As practices reopen, telemedicine visits continue to plunge from 69% to 21%: Epic (US)

September 2, 2020 | by

The extreme high tide has receded–but still way up than before the pandemic.  The Epic Health Research Network (yes, that Epic EHR), updated its earlier study through 8 May [TTA 22 July] to compare in-office to telehealth visits through 12 July. The trend that EHRN spotted (as well as Commonwealth Fund/Phreesia/Harvard) continued with telemedicine visits declining as practices reopened. As of mid-July, telehealth visits, as a  percentage of national ambulatory visits, declined to 21.2 percent compared to 78.8 percent in-office. 

The new EHRN study used a broader sampling than previously. They surveyed healthcare providers of data: 37 healthcare organizations representing 203 hospitals and 3,513 clinics in 50 states. The decline in telehealth visits noted in early May continued, with May finishing with a national 50/50 split.

But in context, telehealth visits immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic were a whopping .01 percent. 

Regionally, the Northeast leads in July telehealth visits with 25 percent. The South has the least adoption of telehealth with only 13 percent. In terms of total office visits, neither the South nor West have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, whereas the Northeast and Midwest have.

The key to the future of the telehealth bubble bath is if telehealth usage versus in-person stabilizes for several months. But there’s another factor which has come about through higher telehealth usage. Noted in our July article was speculation on the reasons why the sudden decline, other than practices reopening, most of which pointed to practice training, reimbursement, and older/sicker patients falling into the smartphone/digital divide. The STAT article has statements from telehealth providers which are quite bubbly and quotable, with the CEO of MDLive stating that new bookings are up 300 percent and mental health hasn’t declined. But a problem now surfacing is providing patients with the right care at the right time–and fitting it into the office schedule. What visits can best be handled as telehealth and which require an in-person visit? This Editor recalls that Zipnosis, a white-labeled telehealth system we haven’t heard from in a while, incorporated for health system applications a triage intake which would direct the patient to the right level of care. Can this be rolled out in a similar way to the practice level?

Is the NHS ready to adopt telemedicine through and through–and is telemedicine ready?

August 27, 2020 | by

This analysis by Dominic Tyer in Pharmaphorum discusses the rapid adoption of telehealth during the COVID pandemic, both telephonic and online, to keep people in touch with their doctors. Health Secretary Matt Hancock quantified the changes wrought as “I’ve lost count of the number of times someone said to me: ‘what would have taken months took minutes’.” The article goes on to quote him as saying that COVID-19 has “catalysed deep structural shifts in healthcare that were already underway”, citing as examples data-driven decision-making, working as a system, and telemedicine. In fact, to Secretary Hancock, “From now on, all consultations should be teleconsultations unless there’s a clinical reason not to.”

For all the advances, Mr. Tyer points out flaws such as safeguarding sensitive health issues, particularly for young people, use by rare disease patients and those with a genetic condition, and reaching the 10 percent of the population who do not use the internet. All of these are significant. He concludes that “in the UK there’s clearly the political will and healthcare backing for wider use of telemedicine by the NHS, despite some, as-yet not entirely resolved, technological and safety issues.”

Will the UK revert to ‘underuse’, as the US has rolled back as well as practices have reopened? (What is ‘underuse’ defined as anyway?) Will these issues be resolved or ignored in a push forward for telehealth? And teleconsultations as a norm, with in-person an exception, is perhaps at this time, and in improving health outcomes, an overreach? Hat tips to Roy Lilley of the nhsManagers.net newsletter and Steve Hards

QuivvyTech: a ‘telehealth’ company, sued by Humana in telemarketing scheme (US)

August 27, 2020 | by

It was inevitable–the first alleged fraud and lawsuit involving a ‘telehealth’ company. The interestingly named QuivvyTech, which has styled itself as a telehealth company with “virtual care in general medicine, mental health, and complex care”, has been sued by insurance giant Humana. The grounds are that QuivvyTech telemarketers cold-called Humana members, who are generally members of Medicare plans, asked them about common ailments, and claimed they were working with Humana. They then recorded information that was sent to QuivvyTech physicians who would prescribe the members pricey and unnecessary creams (content undisclosed) fulfilled by co-conspirator pharmacies with QuivvyTech. The physicians listed in the suit electronically signed prescriptions for the members without reviewing patient history or having a prior relationship with the patient.

Humana not only is alleging harm in the payer-member relationship, but also lost millions in fraudulent claim payments for visits and medications. 

The lawsuit by Humana seeks treble damages, plus interest and fees, from QuivvyTech. It was filed in the US Southern District of Florida as many of the scammed members lived in Florida. QuivvyTech is based in Boca Raton.

Defendants in the suit include Frank Michelin, associated with QuivvyTech; Reliable Medical Supplies and Reliable Document Solutions, a telemedicine company with about 200 physicians; and physicians Jeffrey Mahon, MD, Elie Hercule, MD, Samuel Teniola, MD, Louis Mojicar, MD, Ananda De Silva, MD, and Jeffrey Stern, MD.

One wonders where QuivvyTech obtained Humana members’ phone numbers and information. 

QuivvyTech is still recruiting for physicians on job boards such as ZipRecruiter and StaffPhysicians.com. Becker’s Hospital Review, Healthcare Finance, Fierce Healthcare

The Theranos Story, ch. 64: Holmes’ trial moved to March 2021

August 27, 2020 | by

What a difference two years makes. Once the subject of breathless headlines and breaking news, the latest news on the trials of Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani in la scandale Theranos earned hardly any notice in the healthcare press. Only this Editor’s search for an update found information that the Federal court trials, due to the pandemic and corresponding difficulty with trial preparation and jury selection, have been moved to 2021. Pretrial hearings for both have been moved to October and December.

So not to further punish our Readers who are dreaming of mountain lakes and ocean beaches, your Editor, a/k/a Glutton for Punishment, has summarized the Court’s next steps. 

  • The Holmes and Balwani trials have been severed–legalspeak for separated
  • Holmes will go first starting on 9 March 2021 with jury selection in the Federal Court, San Jose, Judge Edward J. Davila presiding. Balwani’s trial will not start until Holmes’ trial is concluded.
  • The next court hearings for Holmes will be 6 October (pretrial motion), 2 December (status), and 16 February 2021 (status)
  • Balwani will have a status hearing on 8 December

In early August, the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor added a 12th fraud charge to Holmes’ list, relating to a patient’s blood test. A grand jury was empaneled in June during the midpoint of the pandemic, leading to Holmes’ legal team attempting to obtain 21 broad categories of documents on the jury selection. Their intent is to overturn the indictment as improper.

