News roundup 21 Feb: UHG offers buyouts to 30K before layoffs (updated); more inside the Transcarent-Accolade deal; Hims acquires NJ testing company; layoffs bite inside HHS; in fundings, Vitalchat gains $6M, Frontera seeds at $32M, Harrison.ai $112M (AU), Abridge’s $250M

February 21, 2025 | by

UnitedHealth Group ends an annus horribilis with more horribilis. UHG offered early this week 30,000 employees their “Voluntary Resignation Severance Program” or VSRP. If the employee accepts between 24 February and 3 March, the program offers anywhere from 7 to 30 weeks severance, based upon tenure and salary grade; they’ll receive their termination date on 17 March with all released by 1 May, as of now. A wrinkle: their managers must approve of their taking the package, which could set up a situation of being released later involuntarily. UHG has 420,000 employees and oddly, is still posting available positions but they may be ‘ghost’.

Reports have been compiled by employees posting largely anonymously across social media and websites such as Reddit, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and TheLayoff.com. The buyout offer, according to reports, is concentrated in the benefits operations area. According to CNBC’s sources, benefits oversees multiple subdivisions that help manage customer service, claims, enrollment, customers’ insurance benefits, and more. As is typical with voluntary severance offers, the whip is that if employees do not take the VSRP, those laid off later will receive a reduced package.  There is no information about additional benefits, such as 401(k) and incentive vesting, or healthcare benefits–the last ironic for a healthcare company.

On social media, the betting is that UHG is only the first payer to institute layoffs, with the decline in Medicare Advantage payouts and reductions in ACA subsidies. Other factors: AI (per the last earnings call, they are replacing many customer service functions with AI programs) and offshoring. This is not going to be a great year for any payer, if you work for one, and their suppliers/partners. HealthPayerSpecialist (hat tip to Mansur Shaheen via LinkedIn), FierceHealthcare, PYMNTS.com, Minneapolis Star-Tribune   A followup article by Mr. Shaheen with UHG interviewing employees and accessing company information is here. Another reason why is that UHG’s attrition rate, for various reasons including company response to the Brian Thompson murder and their higher pay rates, was much lower than forecast.

Updates on the Transcarent deal for Accolade. Contained in the latter’s SEC Schedule 14A, an announcement of a stockholder meeting (virtual) and preliminary proxy statement, are more tidbits in the runup to the deal with Transcarent:

  • Transcarent’s merger sub was formed on 3 January, indicating this deal has been on the table for some time
  • In April 2024, Accolade was considering acquiring a strategic company (unnamed). That company rejected the offer and instead offered to buy Accolade by May. Later that month into August, a special committee and outside advisors considered competing purchase offers, well over 16.
  • Transcarent’s original offer was made at end of July, was unsolicited, and an August proposal was rejected. A second proposal was rejected in September based on financing.
  • In October, after business reverses, Transcarent submitted another bid for shares at $7.25 and was delayed by the special committee 
  • Between that date and year’s end, the other proposals faded away for a variety of reasons.
  • Transcarent’s final offer was $7.03 per share and accepted in January.

Regarding transitioning incentives in the deal, expected to close in Q2:

  • It can be terminated by 7 October. If Accolade terminates it, the payment to Transcarent is $19.8 million. If Transcarent terminates, the fee to Accolade is $29,950,000
  • Top management (Rajeev Singh, Stephen Barnes, Robert Cavanaugh, and Richard Eskew) shares will accelerate in vesting. Some top management such as CEO Singh will enjoy retention bonuses.
  • It describes treatment of employee benefits such as restricted and performance stock units (RSU, PSU) being converted to cash and that other benefits for continuing employees will be cut over for a year.

Also Endpoints News

Hims & Hers buys a testing lab in NJ.  The acquisition of Sigmund NJ LLC, also known as Trybe Labs, in Kearny NJ will support at-home blood draws and more complete and affordable whole-body testing. The acquisition was self-financed and not disclosed. Hims, a telehealth prescriber for GLP-1, ED, hair loss, migraines, and anti-depressants, in the release pointed out that the Trybe Labs buy will enable them to serve high-impact clinical categories including low testosterone, perimenopausal, and menopausal support for patients and providers. Through using a blood lancet, they will test for hormone levels, cardiac risk, stress markers, cholesterol, liver function, thyroid function, and prostate health. Mobihealthnews, Endpoints News

