Babylon Health UK operations on fire sale–buyers to be announced Friday 25 August (updated)

August 23, 2023 | by

Quickly and softly, softly, Babylon Health’s UK operations are being sold. The sale will include the proprietary tech stack. If you planned to bid, the deadline passed on Monday 21 August. Winning bids will be announced on Friday 25 August at the latest.  Update: As of 29 August, the bidders have not been announced.

The rush is due to the extreme position that Babylon Health’s operations are in. A UK shutdown is likely without a quick sale. Their UK business is with Bupa insurance, a little left with the NHS, some B2B, and GP At Hand/direct to consumer. Business consultancy Alvarez and Marsal are running the sale, presumably as part of the UK receivership.

Bidders, who were invited by letter, may include Bupa, Vitality, tech companies HealthHero and Cera–and even CEO Ali Parsa, which might lead to questions by customers or the court. Kry/Livi stated to press that they were not bidding. Customers Bupa, with a contract to 2025, and the NHS may have a say in the eventual deals.

The proceeds of the sale are projected not to exceed the $300 million debt owed to AlbaCore Capital nor its last $34.5 million tranche. Other debtors and vendors will be left in the proverbial lurch. Sifted.eu, Becker’s

The sale does not include the US operations that are included under the Chapter 7 liquidation which is still in the filing of documents stage. Babylon US, which generated most of Babylon’s revenue, has already shut down. Close to half its business was with Centene entities such as Ambetter and WellCare, which terminated their contracts on 8 August, the day after the collapse of the AlbaCore deal. The only operating part of Babylon is the Meritage Medical Network, a medical practice IPA. Next steps start tomorrow, Thursday 24 August, for documentation of its secured and unsecured debtors and summaries of assets and liabilities. Babylon’s creditors will meet on Tuesday 12 September.

The UK fire sale also does not include Babyl Rwanda, a semi-independent unit that is engaging with the Rwandan government to find a buyer. There is no further information available on other operations in India or other countries. 

Most recent coverage on Babylon in TTA: 23 August, 17 August, 10 August, 8 August

TTA’s summer of bombshells 5: Babylon’s Chapter 7, Cano Health’s disaster, Feds delay UHG-Amedisys, DocGo takes flak, Access buys Oysta, Exor’s $2.8B buoys Philips, future unicorns, more!

August 18, 2023 | by

 

 

The bombshells don’t let up as Babylon Health is now in US Chapter 7 bankruptcy as well as UK receivership. Cano Health is likely the next there. DOJ and FTC delay UHG’s Amedisys buy. DocGo’s big NYC contract gets flakked up. Amazon Pharmacy does diabetics a solid with automated couponing. And there’s some bright spots with a pick of future unicorns, a big Italian investment in Philips, and Access Group’s Oysta buy. Plus weekend reading on the next unicorns and how streaming TV is like healthcare.

Weekend reading: Forbes picks the next $1B startups, is TV streaming analogous to the future of healthcare? (Yes, there may be unicorns, and the fracturing of TV and healthcare)
Week-end short takes: Amazon Pharmacy automating couponing of insulin and supplies, Mendaera imaging/robotics wins $24M, Access Group acquires Oysta (UK)
Babylon Health files for US Chapter 7 bankruptcy, winding down Babyl Rwanda and ending care for 2.8 million users (Hull loss for Babylon. Parting out starts 12 Sept)
Mid-week roundup: DocGo in NY migrant service trouble, more DOJ scrutiny of UHG-Amedisys buy, Exor now $2.8B lead investor in Philips (DocGo’s big contract brings big headlines in NY, UHG’s Amedisys delay a taste of things to come)
Cano Health at precipice of bankruptcy after disastrous Q2, lays off 700 (Waiting to hear from the Cano 3)

The summer of bombshells continues into August. The largest crater is left by Babylon Health’s merger collapse and US shutdown. Some optimism in Q2 financial reports but layoffs at larger companies surprise. Few surprises in KPMG’s healthcare M&A report. Bright Health may survive, as Clover and Oscar pivot too. And last week’s Big News of HIMSS and Informa has settled into Not Much Change and perhaps better. At least for now.