No need to stock up on popcorn till a month before Easter 2021, but it will be munch-worthy as rumored witnesses will be ‘faces’ such as General James Mattis (ret.), former board member and customer; Henry Kissinger; and Rupert Murdoch. This Editor’s bet is that these aged titans will not appear, with the exception of the youngest, General Mattis. More likely to be called to appear, in this Editor’s view, are executives from Walgreens who did the deal with Theranos, the last-ditch investors at Fortress Investment Group, major investors such as Partner Fund Management, and early unrepentant backer Tim Draper of Silicon Valley VC Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

The Federal charges are summarized in TTA 13 May]The full sturm und drang by chapter are here.

CNBC, US Department of Justice, Northern District of California published notice  The 14 June indictment (15 pages)

Amwell plans $100 million IPO, plus $100 million from Google as a kickoff

August 26, 2020 | by

As expected [TTA 6 Aug], Amwell on Monday filed S-1 forms with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registering them for an IPO to raise about $100 million. The number and amount of shares on the New York Stock Exchange, under ticker symbol AMWL, were not disclosed. Interestingly, and somewhat unexpectedly, Google’s cloud business is taking a private placement of $100 million in shares equal to the IPO price, to be executed on the IPO closing.

The partnership will mean that Amwell’s cloud services on Amazon Web Services (AWS) will be moving to Google Cloud. Amwell will also move some video performance capabilities to that platform, and will also cooperate on technology plus build out a dedicated sales effort to expand Amwell’s footprint in the sector.

Amwell’s telehealth business, like Teladoc’s, skyrocketed during the worst of the pandemic shutdown. According to the CNBC article on the IPO, Amwell told them in May that it’s seen a 1,000 percent increase in visits due to coronavirus and closer to 3,000 – 4,000 percent in some places (which without further data is meaningless). The IPO filing stated that revenue was up 77 percent January-June 2020 versus same period 2019, from $69 million to $122 million. Profits are not following, however. Its net loss nearly tripled over the same period, growing from $41 million in the first six months of 2019 to $111 million in the first half of this year. Seeking Alpha has the operating loss at a slightly higher $113.58 million.

This past May, Amwell also raised $194 million in a second Series C [TTA 23 May]. Their financing to date is over $700 million.

Amwell states that it provides telehealth solutions for over 2,000 hospitals and 55 health plan partners with over 36,000 employers, covering over 80 million lives, a higher metric than members. This is in comparison with Teladoc which claims 51.5 million members, 50 health plans, 70 global insurers, and 12,000 clients in 175 countries. Amwell is having to compete with a larger suite of services that a Teladoc-Livongo combination will eventually offer. Amwell’s by-contrast modest IPO and private placement corresponds to their relative size, but a contrarian would also look at Teladoc’s huge expenditures for InTouch Health ($1bn) and Livongo ($18.5bn) and rightly be concerned about their runway to ROI and profitability.

‘Before the Ashes Fall’: the story behind the book and the movie in development about dementia

August 25, 2020 | by

Editor’s Note: The author of the post below, David Serafine, is a corporate security professional in the US. He is not like most of our Readers, a professional in healthcare technology or social care. What compelled him to write a novel about a father and son, and a family affected by the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease, is his own family’s story. We deal with dementia as professionals, but it has also touched and affected our family lives, and in many cases, our work lives. 

David reached out to me through a post on LinkedIn and after some discussion, I have decided to share his message with you. He and his production team are now reaching out to people like us to find financing for a film treatment, to be shot in Western New York State. Through the film, they will tell not only a story, but also to use the film to promote education and societal awareness, especially among minority and underserved communities heavily impacted by this disease.

Through our networks and our companies, you may know a funder, or funders, who are interested in backing this cause. More information on the production is attached (Release–PDF). You may contact David at serafinedavid@gmail.com, phone 512.571.0418, or via LinkedIn .

Before the Ashes Fall by David Serafine

I first encountered Dementia in June 2016.  It was my wife’s grandfather, a sturdy and tough as nails Texas farmer, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.   The man’s diagnosis came only a  year removed from tending crops beneath the relentless noon sun while seamlessly conversing with a razor-sharp precision. “And we need to hide his truck keys for good”. The words, stinging with an exactness and finality, didn’t quite measure up.  The man still looked normal.

One year later, I observed half of the same man blankly staring at a birthday cake, not realizing it was his. The celebration carried on around him, with each attendee recalling stories of his life. I stared hard at his face, almost willing a quiver or smile, anything to suggest the words resonated. Nothing moved. Finally, I noticed his jutting collarbones which resembled a cheap wooden hanger. My eyes traced the sharp rise and fall around his shoulders and the blanched fabric which hung from them.

I contemplated whether Alzheimer’s solely left this wake of damage. Or, was it exacerbated by his daughter’s own Frontotemporal Dementia diagnosis, relegating her final days to a Memory Care Facility?  I never knew the answer as two months later, the man succumbed to Alzheimer’s complications.  To this day, his daughter was never told that he died.   That type of message, with a woman in her condition,  could be a potential catalyst for further emotional distress. 

Sometime during that journey, I wrote a fictional novel called ‘Before the Ashes Fall’.   In short, the novel is a race for “Love, Forgiveness, and Redemption” between a father and son beneath the cloud of Alzheimer’s. The process was as equally heartbreaking as cathartic. I mostly bled and cried into pages for a year, completed it, and put it to bed.

However, the book elicited correspondence from Malaysia, Ireland, Brazil, and Chile. The messages always began the same: “I had a (insert family member) die from various forms of Dementia.  Thank you for writing this story”. Two observations became clear over time. First, ‘Dementia’ didn’t stay in lanes, either geographically or demographically.  It was global and touched everyone either directly or indirectly.

Secondly, and arguably the crueler facet, is the insidious nature of Dementia.  In many circumstances, the readers’ initially described  Dementia as a ‘normal’ part of aging.  It wasn’t until an unequivocal tipping point- “my husband left the stovetop gas on’’-that it was no longer ‘normal’. That same moment generated guilt within the de facto caretaker (spouse, daughter, etc.) of what could have been prevented.

I researched the diseases of Dementia -Alzheimer’s is but one diagnosis and it alone will cost over $1 trillion (globally) in 2020 alone.  I also learned life choices and even traumatic events had a dramatic impact on the diseases’ progression.  Those two points are the most critical: we have some control and hope with increased awareness.

In July of 2020,  my book was adapted for film by a multiple award-winning Director. The story and approach are unique, unlike the other Dementia-based films. As we will target 60 global film festivals, three primary goals materialized.