Layoffs within HHS are extensive–and as of a court action today, going through. Most of those eliminated by DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) are probationary hires–in their first year–and some in year two. Those released at HHS include 1,300 at the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health (unknown but expected to be upwards of 600). Those released will have a month’s severance but will end work on Friday 14 February. Some probationary NIH employees will be retained. Cuts include CDC and other HHS contract workers and include dozens at the Vaccine Research Center housed at NIH. The current acting principal deputy director, Nirav Shah, will be departing on 28 February as will Renee Wegrzyn, the appointed head of Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), which performs biomedical research in conjunction with the private sector established in 2022 by the last administration. Ironically, reviewers of Elon Musk’s Neuralink project and other brain-computer interface companies were among the 20 fired at FDA’s Office of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices.

HHS employs more than 80,000 people across multiple agencies and has a budget of $1.8 trillion. NIH alone has 20,000 people and has a $47 billion annual budget. STAT, Mobihealthnews

Funding highlights include a stunning seed round:

  • Vitalchat, a provider of in-patient virtual nursing and procedural telehealth, closed a $6 million Series A round. Investors were led by Green Harvest Capital Industries (GHC Industries). Two of their principals will join the Vitalchat board: Ankit Patel, GHC’s CEO, and Saagar Parikh, co-founder/principal. The new funds will be used for product innovation, market expansion, and deeper AI integration into clinical workflows for its AI-assisted virtual sitters. Release
  • Frontera Health’s seed round of $32 million was a return to 2020’s Big Raises. It was co-led by Lux Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Bison Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Inspired Capital participating. Frontera specializes in autism services, including virtual autism diagnosis and assessments, as well as in-home and center-based ABA therapy. It uses what they call ‘digital phenotyping’ to analyze interactions and behaviors, providing real-time cognitive reasoning and objective data points for clinical assessments. Behavioral Health Business noted substantial raises by other companies such as Anna Health and Prosper Health, along with private equity (PE) investments.  Release, Mobihealthnews
  • Down Under, Harrison.ai’s Series C totaled $112 million in a Series C funding. It was led by Aware Super, ECP, and Horizons Ventures. It provides medical imaging diagnostic support in radiology and pathology, including workflow solutions. Harrison is opening a US headquarters in Boston to expand their US business. It already has clients in APAC, EMEA, UK, and US, where it has 12 FDA clearances. One of their CT brain algorithms has FDA Breakthrough Device Designation and Medicare reimbursement through the New Technology Add-on Payment (NTAP).   Release, Mobihealthnews
  • Abridge raised an old-school level $250 million Series D investment. This was co-led by Elad Gil and IVP, with a long list of participants including Bessemer Venture Partners, California Health Care Foundation, CapitalG, CVS Health Ventures, K. Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital, and SV Angel. Abridge’s platform converts patient/clinician conversations into structured clinical notes in real time using (guess) generative AI. Funding will be used to further develop AI capabilities and commercial growth to support broader applications. It claims 100 of the largest and most complex healthcare systems in the US, from rural systems to children’s hospitals, leading academic systems, and nationally recognized cancer centers, Release

Robots’ largely positive, somewhat equivocal role in therapy for children with autism and cerebral palsy (HIMSS)

February 14, 2019 | by

A Georgia Tech study presented at this week’s HIMSS19 conference presented findings of an eight-week study of children with specific neurological conditions who were assisted by robotics in specific therapies for movement and cognition. The study began with the simple attraction of children to robots. Robots also don’t have the negative connotations of therapists, and in fact, based on the studies cited, robots  are more trusted than humans by both adults and children.

For a child, robots ‘repetitive and predictable interactions’ can be reassuring (like Pepper in a Belgium hospital two years ago) , along with ‘gamified’ therapies and child-robot direct interaction as well as therapist-guided. The study’s approaches took several forms:

  • Virtual reality therapy games
  • Guided physiotherapy in movement–gross and fine motor skills
  • Cognitive therapy to improve attention span
  • ‘Gamified’ therapy
  • Robot therapy coaching
  • Tablet-based games

At the start of the study, physical and cognitive baselines were taken and retested at four weeks. By eight weeks the difference in movement parameters between normally developing children and those with cerebral palsy had largely equalized. In a second study, when the robots were withdrawn, their improvement decreased, but not back to baseline. The researchers’ concern was of course, dependency on the robots for therapy on a long term basis. HIMSS presentation by Ayanna Howard, professor of robotics at Georgia Tech is currently online–view quickly as usually they are withdrawn shortly after HIMSS is over.  Mobihealthnews