Healthcare M&A hit a 3 year low in Q2 2023, to the surprise of none: KPMG (Many reasons why-and we add a few observations)
Babylon Health shuts US operations, goes into UK receivership (At the end of the runway and into the lights)
Mid-week short takes: Amwell lowers 2023 outlook, DocGo goes up, Imprivata + PFH win Ireland HSE contract, Oracle Health’s Nashville move, layoffs at 23andMe, Doximity
Living to fight another day: insurtechs Bright Health, Clover Health, and Oscar Health report improved Q2s, H1s (updated) (Bright still at brink, but Clover and Oscar pivoting)
Babylon merger with AlbaCore and MindMaze collapses, selling UK and transitioning US businesses, bankruptcy anticipated (The deal fell apart fast)
More details on the HIMSS-Informa partnership on HIMSS24-Global Health Conference & Exhibition (Net-net–not much change and perhaps improvements)

This week’s Big News was the confirmation of the HIMSS deal with Informa–not a sale but a ‘partnership’–developing. CVS having some profitability problems and restructuring, minus 5,000–as is Oracle Cerner. Meanwhile, Congress tightly reins in Oracle Cerner EHRM in appropriations bill. And now you can run to Amazon Clinic without (much) concern about your privacy!

Short takes: CVS’ $1.12M Q2 net income loss, forecast spurs 5,000 layoffs; Signify’s in-home kidney exams; Indonesia’s Halodoc $100M D; FeelBetter raises $5.9M; Medicare breach hits 612,000 beneficiaries (When you spend like CVS, something’s gotta give)
House appropriates $1.9B for Oracle Cerner VA EHR modernization, $5.2B for telehealth, plus other technologies; Oracle lays off more Cerner staff (Congress reins in VA+Oracle Cerner)
Done (and split) deal! Informa to “manage” HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition (updated) (It’s a partnership. Really!!)
More thoughts on the pending sale of the HIMSS Global Conference (Developing)
Amazon Clinic announces 50-state rollout 1 August. Were the privacy issues fixed? (Maybe, at least in disclosures)

Another few bombshells go off while a heat wave descends. It looks like the annual HIMSS conference won’t be HIMSS anymore. Another ‘David’ faces ‘Goliath’ in the Dorsata vs. athenahealth lawsuit. The FTC/HHS-OCR noose tightens on third-party ad tracker use. Positive earnings news from Teladoc, GE Healthcare, Talkspace, a lot of fundings–plus Nextech sold for $1.4B.

Legal roundup: Dorsata sues athenahealth, provider group on trade secret theft, Nevada terms Friday Health Plans (Dorsata as another ‘David’)
Close of week short takes: Q2 earnings up for GEHC, Talkspace; UnitedHealth invests $11M in SDOH; fundings for two AI startups, K4Connect, UpLift, Family First
Informa PLC to acquire HIMSS Global Health Conference and Exhibition (A ‘landmark’ love-it-or-hate-it conference to change hands)
Mid-week news roundup: $105M senior debt to Headspace; Nextech bought for $1.4B; Teladoc’s Better(Help) Q2 boosts 10%; Peppermint’s online ‘clubhouse’ for seniors, PathAI lays off 87
FTC, HHS OCR scrutiny tightens on third-party ad trackers, sends letter to 130 hospitals and telehealth providers

It may be summer, but the bombshells keep dropping. FTC and DOJ dropped draft merger guidelines on antitrust–in addition to HSR premerger notification–that will have far-reaching consequences. We update the demise of Friday Health Plans (another 30K members in the lurch), the Cano Health telenovela, hacking from Russia to UK to US, buys, financing, class action lawsuits, and an order in the ongoing AliveCor-Apple antitrust suit that slaps Apple down hard.