First, and the most unique aspect of the approach, is our desire to facilitate pragmatic and current medical forums.  The engagements will include not only allopathic guidance but more importantly, non-allopathic guidance.  We seek to educate communities on life choices – diet, exercise, early testing before the disease has advanced. There are informed choices we can make that can delay and lessen the impact of Dementia. This is least understood globally.

Secondly, we will use film and outreach to galvanize communities.  A search of Dementia-themed films will yield 2  most recognizable (Still Alice and The Notebook).  Our film will feature a different demographic, one illustrating the ‘absence of lanes’ with the disease.  This will be represented in the cast, crew, and artwork produced by local Dementia patients.

These goals have been welcomed by medical practitioners, podcasters, and Corporate Social Responsibility Executives.  In addition to a strong storyline, we believe film fans will sense a collective ownership of this film during its production and engagement in their communities.   Additionally, it’s supportive and empowering to overcome tragedy alongside others, particularly those who strive for a better future.

Finally, and unique to the film industry, we seek to re-invest 50% of all profits into Dementia-related awareness campaigns.  If funded, we believe “Before the Ashes Fall” has a 3X delivery back into the programs we seek to support.

“Before the Ashes Fall” is a fiscally sponsored film through the Film Collaborative and individual or corporate donations are tax-deductible.   It’s an amazing opportunity to shape the future for current and generations to come, all desiring the same goal: a cure for Alzheimer’s. 

[More information on the production here: PDF]

Will the rise of technology mean the fall of privacy–and what can be done? UK seeks a new National Data Guardian.

August 21, 2020 | by

Can we have data sharing and interoperability while retaining control by individuals on what they want shared? This keeps surfacing as a concern in the US, UK, Europe, and Australia, especially with COVID testing.

In recent news, last week’s acquisition of Ancestry by Blackstone [TTA 13 August] raised questions in minds other than this Editor’s of how a business model based on the value of genomic data to others is going to serve two masters–investors and its customers who simply want to know their genetic profile and disease predispositions, and may not be clear about or confused about how to limit where their data is going, however de-identified. The consolidation of digital health companies, practices, and payers–Teladoc and Livongo, CVS Health and Aetna, and even Village MD and Walgreens–are also dependent on data. Terms you hear are ‘tracking the patient journey’, ‘improving population health’, and a Big ’80s term, ‘synergy’. This does not include all the platforms that are solely about the data and making it more available in the healthcare universe.

A recent HIMSS virtual session, reported in Healthcare Finance, addressed the issue in a soft and jargony way which is easy to dismiss. From one of the five panelists:  

Dr. Alex Cahana, chief medical officer at ConsenSys Health.”And so if we are in essence our data, then any third party that takes that data – with a partial or even complete agreement of consent from my end, and uses it, abuses it or loses it – takes actually a piece of me as a human.”

Dignity-Preserving Technology: Addressing Global Health Disparities in Vulnerable Populations

But then when you dig into it and the further comments, it’s absolutely true. Most data sharing, most of the time, is helpful. Not having to keep track of everything on paper, or being able to store your data digitally, or your primary care practice or radiologist having it and interpretation accessible, makes life easier. The average person tends to block the possibility of misuse, except if it turns around and bites us. So what is the solution? Quite a bit of this discussion was about improving “literacy” which is a Catch-22 of vulnerability– ‘lacking skill and ability’ to understand how their data is being used versus ‘the system’ actually creating these vulnerable populations. But when the priority, from the government on to private payers, is ‘value-based care’ and saving money, how does this prevent ‘nefarious use’ of sharing data and identifying de-identified data for which you, the vulnerable, have given consent, to that end? 

It’s exhausting. Why avoid the problem in the first place? Having observed the uses and misuses of genomics data, this Editor will harp on again that we should have a Genomic Data Bill of Rights [TTA 29 Aug 18] for consumers to be fully transparent on where their data is going, how it is being used, and to easily keep their data private without jumping through a ridiculous number of hoops. This could be expandable to all health data. While I’d prefer this to be enforced by private entities, I don’t see it having a chance. In the US, we have HIPAA which is enforced by HHS’ Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which also watchdogs and fines for internal data breaches. Data privacy is also a problem of international scope, what with data hacking coming from state-sponsored entities in China and North Korea, as well as Eastern European pirates.

Thus it is encouraging that the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care is seeking a new national data guardian (NDG) to figure out how to safeguard patient data, based on the December 2018 Act. This replaces Dame Fiona Caldicott who was the first NDG starting in 2014 well before the Act. The specs for the job in Public Appointments are here. You’ll be paid £45,000 per annum, for a 2-3 day per week, primarily working remote with some travel to Leeds and London. (But if you’d like it, apply quickly–it closes 3 Sept!). It’s not full time, which is slightly dismaying given the situation’s growing importance. The HealthcareITNews article has a HIMSS interview video with Dame Fiona discussing the role of trust in this process starting with the clinician, and why the Care.data program was scrapped. Of related interest is Public Health England’s inter-mortem of lessons learned in data management from COVID-19, while reportedly Secretary Matt Hancock is replacing it with a new agency with a sole focus on health protection from pandemics. Hmmmmm…..HealthcareITNews.

News roundup: Ancestry sells 75% to Blackstone, Cornwall NHS partners with Tunstall, most dangerous health IT trends, Slovenski departs from Walmart Health

August 13, 2020 | by

Ancestry sells 75 percent of the genealogy/genetics company to Blackstone for $4.7 bn. The acquisition by the private equity company buys out other equity holders: Silver Lake, GIC, Spectrum Equity, Permira, and others. Ancestry’s business combines their genealogy database with consumer genomics for both heritage and health. The Blackstone release notes that their goals in the acquisition are to expand data, functionality, and product development across the Ancestry platform as part of their investment in growth businesses. If an acquisition cost of $4.7 bn seems high, Ancestry’s revenue is cited as $1 bn annually.

Once blazingly hot, both Ancestry and 23andMe saw their consumer businesses crater late last year, with layoffs in January and February. It’s an example of a quickly saturated market (one test and you’re done) flogged by annoying TV commercials over the holidays [TTA 13 Feb]. Where the profit is, of course, is not in consumer tests but in selling the genomic data to other companies, something which the market leader, 23andMe, realized early on with half-ownership by GSK ($300 million, a real bargain). 23andMe is also intensively marketing as a premium subscription service updates on health information derived from member testing. Ancestry has followed, but reportedly has not been as proactive in linking genetic information to health outcomes. STAT

 This Editor noted back in August 2018 that it was long past time for a Genomic Data Bill of Rights for consumers to be fully transparent on where their data is going, how it is being used, and to easily keep their data private without jumping through a ridiculous number of hoops. It’s a conclusion now being reached by various privacy groups according to MedCityNews. Also noted is that Ancestry, in its complex and long privacy policy, can use your “personal information to market new products from the company or its business partners, but says it will not share users’ genetic information with insurers, employers or third-party marketers without their express consent.” But when your 75 percent owner has real estate and other healthcare holdings, can you trust them?

Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust partnered with Tunstall Healthcare UK on a 26-week support program during the pandemic for young people 11+ with a range of eating disorders. The patient group used the myMobile app and the ICP triagemanager software to send in weekly reports on their vital signs and answer symptom-related questions, which are tracked over time via a secure portal to monitor progress. The myMobile app has parameters set for individual patients, where readings outside them generate a system alert that is sent to clinicians. The program was able to ascertain that 32 patients were at high risk and have been referred. Cornwall/Tunstall white paper, ATToday.co.uk

As if COVID Fear weren’t bad enough, now we have to be frightened of Dangerous IT Trends. Becker’s Health IT interviewed eight healthcare executives and came up with a list of what keeps them up at night:

  • The sluggish rate at which healthcare systems embrace new technology
  • We won’t be going back to the pre-pandemic normal and how healthcare deals with that
  • Overlooking data security and medical device vulnerabilities
  • Cutting IT staff and budgets without acknowledging the consequences
  • The consequences of hastily moving workers remote and securing their devices

All of the above are not new, and it’s rather shocking that they haven’t been addressed.

And in Comings and Goings, we have a Notable Going. Sean Slovenski, who for the past two years has been heading up Walmart US’ Health and Wellness initiatives, departed the company last week with a replacement to be named in the coming weeks. Mr. Slovenski had been heading up a variety of healthcare initiatives, including in-store primary and dental care clinics which have opened up in four Arkansas and Georgia locations with an additional eight planned plus Florida. Walmart also opened up 100 COVID testing locations in store parking lots. His efforts were acknowledged in Walmart’s departure statement to staff. Mr. Slovenski “and his team have successfully stood up the strategy we hired him to create,” Walmart’s CEO John Furner said in a memo to staff. Walmart has also laid off over 1,000 corporate employees in a recent restructuring. Mr. Slovenski is most noted in digital health circles as CEO of Care Innovations for 2 1/2 years during the Intel-GE ownership. He was also with Healthways-ShareCare and Humana. Walmart is up against a long list of heavyweight challengers in retail health, including Amazon, CVS Aetna, and Walgreens–and may be deciding that an independent run is not worth it.

Reflections in a Gimlet Eye: further skeptical thoughts on the Teladoc acquisition of Livongo (updated)

August 11, 2020 | by

Gimlet EyePerhaps it’s Reflections in a Gimlet Eye, but this Editor remains bemused and slightly dyspeptic about the acquisition of ‘health signals’ remote patient monitoring management platform Livongo by telehealth giant Teladoc.

Here’s the latest, courtesy of Credit Suisse equity research analyst Jailendra Singh on deal rationale and the potential synergies, based on his Q&A with Teladoc and Livongo management (link here):

  • Livongo: “The company was not for sale, and LVGO did not view the transaction with TDOC as a sale. Instead, management views the deal as a merger of the two leaders in virtual care.” 
  • It had nothing to do with pressure from CVS and UnitedHealth Group (UNH). 
  • There are major cross-selling opportunities, starting with an overlap of 25 percent of their clients. There are also opportunities with the InTouch Health client base in acute care, Aetna plus UNH on the health plan side, and employer administrative services only (ASO) plans. This is part of the calculation of synergies totaling $500 million in 2025 which they believe are conservative given the math.
  • They are also seeking to approach their client base before the closing through a reseller agreement, as Teladoc was able to do with InTouch.

Mr. Singh’s analysis is conservative and sober from a strictly financial viewpoint. His two-page analysis is, as usual, worth the read. 

But then we stumble across one particularly helium-charged claim. It’s projected that Teladoc and Livongo would have a combined company market cap of $38 bn, whereas the pre-pandemic value of the companies was $8 bn. (Steve Kraus, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, now on the board of Ginger, as quoted in Forbes). That is optimistic, considering that patient primary care virtual visits have flattened down to about 7.4 percent of visits as of June (Commonwealth Fund/Harvard/Phreesia study). It’s assuming a great deal that people will continue to shy away from in-person care going forward. Perhaps to a degree this will, as in-person fear is only starting to flatten, but not everything can be done virtually, even RPM. Telehealth and RPM also present challenges for practices in value-based care models, in workflows, and even with the liberalization of Medicare reimbursements, financially.

Livongo’s great asset, which was understandably compelling for Teladoc, is chronic condition management, RPM, and all that patient data, which can be broadened past their diabetes base (with a small one in behavioral health courtesy of their myStrength acquisition) into other chronic conditions which was Livongo’s strategy anyway. To be determined is how compelling this will be for Teladoc’s customer base and for new customers, particularly if the economic environment is constrained and health plans don’t get on board. 

So why is Mr. Market not mad about this ‘merger’? TDOC has taken a spill since its (adjusted) close on 4 August at $249, and is trading below $200 at $193. LVGO took a lesser hit, from $144 to $121. Another Bessemer Venture Partners investor, Morgan Cheatham, in the Forbes article linked above, was quoted that Livongo had clear market leadership in the employer and health plan market, then expressed surprise at why Livongo agreed to be acquired: “The company had a real shot at becoming a $100 billion business by running the ‘digital hospital’ playbook. In some ways, the acquisition feels premature.” Teladoc’s COO David Sides promised that the combined company will aid practices in the transition from hospital to home care, touting the consumer focus of both companies. (Have they consulted already burdened and strained providers how this can be made easier for them and fit into value-based care models as well as their financials?) But they may have to make more acquisitions to facilitate this. So $18.5 billion plus $1 bn for InTouch isn’t enough to get the job done?

Is it synergy, the wave of the future, or an overloaded Christmas Tree of features, not benefits?

Reminder: to date, neither company has been profitable.

So, what does this mean for other digital health companies? Initially, it’s quite positive that Teladoc could round up nearly $20bn in six months. John Halamka MD, a well-known digital health visionary now at Mayo Clinic, sees it as a bridge to the digital health ecosystem including other companies. A contrarian view was expressed by Mr. Cheatham.  Teladoc-Livongo is a challenge for other digital health companies in that they won’t, and cannot, be Teladocs and Livongos–in other words, an unrealistically high bar for them. “Why can’t Telavongo build this?”

Finally, a personal and slightly jaundiced view from this Editor. Let’s take a good hard look at the Human Factors that make companies go. This is an acquisition by Teladoc of smaller Livongo, despite the merger statements. Employees in both companies are wondering who will go, who will stay, who they will report to if they stay, and where they will be. They have about four to six months to mull what their future might look like at a tough economic time. This will — not may, will–have an effect on operations and attitudes, especially at Livongo.

