News roundup: WeightWatchers in 45-day prepackaged Ch. 11, Neuralink BCI successful in ALS subject, telehealth VR reduced TMD pain–study, AliveCor maxes up KardiaMobile 6L, TytoCare-Allina Health partnership, UHG-Amedisys divest some more

May 8, 2025 | by

WeightWatchers (WW) unburdens itself of debt in a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The reorganization under the bankruptcy filed yesterday in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware will take $1.15 billion of a total $1.62 billion (as of March 2025) in debt off their books while providing it with enough capital to reemerge in an estimated 45 days or around 1 July, or less. The Chapter 11 plan retains $175 million from their revolving credit facility, reduces its annual interest payments by $50 million, and extends their debt maturity dates. With bankruptcy court approval, their lenders receive new secured debt and equity. In the company statement, CEO Tara Comonte expressed confidence about WW’s future:  “The decisive actions we’re taking today, with the overwhelming support of our lenders and noteholders, will give us the flexibility to accelerate innovation, reinvest in our members, and lead with authority in a rapidly evolving weight management landscape.” The first day hearing is on 8 May. WW release, Kroll case information

WW entered the GLP-1 prescription weight loss drug race relatively late, last October, with compounding semaglutide, which boosted their fortunes for a time. They acquired telehealth provider/clinical weight manager Sequence in mid-2023 [TTA 2 Mar 2023], then formed the WeightWatchers Clinic program by December [TTA 21 Dec 2024] Results this year were projected at 140-160,000 subscribers. But that was not enough to correct WW’s problems, which were a profound loss of total subscribers: in Q1 2025 3.4 million subscribers versus 4 million in Q1 2024, with 2.8 million of them. Stock had traded on Nasdaq for some months below $1, with today’s trading below $0.50. Shares had lost 71.9% over the past 12 months, making it a (money) loss for nearly all common stock holders. Morningstar

The (physical) weight loss segment now dominated by Hims & Hers, Ro, LifeMD–now with prescription deals for Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy—and other telehealth providers and teleprescribers such as Teladoc, FuturHealth, RemedyMeds, Eden, and many others, made WW a latecomer. Even CVS Caremark got into the partnering act when it switched over to Wegovy from Lilly’s Zepbound in its standard formulary. This move may lure more members to its weight management program. As with Ro and LifeMD, the lowered cash pricing is $499/month. Healthcare Dive. For WW, is this a lasting cure or just kicking the can down the floor?

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) notch a big win. At the end of April, Neuralink confirmed its third successful implant, this one in an ALS patient, Brad Smith. The disease rendered him non-verbal, on a ventilator, and paralyzed below the shoulders. With the Neuralink brain implant, about the size of five quarters, he can now communicate verbally through his MacBook Pro and play video games only with his thoughts–essentially telepathy. He created a video using a voice cloned from previous recordings when he could speak, and using a mouse to create the narration. Previously, he used an eye gaze controller to communicate. This is truly miraculous and flying under the radar. Mobihealthnews, RedState  The previous recipients, Noland and Alex, are both paraplegics[TTA 21 Feb 2024].

Next up is Blindsight, which Elon Musk has said that will be tested in humans by the end of 2025 [TTA 10 Apr]. There is also a Canadian clinical trial, the “Canadian Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface” (CAN-PRIME) for subjects with tetraparesis or tetraplegia resulting from cervical spinal cord injury or the neurological disease ALS [TTA 27 Nov 2024].  A competitor of Neuralink, Precision Neuroscience, closed a Series C at $102 million last December.

A telehealth virtual reality (VR) solution effective for reducing chronic pain. A study published last month in Nature/NPI Digital Medicine demonstrated significan reductions in a 54-participant group, with some receiving telehealth-based immersive VR intervention on chronic orofacial pain (temporomandibular disorders or TMD) versus an audio-only (MP3) same-content control intervention and non-intervention on five-day ‘waves’. Pain intensity, unpleasantness, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and mood were monitored. There was significant reductions achieved with the immersive VR on pain intensity and other factors, with lesser results achieved with the MP3 intervention. The study directionally confirms results in other studies on lower back pain and other pain studies. Researchers were based in the University of Maryland School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and Towson University.