Another antitrust shoe drops: FTC, DOJ publish Draft Merger Guidelines for comment–what are the effects? (New restrictions not good for founders, managers, VCs)
Mid-week roundup: Colorado terms Friday Health Plans; Cano 3 continue to savage board; Amazon Pharmacy layoffs; hacking attacks: QuickBlox, Barts Health; Phreesia buys MediFind; financing pops for K Health, Amino
Legal roundup: Teladoc class-action suit dismissed; NextGen EHR $31M Federal settlement; significant AliveCor-Apple antitrust ‘spoiliation’ update; class action suits filed against HCA, Johns Hopkins

We looked at the first half’s digital health funding (back to 2019), the trend to unnamed and down rounds, two up rounds, two layoffs, three mixed pictures of telehealth effectiveness, it’s an almost-wrap at MHS for Oracle, and Amazon’s dodgy approach to your privacy. Early-stage company financing and managing your financials? We have some advice.

News roundup: MHS Genesis EHR completes US rollout, telehealth selective savings by disease, CarePredict’s $29M funding, Amazon Alexa *Spying on You* (Confirming telehealth unevenly bends the curve)
Thursday short takes: Fold Health VBC $6M round, Vivalink’s RPM in Burma rural health, Vytalize adds two to board, layoffs at TytoCare, IntelyCare (The roller coaster continues)
“Hope is not a business model”–advice from two VCs, with a bit more advice on basic banking (We unpack good advice for early-stage companies)
Mid-week roundup: telehealth success in opioid use disorder treatment, Epic sees fewer followup visits from telehealth vs in-office, telehealth usage slightly lower, HCA data theft may affect 11 million
Rock Health’s first half funding roundup adjusts the bath temperature to tepid, the bubbles to flat (2020-22 an aberration)

A short week in the US with the holiday wasn’t short of news. Bright Health and Molina made a $600M deal for California plans–as long as Bright stays solvent thru Q1 2024. Insurtechs proved to be disruptive but not innovative enough. And a potpourri of news from FDA requesting comments on home care tech, Japan, Alertacall on funding. A new mental health company targeting seniors is born while an old one struggles.

Short takes: FDA seeks feedback on home care tech; Japan care homes piloting AI; Author Health’s $115M bet on senior mental health; Alertacall’s Batchelor on ‘right fit’ finance support; Headspace in the wrong (layoff) space again
Why the ‘insurtechs’ didn’t revolutionize health insurance–and the damage they may have done (Back to the legacy payers)
Bright Health to exit insurance business, selling California plans to Molina for up to $600 million–contingent on surviving to 2024 (A dicey proposition all round)

Wrapping up June before the US Independence Day holiday next week had its own fireworks. Most far reaching–the changes spearheaded by FTC for HSR premerger notifications that will only quadruple the work. Babylon Health completing its going private arrangement with AlbaCore. Amazon delays Clinic rollout for three weeks facing tough data usage questions from senators. More pleasant looks at rural telehealth on a bucolic Irish island and supermarket trolley heart monitoring. Happy 4th!

Ireland’s Clare Island as multimodal rural telehealth and telemonitoring testbed (Very rural health on Ireland’s west coast)
FTC, DOJ float enhanced information requirements for HSR premerger notification filing process–what will be M&A effects? (More dampers on a down market?)
Embedding ECG sensors to a supermarket cart (trolley) handle as ‘first-line’ screening for atrial fibrillation (Bringing monitoring to everyday life)
Mid-week roundup: Optum buying Amedisys home care for $3.3B; Clover Health settles 7 shareholder lawsuits around SPAC non-disclosures; Walgreens cuts 2023 outlook, stock plummets 11%
Amazon Clinic delays 50-state telehealth rollout due to Federal data privacy, HIPAA concerns on user registration, PHI–is it a warning? (Amazon better heed it)
Babylon Health to go private with AlbaCore in planned ‘Take Private Proposal’, combine with MindMaze (Merging two very different companies)

Of continued interest: 

Mid-week update: Cano Health CEO finally booted, interim named; further information on Oracle Cerner layoffs (The Cano telenovela continues!)