There are some doubleplus ungood signs that make the assertion that this is a “merger” of companies questionable:

  • Jennifer Schneider, MD, president of Livongo, has stated that both companies are currently hiring and don’t plan layoffs as a result of the merger (Becker’s Health IT). Blanket statements like this are usually made at the start to assure employees. Anyone who has been through a merger knows there are overlapping areas such as HR, marketing, and financial. There are only so many chairs at the organizational table especially at the director and above level. The happy talk doesn’t change the reality that not everyone will be given the option to stay.
  • Statements on similar cultures notwithstanding, the fact is that both companies have different cultures and experiences because they have radically different histories and personalities running them. This Editor would suspect that Livongo employees, having come up in a young and smaller company, in an intense entrepreneurial environment, with employees who were among the first 50 or 100, have a great identification with Livongo and pride in their success.
  • Not one Livongo senior executive was named publicly as taking a new operational role in the merged entity. (Board seats don’t count. But then again, they will be walking away with a major payday, reputed to be in the hundreds of millions for the top executives. What they will do with their future is a major unknown.)
  • The HQ will be in Purchase. Most Livongo employees are in California.
  • The company will be named Teladoc and will not be renamed. That says a lot, even though industry wags are calling it Telavongo and other names.

One would hope that both companies make every effort to reorganize the company staffs in a way where layoffs are minimal, those who are packaged out are treated generously, but better, valued employees from both companies are retained and incentivized to stay–sooner rather than in 4th quarter–in a fair and unbiased evaluative process in how they support their businesses presently and going forward as part of the combined companies future. But this is not typically the case.

One would also hope that the clients and individuals who pay the bills were told, timed with the public announcement, that this was happening and what it means for them. Leaving them to read the announcement online is usually what happens. It’s not automatic, and I’ve seen this treated as an afterthought in both large companies and small, with line of business folks scrambling to put together customer messages, and delayed in getting them approved as after all they have to go through both corporate and investor communications. This is typically the case, as communications cease to be a priority at the market/LOB level when the SEC or DOJ are involved.

Reminder: the Human Factors will fly this aircraft–or auger it in. 

Agree? Disagree? Comments welcomed.  TTA’s earlier ‘skeptical take’ commentary here.

An admittedly skeptical take on the $18.5 billion Teladoc acquisition of Livongo (updated for additional analysis)

August 6, 2020 | by

Gimlet EyeIs it time to call back The Gimlet Eye from her peaceful Remote Pacific Island? Shock acquisitions like Wednesday’s news that Teladoc is buying ‘applied health signals’ platform developer Livongo may compel this Editor to Send a Message by Carrier Seagull. 

Most of the articles (listed at the bottom) list the facts as Teladoc listed them in their announcement. We’ll recap ‘just the facts’ here, like Joe Friday of ‘Dragnet’ fame:  

  • The merged company will be called Teladoc and be headquartered in Purchase, NY. There is no mention of what will happen to operations and staff currently at Livongo’s Mountain View California HQ. 
  • The value of the acquisition is estimated at $18.5 bn, based on the value of Teladoc’s shares on 4 August. As both are public companies (Livongo IPO’d 25 July 2019, barely a year ago), each share of Livongo will be exchanged for 0.5920x shares of Teladoc plus cash consideration of $11.33 for each Livongo share. When completed, existing Teladoc shareholders will own 58 percent of the company and Livongo shareholders 42 percent. 
  • Closing is stated as expected to be in 4th Quarter 2020
  • Expected 2020 pro forma revenue is expected to be approximately $1.3 billion, representing year over year pro forma growth of 85 percent.

The combination of the two is, this Editor admits, a powerhouse and quite advantageous for both. It is also another sign that digital health is both contracting and recombining. Teladoc has over 70 million users in the US alone for telemedicine services and operates in 175 countries. Livongo is much smaller, with 410,000 diabetes users (up over 113 percent) and over 1,300 clients. They reported 2nd Q results on Tuesday with a revenue lift of 119 percent to $91.9 million but with a net loss of $1.6 million. 

What makes Livongo worth $18.5 bn for Teladoc? Livongo has made a major name (to be discarded, apparently) in first, diabetes management, but has broadened it into a category it calls ‘Applied Health Signals’. Most of us would call it chronic condition management using a combination of vital signs monitoring, patient data sets, and information from its health coaches to make recommendations and effect behavior change. Perhaps we should call it their ‘secret sauce’. For Teladoc, Livongo extends their virtual care services and provider network with a data-driven health management company not dependent on virtual visits, and integrates the virtual visit with Livongo’s coaching. It also puts Teladoc miles ahead of competition: soon-to-IPO Amwell, Doctor on Demand ($75 million Series D, partnerships with Walmart and Humana), MDLive, and ‘blank check’ SOC Telehealth. For Livongo’s main competitor in the diabetes area, Omada Health, it puts Omada certainly in a less competitive spot, or makes it attractive as an acquisition target.

It is also a huge bet that given the huge boost given by the COVID pandemic, the trend towards remote, consumer healthcare and management is unstoppable. Their projection is (from the release): expected 2020 pro forma revenue of approximately $1.3 billion, representing year over year pro forma growth of 85 percent; in year 2, revenue synergies of $100 million, reaching $500 million on a run rate basis by 2025. 

Taking a look at this acquisition between the press release and press coverage lines:

  • The market same day responded poorly to this acquisition. Teladoc was off nearly 19 percent, Livongo off 11 percent. (Shares typically recover next day in this pattern.) Livongo had, as mentioned, recently IPO’d and was experiencing excellent growth compared to Teladoc which was boosted by the pandemic lockdown. This Editor also recalls Teladoc’s financial difficulties in late 2018 with the resignation of its COO/CFO on insider trading and #MeToo charges.
  • The projected closing is fast for a merger of this size–five months.
    • Teladoc does business in the Medicare (Federal) and Medicaid (state) segments. It would surprise this Editor if the acquisition does not require review on the Federal (CMS, DOJ) and state health insurance levels, in addition to the SEC.
    • Merging the two organizations operationally and experiencing all those synergies is not done quickly, and cannot officially happen until after the closing. A lot is done formally behind the scenes as permitted, which has the effect of hitting the rest of the company like a hammer.
  • Unusually, the release does not advise on what Livongo senior executives, including Livongo founder Glen Tullman and CEO Zane Burke, will be coming over to Teladoc. The only sharing announced will be on the Board of Directors. It’s quite an exit for the senior Livongo staff.
  • Both have grown through acquisition. These typically present small to large organizational problems in merging the operations of these companies yet another time into yet another structure. There’s also always some level of client discomfiture in these mergers as they are also the last ones to know.
    • Livongo bought myStrength in 2019, RetroFit in 2018, and Diabeto in 2017. 
    • Teladoc just closed on 1 August its acquisition of far smaller, specialized hospital/health system telehealth provider InTouch Health. Originally a bargain (in retrospect) at $600 million in $150M cash and 4.6 million shares of TDOC stock, after 1 July’s closing, due to the rise in Teladoc’s stock, the cost ballooned to well over $1bn.
  • Neither company has ever been profitable. 

