additional investors. (Not much different than CVS with Oak Street Health, except that CVS got to the JV point faster. TTA 29 May) Even when locations are closed, some leases may be difficult to terminate or ‘repurpose’–and in these closures, Walgreens will be dealing with the anger of communities believing they will be shortchanged in access to pharmacy and healthcare, which knock... Continue Reading
Mid-week news roundup: HarmonyCares $200M round, Risant to buy Cone Health, Courier Health’s $16.5M Series A; Coalition for Health AI loses HHS/FDA members; Weekend Read–reining in AI’s Wild West?
...Centene, Aetna, and others. The fresh funding will be used for market expansion and scale up new technology for clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction. The company was founded as US Medical Management in 2013, became majority owned by Centene Corporation, which then sold it off as part of their 2021 divestitures. Release, FierceHealthcare, MedCityNews Risant Health, the nonprofit/community-based hospital system initiative of Kaiser, intends to acquire Cone Health of Greensboro, North Carolina. Cone has five hospitals and an insurance plan. Purchase price was not disclosed, but Cone’s 2023 operating revenue was $2.8 billion. Closing the deal is dependent on the... Continue Reading
Walgreens gives up on VillageMD, will sell to reduce stake below majority, closing underperforming stores, revising profit outlook– and in abandoning Boots sale, managing director James quits
...losses at $800 million last April. Primary care is no longer a hot investment. Even mighty CVS is looking for a private equity investor in Oak Street Health, which implies that CVS doesn’t want to put more than the bare minimum into expanding OSH’s clinics [TTA 29 May]. This Editor’s own interesting take on an option. VillageMD’s new COO/president is a Centene ‘retiree’, Jim Miller. Previously, he had the same positions for two years at Magellan Health. He was there when it was acquired by Centene in 2022 and stayed on till retiring in April. Magellan’s holdings have largely been... Continue Reading
Short takes/wrapup: fundings for Talkiatry, Heyday Health, CipherHealth; Brightside Health now 50 states for Medicare Part B; Neurabody’s sensor based posture therapy; below the radar global layoffs at Medtronic
The funding spigot seems to be on, even up to a Series C. Talkiatry closed a $130 million Series C for a total funding of $245 million. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from Perceptive Advisors. Debt financing was provided by Banc of California. Talkiatry’s offering in virtual behavioral or telemental health is psychiatrically-based with a national network of 300 psychiatrists performing to date over 1 million patient visits. Their differentiation is stronger outcomes and reduced utilization of higher levels of care. Their footprint is in health plans: Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Cigna,... Continue Reading
Done CEO, president arrested, charged with $100M fraud on Adderall distribution in first Federal case on telemedicine prescribing (updated)
...that Done members had overdosed and died.” Done was singled out in June of 2022 when Cerebral was facing Federal investigation and a grand jury subpoena, actions that continue today but haven’t proceeded to an indictment. At that time, Truepill (also under DEA scrutiny on Schedule II, TTA 22 Dec 2022), CVS, and Walmart Health refused to fill prescriptions by both Cerebral and Done. With Cerebral facing investigation, Done wasn’t far behind. By September 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal, Done was being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The Verge He and Brody are charged with reacting... Continue Reading
News roundup: Change responsible for data breach notices; 37% of healthcare orgs have no cybersec contingency plan; health execs scared by Ascension breach; CVS continues betting on health services; Plenful’s $17M Series A
...MD, CVS Health’s executive vice president and chief medical officer, expressed complete confidence at a recent industry conclave, thINc360 – The Healthcare Innovation Congress. This is despite the closures of dozens of Minute Clinics in Southern California and New England [TTA 31 May] out of their 1,100 total plus that CVS seeking an investment partner for Oak Street [TTA 29 May]. Dr. Chaguturu returned time and again to the 10,000-odd CVS Pharmacy locations and their leverage within communities, leaning very hard on the 5 million people coming in daily and the ‘opportunity for their pharmacists to engage’. As a CVS... Continue Reading
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