Short takes:

AliveCor is adding to its new KardiaMobile 6L Max KardiaAlert. KardiaAlert is now integrated into KardiaCare, a subscription service for the KardiaMobile 6L Max AI-assisted ECG monitor. The consumer purchase of the KardiaMobile 6L Max includes the device and a one-year subscription to KardiaCare, which now includes the KardiaAlert feature. The six-lead KardiaMobile 6L Max identifies up to 20 arrhythmias with a clinician review. Introductory price is $169. Release

Allina Health deploying TytoCare at 12 urgent care locations. The Midwest health system is adding the TytoCare Pro Smart Clinic service to a dozen of its urgent health locations in order to shorten wait times and offer additional remote treatment. For Allina, this allows their urgent cares to see more patients, offer hybrid care, and additional services such as heart and lung exams (featuring AI-driven wheeze and crackle detection), throat and ear assessments, skin exams and body temperature measurements. Allina Health, with hospitals in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, already uses TytoCare remote monitoring in hospital settings. TytoCare release

UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys persist. The long-running and DOJ-challenged acquisition by UHG of Amedisys home care is once again trying to remove the anti-competitive stumbling block by divesting more home care and hospice operations, this time to BrightSpring Health Services and Pennant Group. This was disclosed in Amedisys’s SEC Form 8-K. It is contingent of course on the closing of the UHG buy. BrightSpring is based in Kentucky and Pennant in Idaho. Pennant’s own SEC filing lists their purchase price as $102.5 million. The total number of operations to be sold is not disclosed. UHG and Amedisys extended their runway on closing to 31 December in January.  Healthcare Dive, Home Health Care News

The Department of Justice has been prominently blocking the $3.3 billion UHG acquisition, announced in what seems an eon ago in June 2023, on anti-trust grounds nearly immediately after the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR Act) premarket notification was filed, but most recently in a civil lawsuit filed last November in District Court in Maryland. The DOJ was joined by the Attorneys General of Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York. It alleges elimination of competition, harm in over 100 markets, falsely certifying compliance with HSR Act requirements, withholding documents, and much more. Additional background on that lawsuit is here. As this Editor said when UHG won in Federal court on acquiring Change Healthcare, a win they have 190 million reasons why to regret, “DOJ has a long memory, a Paul Bunyan-sized ax to grind, and doesn’t like losing.”

Midweek roundup: Transcarent closes Accolade; Walgreens beats Street; New Mountain Capital’s Office Ally buy-in; Neuralink Blindsight human trial coming up; PM Keir Starmer touts NHS data research; FTC’s PBM litigation break

April 10, 2025 | by

Transcarent closes Accolade buy, changes its game. Transcarent’s $621 million acquisition of Accolade was wrapped up in record time (two months from announcement). This takes the Nasdaq-listed Accolade private and rewards its former shareholders with $7.03 in cash. For a stock that peaked in late December 2020 into January 2021 above $59.00, and within the past year was above $9.00, this was salvage not profit except for speculators. The combined company in corporate care management now has 20 million members and more than 1,700 employer and health plan clients.

Notably, and very much in keeping with Glen Tullman’s M.O., the lead in their release is a new and rather generic marketing statement: “one place for health and care”. Much space is devoted to combinations: Transcarent’s generative AI WayFinding with Accolade’s True Health Actions member database to deliver clinical guidance to members. Transcarent also is promoting its generative AI as reducing the administrative burden for clinicians. The combined company is merging executive teams and much of its software. But the reality is combining two companies with clearly opposing care management products: Transcarent with a cost-saving, software-based, risk pricing model for self-insured employers, Accolade with a traditional human-based per member per month service model incorporating corporate care navigators and benefits consultants. Neither Accolade CEO Rajeev Singh, nor other members of top management whose shares fully vested (Stephen Barnes, Robert Cavanaugh, and Richard Eskew), are not listed in the new management lineup, though earlier information indicated that retention bonuses were offered. CNBC, Mobihealthnews  Also TTA 19 Feb reviewing MedCityNews’ Arundhati Parmar’s take on the combo and updated background TTA 21 Feb.