Your Editor can speak personally and recently to the wrench in the works that acquisitions/mergers of this size present to both organizations. Livongo is a relatively young and entrepreneurial organization in California with about 700 employees, compared to Teladoc’s approximately 2,000 or more internationally. Their communications and persona stress strong mission-driven qualities. On both sides, but especially on the acquired company side, people have to do their short and long term work amid the uncertainty of what this will mean to them. Senior management is distracted in endless meetings on what the merged organization will look like–departments, where will they be, who stays, who is packaged out, and when. Especially when the press releases make a point of compatible cultures, on the contrary, you may be assured that the cultures are very different. The bottom line: companies do not achieve $60 million in cost synergies without interrupting the careers of more than a few of their employees.

Another delicate area is Livongo’s client base, both individual and enterprise. How they are being communicated with is not necessarily skillful and reassuring. Often this part is delayed because the people who do this in the field aren’t prepared.

One has to admire Teladoc, almost without needing a breath, coming up with $18.5 billion quite that quickly from their financing partners after the InTouch acquisition. The growth claimed for the combined organization is extremely aggressive, on top of already aggressive projections for them separately. It’s 18x 2021 enterprise value to sales (EV/S) targets. The premium paid on the Livongo shares is also stunning: $159 per share including $550 million in convertible debt.  If patients start to return to offices and urgent care, Teladoc may have trouble meeting its aggressive goals factored into both share prices, as Seeking Alpha will explain.

Editor’s final comment: In the early stage of her marketing career, this Editor had a seat on the sidelines to much the same happening in the post-deregulation airline business–debt, buyouts, LBOs, and huge financings. Then there is the morning after when it’s all sorted out.

Wednesday’s coverage: TechCrunch, Investors Business Daily, STATNews, mHealth Intelligence, FierceHealthcare, MotleyFool.com

Joint announcement website    Investor Presentation    Hat tip to an industry observer Reader for assistance with the financial analysis.

For a follow-up analysis (with apologies to Carson McCullers): Reflections in a Gimlet Eye: further skeptical thoughts on the Teladoc acquisition of Livongo

Weekend ‘Must Read’: Are Big Tech/Big Pharma’s health tech promises nothing but a dangerous fraud?

July 24, 2020 | by

If it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t. And watch your wallet. In 14 words, this summarizes Leeza Osipenko’s theme for this article. It may seem to our Readers that Editor Donna is out there for clicks in the headline, but not really. Dr. Osipenko’s term is ‘snake oil’. It’s a quaint, vintage term for deceptive marketing of completely ineffective remedies, redolent of 19th Century hucksters and ‘The Music Man’. Its real meaning is fraud.

The promise is that Big Data, using Big Analytics, Big Machine Learning, and Big AI, will be a panacea for All That Ails Healthcare. It will save the entire system and the patient money, revolutionize medical decision making, save doctors time, increase accuracy, and in general save us from ourselves. Oh yes, and we do need saving, because our Big Tech and Big Health betters tell us so!

Major points in Dr. Osipenko’s Project Syndicate article, which is not long but provocative. Bonus content is available with a link to a London School of Economics panel discussion podcast (39 min.):

  • Source data is flawed. It’s subject to error, subjective clinical decision-making, lack of structure, standardization, and general GIGO.
  • However, Big Data is sold to health care systems and the general public like none of these potentially dangerous limitations even exist
  • Where are the long-range studies which can objectively compare and test the quality and outcomes of using this data? Nowhere to be found yet. It’s like we are in 1900 with no Pure Food Act, no FDA, or FTC to oversee.
  • It is sold into health systems as beneficial and completely harmless. Have we already forgotten the scandal of Ascension Health, the largest non-profit health system in the US, and Google Health simply proceeding off their BAA as if they had consent to identified data from practices and patients, and HIPAA didn’t exist? 10 million healthcare records were breached and HHS brought it to a screeching halt.
    • Our TTA article of 14 Nov 19 goes into why Google was so overeager to move this project forward, fast, and break a few things like rules.
  • We as individuals have no transparency into these systems. We don’t know what they know about us, or if it is correct. And if it isn’t, how can we correct it?
  • “Algorithmic diagnostic and decision models sometimes return results that doctors themselves do not understand”–great if you are being diagnosed.
  • Big Data demands a high level of math literacy.  Most decision makers are not data geeks. And those of us who work with numbers are often baffled by results and later find the calcs are el wrongo–this Editor speaks from personal experience on simple CMS data sets.
  • In order to be valuable, AI and machine learning demand access to potentially sensitive data. What’s the tradeoff? Where’s the consent?

Implicit in the article is cui bono?

  • Google and its social media rivals want data on us to monetize–in other words, sell stuff to us. Better health and outcomes are just a nice side benefit for them.
  • China. Our Readers may also recall from our April 2019 article that China is building the world’s largest medical database, free of those pesky Western democracy privacy restrictions, and using AI/machine learning to create a massive set of diagnostic tools. They aren’t going to stop at China, and in recent developments around intellectual property theft and programming back doors, will go to great lengths to secure Western data. Tencent and Fosun are playing by Chinese rules.

In conclusion:

At the end of the day, improving health care through big data and AI will likely take much more trial and error than techno-optimists realize. If conducted transparently and publicly, big-data projects can teach us how to create high-quality data sets prospectively, thereby increasing algorithmic solutions’ chances of success. By the same token, the algorithms themselves should be made available at least to regulators and the organizations subscribing to the service, if not to the public.

and

Having been massively overhyped, big-data health-care solutions are being rushed to market in without meaningful regulation, transparency, standardization, accountability, or robust validation practices. Patients deserve health systems and providers that will protect them, rather than using them as mere sources of data for profit-driven experiments.

Hat tip to Steve Hards.