Digital health supporting daily living with autism

October 6, 2015 | by

A developing area for healthcare tech is in the assistive technology (AT) area–in this instance to support those with autism. The spectrum of abilities and capabilities here is very wide–as are the needs. Some major challenges: organization, communication, managing stress levels, managing transitions in everyday living as a college student with autism must. Last week’s Autech 2015 at Old Trafford, Manchester spotlighted AT such as Brain in Hand, a smartphone/tablet app that touches on all three: it helps with planning daily activities, logging stress levels, providing help with coping strategies and if it is overwhelming, a direct connection to a support worker at the Wirral Autistic Society. Other promising technology includes biometric wristbands to monitor signs of stress and provide feedback to identify and work to modify the autistic person’s reactions; the Kaspar assistance robot for socializing children; the Proloquo2go tablet app which speaks for those without speech by using speech-producing icons. AT for the autistic is at the very early part of the development curve, but this Editor could see dual or triple uses for these technologies for those with TBI, stroke or dementia. Studies on cost savings are early, but the Brain in Hand test in Devon estimated a 100-200x savings: £300-500/week for social care versus £20/week for the service (but does this include the live support worker?) There’s an app for that: how assistive tech changes lives of people with autism (Guardian)

Related: on a late adult diagnosis of autism, how it is to live with it on your own (Guardian)

ELabNYC Pitch Day 2015

April 4, 2015 | by

Thursday 3 April, Microsoft’s NY Technology Center, Times Square NYC

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Elab.png” thumb_width=”100″ /]The third annual Pitch Day for the now 20 startup/early-stage life science, biotech and healthcare technology companies in the ELabNYC (Entrepreneurship Lab Bio and Health Tech NYC) is a culmination of their year-long program participation in this NY Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC)-supported program. The entrepreneurs in the ELabNYC program primarily come from from the doctoral and post-doc programs from New York’s many universities, from CUNY to Columbia, from many parts of the world, and most have experience within the city’s multitude of major health research institutions from The Bronx to Brooklyn. New York is also a center of funding for life science and health tech ventures; it’s #2 with NIH awards totaling $1.4 billion. For the past few years, NYEDC has also supported these companies with finding access to capital, specialized space (e.g. wet labs such as the million square feet at Alexandria Center alone, plus Harlem Biospace and SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn) and partnerships with major companies such as Celgene, Eli Lilly, Pfizer and GE Ventures.

This Editor will concentrate on health tech companies–eight, up from five last year [TTA 17 Apr 14]. Each company pitched for five minutes on its concept, its current state of advancement (including pilots/customers), its team and a funding timeline. It was a very different mix from last year’s class, which focused on compliance, diagnosis, dementia and concussion. These companies focused on niches which are either not being served well or to substantially reduce costs. Nearly half the entrepreneurs were women, a substantially greater number than one usually sees in the biotech/health tech area. Short impressions on our eight, with links to their Executive Summaries on the 2014-15 ‘class page’: (more…)

Helping the ‘beleaguered caregiver’

April 23, 2013 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/60344-1-lg.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Medication organizing/sharing apps, geotracking, learning programs and texting are helping caregivers of those with Alzheimer’s, heart conditions and autism better cope with family conditions.   The National Alzheimer Center, a division of Hebrew Home at Riverdale in Bronx, NY, developed the Balance $3.99 app that has multiple features: Pill Box (med management), Learning (sharing info about the disease), Caregiving, Schedule (sharing calendars), Doctor Diary (tracking physical and emotional changes in the patient and sharing them with the doctor/s) and News (Arutz Sheva/Israel National News; release with photos). Available currently on iTunes; Android version to come. The Alzheimer’s Association offers Comfort Zone, which uses GPS to track the person with Alzheimer’s within a pre-set geographic area, for about $43 a month. For heart patients, Mended Hearts will be starting a program of texted tips for caregivers. Autism Speaks has collected learning websites and apps for tablets which families have used successfully with autistic children, and has given away over 800 to low-income families.  None are pricey, all serve growing populations–and none will generate buzz at industry cocktail parties. Beleaguered caregivers getting help from apps (SacBee/AP)