Perspectives: How robust patient scheduling and intake enable better patient access to cancer care – a UK case study 
‘Warning flare’ study: will pandemic-induced digital health solutions get renewed by hospitals in 2023-4, or will they churn? (Get cracking with your account relationships)
‘The Future of AI and Older Adults 2023’ now published (Laurie Orlov’s latest analysis)

VA awards four remote patient monitoring companies to share in $1B Home Telehealth contract (Medtronic wins again plus 3 newbies)
Watch your cash burn! Now 31 months average for startups between Series A and B. Now what do you do? (Cautionary advice for startups)

Perspectives: How AI and ML can accelerate the growth of telemedicine across the globe (Thoughtful take on the up-and-downsides of both)

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Babylon Health files for US Chapter 7 bankruptcy, winding down Babyl Rwanda and ending care for 2.8 million users (updated)

August 17, 2023 | by

When added to the UK receivership, it looks like total hull loss* for Babylon. Their US bankruptcy was just made public through a Forbes article (hat tip to HIStalk) that Babylon Health filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with papers dated Wednesday 9 August. This is two days after shutting their Austin HQ and laying off 94 staffers. This confirms that the US company will be liquidated for the value of the assets, which will be sold through the court and the proceeds distributed to secured creditors. One wonders who will be lining up for the IP and other scraps.

Babylon Inc. and Babylon Healthcare Inc. are the two entities filing Chapter 7. There are hundreds of creditors, but as is typical in Chapter 7 bankruptcy, only the creditors secured by collateral will have some chance of being paid something on the dollar. AlbaCore Capital alone is owed $34.5 million from their recent bridge financing and an earlier $300 million in notes due 2026.

Katie Jennings, the writer, notes that Babylon has three other subsidiaries incorporated in Delaware, none of which filed for bankruptcy. In the filings, Babylon’s assets and liabilities are listed as between $100 and $500 million. She attempted to reach their chief operating officer Paul-Henri Ferrand, the signature on the Chapter 7 filing, but his email bounced. (The COO position was eliminated per the Texas Workforce Commission notice.)

Next steps according to the article in the filing: next Thursday 24 August to document its secured and unsecured debtors and summaries of assets and liabilities. Babylon’s creditors will meet on Tuesday 12 September. Bankruptcy documents are on Pacer and on Inforuptcy (fees required)

Update 18 August: The Healthcare Dive article published today has links to both Babylon Inc. and Babylon Healthcare bankruptcy filings. The precipitating act was that Centene first notified Babylon Healthcare on contract non-renewal on 4 August. On 8 August, after the AlbaCore deal collapsed the prior day, Centene terminated all contracts with Babylon effective immediately, save three contracts with Babylon’s IPA, Meritage Medical Network. The Centene contracts constituted over 48% of their US business in 2022. 8 August SEC Form 8-K

In Rwanda, Babylon Health through its Babyl unit is also winding down virtual care that covers 20% of the country. Babylon has a 10-year agreement with the government of Rwanda to provide virtual primary care services to people in that country, subsidized by $2.2 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in a partnership dating back to 2016. By the end of 2022, Babyl reported 2.8 million users, or 20% of that 13.2 million person country, claiming a daily 4,000 medical consults a day, which constitutes an outstanding success by the numbers. But that won’t be preserved in the parent company collapse.