The Year of the Sensor, round 2: COVID contact tracing + sensor wearables in LTC facilities; Ireland’s long and pivoting road to a contact tracing app

July 24, 2020 | by

Wearables + sensors being used in long-term/post-acute care facilities for COVID contact tracing, decontamination. Historically ‘unsexy’ to digital health techies, long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) came into sharp focus as the epicenter of COVID-19 deaths in the past four months. 45 percent of US COVID-19 deaths (over 54,000) occurred in nursing homes and assisted living residences, with the percentages being far higher in states like New Hampshire and Rhode Island (80%), Massachusetts and Connecticut (63%), Pennsylvania (68%), and New Jersey (48%). Freopp.org has a wealth of state-level information.

This created opportunities for companies that already had relationships with LTPAC to create systems to 1) contact trace individuals and residents, 2) trace locations not only of residents and staff but also contaminated areas, and 3) help focus ongoing decontamination and sanitization efforts. Featured in this surprising TechRepublic article is CarePredict, which back in March started to develop a response to COVID spread including what they dubbed the PinPoint Toolset. CarePredict already had in place a sensor-based system for residents that consolidated sensors into a wrist-worn resident ADL tracker with location and machine learning creating predictive health analytics that appear in a dashboard form. They expanded their analytics to staff and visitor contact plus locating frequently visited area by residents and staff so that decontamination efforts can be focused there. Also featured in the article are VIRI (website) and Quuppa, a real-time locating system (RTLS) repurposed from manufacturing and security. (Disclosure: Editor Donna consulted for CarePredict in 2017-18)

Ireland’s long and winding road to a national contact tracing app is the subject of an article in ZDNet. Waterford-based NearForm was called in by Ireland’s Health Services Executive (HSE) on week 1 of the lockdown and started work immediately. They had a prototype oapp running on a mobile phone by the end of the week, nonfunctioning but giving the HSE a look at the user interface. NearForm worked on a centralized model first, which was basically terminated by Apple’s insistence on blocking BTE, then in April pivoted to the decentralized Apple-Google (Gapple? AppGoo?) Exposure Notification system, once the HSE secured beta access to the new technology. By 7 July, Ireland launched and had over a million downloads in 48 hours. Germany had a similar saga and timing. Both Ireland, Germany, and other countries moved quickly to adopt Apple and Google’s APIs, when Apple blocked their original centralized app methodology. UK and NHSX did not pivot and are In The Lurch with Test and Trace [TTA 18 June, more deconstruction in VentureBeat]. Editor’s Note to Matt: go to your neighbor island, don’t be shy, and make a ‘deal deal’ for the app. Solves that problem. 

Can technology speed the return to office post-COVID? Is contaminated office air conditioning a COVID culprit?

July 23, 2020 | by

Most offices in the US are still not open or only ‘essential personnel’. As this Editor noted on 19 May, a number of companies, including startups, are focusing on working with employers on return-to-work strategies. There are a raft of approaches including on-site clinics, temperature screening checkpoints, and check-in/reporting apps from Verily (Alphabet) and Fitbit’s Ready to Work. These screeners generally monitor for self-reported symptoms, but some will advise and track you to testing if you demonstrate risk, such as UnitedHealth Group and Microsoft’s ‘ProtectWell’ with a closed loop of testing recommendations that are reported to the employer. Collective Go from Collective Health goes a bit further in emphasizing up-front (molecular [PCR]) testing and continuous employee monitoring into their protocols for, apparently, every worker. OneMedical, which works with 7,000 employers, adds to their on-site management and testing additional contact tracing. FierceHealthcare

Maybe it’s in the air-conditioned air you breathe? Office building air circulation may be a culprit in the spike in Florida, Arizona, and Texas cases. The uptick in cases in Southern states where the contagion rates were initially fairly light may be due to the mostly recirculated air in office air conditioning systems. Most modern buildings don’t have windows which open. Older buildings have their own problems like mold from leaky systems and ‘soot’ (from air pollution and when people used to smoke in offices, remember when?). Newer LEED buildings are so ‘tight’ and energy efficient that air tends to be stagnant. Few buildings have good ratios of air exchange with the outside plus use HEPA filtration throughout the HVAC system. The total picture is that any virus can make its way through offices–six feet of distancing, masks, sanitization, no cafeterias, and acrylic panel separators be d****d.  (Contrast your average office building with modern commercial aircraft where about 50 percent of air is recirculated at any one time, there’s a total change about every three minutes, and HEPA filters are used! AskThePilot, a great site for all things airline)

A return-to-work readiness strategy suggested here by a Harvard Medical epidemiologist whose main area is TB spread are germicidal UV lights high in the room to catch the viruses that go up, then down. UV light for sanitization and disinfection is a technology used for several years to disinfect patient care areas (PurpleSun is one). Far-UVC, versus near-UVC, and potential uses are outlined in this Nature article from February 2018.  Harvard Gazette

While telehealth virtual office visits flatten, overall up 300-fold; FCC finalizes COVID-19 telehealth funding program (US)

July 22, 2020 | by

As expected, the trend of telehealth visits versus in-person is flattening as primary care offices and urgent care clinics reopen. Yet the overall trend is up through May–a dizzying 300-fold, as tracked by the new Epic Health Research Network (EHRN–yes, that Epic). Their analysis compares 15 March-8 May 2020 to the same dates in 2019 using data from 22 health systems in 17 states which cover seven million patients. It also constructs a visit diagnosis profile comparison, which leads with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, pain, and diabetes–with the 2020 addition of — unsurprisingly — anxiety.

POLITICO Future Pulse analyzed EHRN data into July (which was not located in a cross-check by this Editor) and came up with its usual ‘the cup has a hole in it’ observation: “TELEHEALTH BOOM BUST”. But that is absolutely in line with the Commonwealth Fund/Phreesia/Harvard study which as we noted tailed off as a percentage of total visits by 46 percent [TTA 1 July]. But even POLITICO’s gloomy headline can’t conceal that telehealth in the 37 healthcare systems surveyed was a flatline up to March and leveled off to slightly below the 2 million visit peak around 15 April. 

Where POLITICO’s gloom ‘n’ doom is useful is in the caution of why telehealth has fallen off, other than the obvious of offices reopening. There’s the post-mortem experience of smaller practices which paints an unflattering picture of unreadiness, rocky starts, and unaffordability:

  • Skype and FaceTime are not permanent solutions, as not HIPAA-compliant
  • New telehealth software can cost money. However, this Editor also knows from her business experience that population health software often has a HIPAA-compliant telehealth module which is relatively simple to use and is usually free.
  • It’s the training that costs, more in time than money. If the practice is in a value-based care model, that is done by market staff either from the management services organization (MSO) or the software provider.
  • Reimbursement. Even with CMS loosening requirements and coding, it moved so quickly that providers haven’t been reimbursed properly.
  • Equipment and broadband access. Patients, especially older patients, don’t all have smartphones or tablets. Not everyone has Wi-Fi or enough data–or that patient lives in a 2-bar area. Some practices aren’t on EHRs either.
  • Without RPM, accurate device integration, and an integrated tracking platform, F2F telehealth can only be a virtual visit without monitoring data.