Walgreens beats Street analyst expectations on revenue, narrows losses. Winding up its public financial reports before the Sycamore Partners acquisition is finalized, Walgreens reported on Tuesday their fiscal Q2. Revenue was up 4% versus prior year to $38.6 billion. Losses were reduced to $2.9 billion versus prior year’s $5.9 billion loss. Per share losses were $3.30 versus $6.85. The year-ago loss included a $12.4 billion non-cash impairment charge related to VillageMD goodwill, which resulted in a $5.8 billion charge attributable to WBA, net of tax and non-controlling interest, and a $455 million non-cash impairment charge related to certain long-lived assets in the U.S. Retail Pharmacy segment. Operating cash flow in the current quarter was negatively impacted by $969 million of legal payments primarily related to PWN/Everly Health [$595 million, TTA 26 Feb] and multiple opioid-related settlements. WBA also withdrew 2025 financial guidance with the sale pending by end of year.  Release, Healthcare Dive

VC New Mountain Capital makes investment in Office Ally. The NMC “strategic growth investment” in the practice management/payment clearinghouse/EHR company is alongside Francisco Partners, which will also reinvest alongside management. The investment amount is not disclosed. Vancouver, Washington-based Office Ally enables the exchange of more than 950 million transactions and works with 80,000 healthcare organizations. For the $55 billion in assets NMC, this was evidently a better investment than their quickly terminated bid for 23andMe. Release

Neuralink’s next move–overcoming blindness. The Elon Musk-backed brain-computer interface (BCI) company announced at a Wisconsin town hall streamed on YouTube that its Blindsight implant will be tested in humans by the end of 2025. “Neuralink has had in monkeys a working device we call Blindsight,” Musk said. “It has been working well, and the monkeys are healthy for a few years now.” (The video clip is at 6:15 in this independently produced Neura Pod video, credit to Ryan Tanaka who follows Neuralink). The Blindsight implant works to restore vision in individuals who have lost sight and even their eyes or optic nerves by stimulating the visual cortex. The implant received FDA Breakthrough Device designation last September. 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 [TTA 21 Feb]. Mobihealthnews

Short takes:

NHS being ‘turbocharged’ by PM as medical research center. Prime Minister Keir Starmer took the lead on this, not the NHS, in announcing the creation of a new health data research service based on NHS data. The intent is to make all NHS data accessible through a secure single access point for national-scale data sets. The UK government and the Wellcome Trust will invest up to £600 million. This is part of the government’s Plan for Change to set up a modern industrial strategy, unlocking the potential of the Oxford‑Cambridge growth corridor, and “pro-growth measures to build a strong, resilient economy with more well-paid jobs”.  Gov.uk release

A longish break for the major pharmacy benefit management (PBM) companies. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it was staying its insulin pricing litigation against the three major PBMs: Caremark (CVS), Express Scripts (Cigna), and Optum Rx (UnitedHealth Group). The long-running action initiated last year by the now-departed FTC chair Lina Khan ran into FTC problems with the change of administrations. First, there are not enough commissioners at present to try the case, with the firing last month of two Democrat commissioners. Republican Melissa Holyoak recused herself. The new FTC chair, Andrew Ferguson, initially recused himself since he, while Virginia solicitor general, had advised the state’s attorney general on filing an amicus brief in a class action case against PBMs. He unrecused himself on 3 April (X statement) so that the case can continue when the FTC has enough commissioners. The PBMs countersued in November. The stay is 105 days followed by evidentiary hearings 225 days later, meaning that next February is the earliest the case can resume. It’s a break for their parent healthcare companies’ share prices, which have been weighed down by the FTC action. FierceHealthcare, Healthcare Dive