A Monday 7 August email obtained by Forbes states that Babylon will be winding down operations there on a non-disclosed timetable and without a clear path for its 650 employees there. “It is with a heavy heart that we will begin the process of winding down Babyl Rwanda, while in parallel exploring opportunities to find Babyl Rwanda a new home. We have entered into discussions with potential investors and partners and will leave no stone unturned to secure the best possible outcome for our business and Babylonians.” (sic) Regarding layoffs, the email confirmed most of the US layoffs would be immediate, UK employees would largely be retained, and Rwanda and India workers would be told more at team meetings. Employees were warned not to talk to the press and the email was signed ‘Babylon Leadership’.  The Gates Foundation did not comment on whether the foundation had been informed of Babylon’s plans to wind down service.

Previous TTA coverage back to May:

Babylon Health shuts US operations, goes into UK receivership, Babylon merger with AlbaCore and MindMaze collapses, selling UK and transitioning US businesses, bankruptcy anticipated, Babylon Health to go private with AlbaCore in planned ‘Take Private Proposal’, combine with MindMaze, Babylon Health to go private (includes summary of Q1 financials)

This story is developing. *’Hull loss’ describes an aviation accident that results in catastrophic, unrecoverable damage to the aircraft.

HealthSpot winds out to Ch. 7 liquidation, assets for sale

March 11, 2016 | by

The object lesson of HealthSpot continued its sad revelations in a Columbus, Ohio Federal bankruptcy court Thursday (10 March) with the confirmation of liquidation under Chapter 7 rather than reorganization under Chapter 11. According to the report in MedCityNews, the bankruptcy trustee is now accepting offers for the assets valued by HealthSpot at $5.1 million. The bulk of these assets–$3.5 million–consist of 191 telemedicine kiosks of which 54 had been deployed with customers such as Rite Aid and Cleveland Clinic. The trustee has been permitted by the court to list these assets on a website. Whether there is any market for the hardware, or the intellectual property of HealthSpot, is a very open question indeed.

Some digging by this Editor has revealed a possible precipitating event to the company’s shutdown, and an obvious, non-recoupable drain on the time and funds of a teetering company. A District Court order issued 4 December on the patent infringement legal action by Nevada-based Computerized Screening [TTA 8 Jan] is now available online. It appears to have been conceded by Computerized Screening as “non-infringement on the basis of the absence of the limitation of “controller”” which is technically a win for HealthSpot. But HealthSpot then sought in September to collect attorney’s fees of a stunning $829,500 from Computerized Screening (more…)

HealthSpot files for Chapter 7 liquidation (updated)

January 19, 2016 | by

The shock continues with HealthSpot. On Wednesday the company filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio in Columbus. The laundry list: assets of $5.2 million, about $3.5 million in inventory, and $23.3 million in liabilities, including convertible notes of $10 million from cable/broadband company Cox Communications, $6 million from investor Xerox and an undisclosed amount from the Ohio Development Services Agency. HealthSpot had raised close to $44 million since 2011. Their bankruptcy attorney David Whittaker cited cash flow; with only $1.1 million in revenue over the past three years, according to the filing, including $600,000 in 2015, no elaboration was needed. There’s not much left in assets to sell: 191 kiosks, mostly in storage (137) and 54 operating but shuttered at customer sites. The remaining value in liquidation (a/k/a pennies on the dollar) is dependent on whether the name, the kiosks and the IP are purchased. The last is problematic due to the current legal action by Computerized Screening [TTA 8 Jan] We hope this is not a sad harbinger of digital health in 2016, though we have already sensed that the unicorns are heading Over The Rainbow or wherever they go to pasture, but it’s not reassuring. Columbus Business First, MedCityNews.

Update: Neil Versel in his Throwback Thursday took a look at HealthSpot’s steak and salad days at International CES 2013. (See comments for this Editor’s impressions of HealthSpot at ATA 2014.) Perhaps good marketing, but symptomatic of the capital burn, doomed by a lack of sales and quite possibly, a solution that would have knocked it out of the park in 2010. As the old fighter pilot said, ‘timing and luck are everything.’