Perhaps not wanting to paint a totally doomy picture (advertising sponsorship, perhaps?), the interview with Ed Lee, the head of Kaiser Permanente’s telehealth program, confirmed that the past few months were extraordinary for them, even with a decent telehealth base. “We were seeing somewhere around 18 percent of telehealth [visits] pre-covid. Around the height of it, we’re seeing 80 percent.” They also have pilots in place to put technology in the homes of those who need it, and realize its limitations.

Speaking of limitations, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) COVID-19 Telehealth Program, authorized by the CARES Act, is over and out. The final tranche consisted of 25 applications for the remaining $10.73 million, with a final total of 539 funding applications up to the authorized $200 million. Applicants came from 47 states, Washington, DC, and Guam. FCC release. To no one’s surprise, 40 Congresscritters want to extend it as a ‘bold step’ but are first demanding that Chair Ajit Pai do handsprings and provide all sorts of information on the reimbursement program which does not provide upfront money but reimburses eligible expenditures. That will take a few months. You’d think they’d read a few things on the FCC website first. mHealth Intelligence

Telehealth, virtual, and ‘omnichannel’ health winners in CVS’ ‘Path To Better Health’ study

July 17, 2020 | by

CVS Health’s third annual ‘Path to Better Health’ study contains both cheerful (for health tech) and distressing news (for practices). While we do have to consider the source–CVS Health definitely has an entire kennel of dogs in the fractionalization of health delivery race, HealthHUB as only one–the key findings illustrate a greater acceptance of telehealth and remote visits by the surveyed consumers. Providers seem to be shifting in the same direction, albeit not that dramatically.

Percentage results are 2020 versus the (2019 study).

Consumers are much more accepting of virtual communication:

  • Telehealth interest: 32 percent (14 percent)
  • Virtual office visit interest: 29 percent (20 percent)
  • Messaging interest: 48 percent (41 percent)
  • More women (35 percent) than men (27 percent) are interested 
  • 40 percent are interested in virtual behavioral health; 38 percent in virtual advice from a pharmacist

Providers are moving more slowly in connecting virtually with patients, though telehealth had the greatest boost:

  • Telehealth: 40 percent (22 percent)
  • Virtual office visits: 24 percent (23 percent)
  • Digital messaging through email, text and patient portals: 36 percent said they are very valuable for successful interactions with their patients

While the study does not speculate on the lagging acceptance numbers for providers except for telehealth, virtual visits (by telehealth!) and digital messaging add to workload and do not necessarily at this time have clear workflows.

Predictive analytics

  • 39 percent of providers claim that they already have or are likely/somewhat likely to incorporate predictive analytics into their practices within several years
  • 31 percent of providers are somewhat likely to incorporate predictive analytics or artificial intelligence
  • Acceptance is greater among providers with very large (450+ patient) practices (48 percent)
  • Younger providers with under 15 years of experience are also more likely to incorporate predictive analytics in their practices (50 percent), versus those over 15 years of experience (35 percent)

Mental health issues. Perhaps it was the timing of the study (March), but the need for mental health support, evidenced by social connection among those 18 to 34 and 35 to 50, was drastically on the rise–unhappiness among social connections (29-30 percent), no desire to be social (44-45 percent), not knowing where to meet new people (44-51 percent).

There is also a great deal of information on concerns around affordability of medical and drug costs, convenience, the cost of chronic disease management, mental and cognitive health, and community-based resources. In reading through the executive summary, it is easy to see how delivery of care has shifted from the primary care office and hospital to urgent care clinics, but interoperability (information sharing) is a major concern. 75 percent of physicians have a high to moderate concern of a looming physician shortage.

Methodology. The US survey was taken in March. The consumer sample was 1,000 18+. CVS oversampled 12 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs): Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, Hartford, San Francisco, Tampa plus two ethnic groups: African American and Hispanic. 400 providers were surveyed, primarily primary care physicians and specialists with at least two years’ experience, as well as nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and pharmacists.

Infographic, Executive Summary, press release. Also Fierce Healthcare. (An annoying part of the summaries is that they state changes in percentage points as percentages.)

Walgreens Boots goes big with billion-dollar medical office deal with VillageMD

July 9, 2020 | by

Go big or go home. That seems to be Walgreens Boots Alliance’s’ theme in its 8 July announced deal with and investment in primary care provider VillageMD. They will set up 500 to 700 co-located full-service Village Medical offices in more than 30 markets over the next three to five years. The “Village Medical at Walgreens” offices will be staffed by a projected 3,600 primary care providers and fully integrated with Walgreens pharmacists for one-stop shopping. According to the release:

  • Most of the Village Medical medical offices will be approximately 3,330 square feet each, up to 9,000 square feet, and utilize existing store space. “80% will be used by VillageMD to fund the opening of the clinics and build the partnership.”
  • 24/7 care will be available via telehealth and at-home visits
  • Fees will be covered by insurance or for those without, on a sliding scale
  • Over 50 percent will be located in Health Professional Shortage Areas and Medically Underserved Areas/Populations, as designated by HHS. These would reach underserved “older, sicker, and poorer patients” without regular access to care, said VillageMD CEO Tim Barry in an interview with CNBC
  • Capacity would be 100 to 120 patients per day 

This follows on a pilot of five Village Medical clinics at Walgreens locations in Houston, and Village Medical’s eight-state expansion in the Find Care telehealth program announced in April.

Walgreens Boots Alliance will invest $1 billion in equity and convertible debt in VillageMD over the next three years, including a $250 million equity investment to be completed today which will culminate in about 30 percent ownership.

To this Editor, Walgreens is sitting at a giant poker table, stacking the $1,000 chips, and saying to its rivals, ‘see ya and raise ya’. These are full-service offices, not urgent care clinics, and they are investing in their provider. It could be transformative–or flop on executional niceties such as location, medical competition, or even COVID keeping down physical visits. The competition is also daunting on the retail side. Recently Walgreens has pared back hundreds of locations and faces the deep pockets of CVS-Aetna, which plans to open 1,500 HealthHUBs which integrate stores, MinuteClinics with nurse-practitioners, pharmacies, and health data, Amazon with PillPack aimed at its pharmacy business, and Walmart with its toe in the water with clinics. 

Village Medical, formerly Village Family Health, is a multi-state primary care provider which is part of Chicago-based VillageMD. Both include more than 2,800 physicians across nine markets, so the Walgreens deal will more than double their size. Also Forbes (Photo: Walgreens)