TTA’s Blooming Spring 4: UnitedHealth’s CEO change doesn’t stop market pummeling, Omada’s IPO, Theranos redux, Holmes loses appeal, Synchron BCI and Apple, exec security cost, raises, more!

May 16, 2025 | by

 

16 May 2025

One after another surprise this week. UnitedHealth Group changed out CEOs suddenly. The new one is a surprising ‘blast from the profitable past’ but that didn’t stop Mr. Market from taking the stock down down down. Another blast involves Elizabeth Holmes’ partner Billy Evans fronting a diagnostic testing-in-a-box startup. “Surprise, surprise!” No surprise that Holmes lost her appeal of an appeal–nor Omada Health filing for an IPO. Unfortunately, our investigator on all things Masimo met his own surprise walking on a sunny day–fortunately, Ted’s on the mend. More about BCIs with Apple integration, a chronic pain management startup, Parkinson’s data, two good raises, and what payers pay to keep their execs safe.

Short takes: Synchron BCI integrates with Apple devices, Shields Health partners with Duke on specialty pharmacy, raises for Cohere Health, Olio (More BCI action with Apple getting into it)

Theranos’ revenge? Holmes’ partner Billy Evans founds a startup for diagnostic testing, denies it is ‘Theranos 2.0’; Holmes loses Federal rehearing appeal. (Is Holmes advising long distance? Letters from a Texas Jail?)

News roundup: Omada Health files for IPO, UPMC-Redesign partner on chronic pain management, OK and PA AGs warn 23andMe users to delete data, Verily to build Parkinson’s dataset, what payers paid for exec security (Omada follows Hinge. But the last is surprising–between a lot and a little)

This just in: UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty steps down immediately, replaced by former CEO Stephen Hemsley (updated 15 May) (UHG may change out CEOs, but continues to be hammered by Mr. Market)

Best wishes to Strata-gee’s Ted Green on a fast recovery! (Ted, our ace Masimo investigator, was put rather suddenly in a bad place…use your eyes when you drive!)

From last week: This week’s drama was all about Masimo, developing literally as this Editor was writing. Their website outage was revealed to be from a cyberattack that took down nearly all their systems. Not good for a monitoring/tech company. But their good news was that they sold Sound United to Samsung–2/3rds off. The others deserving of more attention are Neuralink’s successful BCI implant in an ALS subject and UHG’s 1,000 app bet on AI. Not so dramatic: WeightWatchers’ prepackaged, quick bankruptcy, the NIH/CMS autism data project, and Amedisys divesting to salvage their UHG sale. 

Short takes: HHS forms NIH/CMS autism data project; Oscar Health beats Street w/Q1 $275M net; Centene’s $1.3B earnings; UHG has class action suit on earnings, 1K AI apps in production; Cedars-Sinai and Redesign Health partner on development; FDA, Lilly, Novo Nordisk win vs. compounders (Big step forward for autism research)

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 (WW losing runway, a Neuralink win, Amedisys divesting to save their two-year-old UHG deal)

Breaking–Masimo Mystery SOLVED–cyberattack, website down for days, new websites up–and where’s the public explanations? Sound United sold. (Another cleanup on Aisle 10–the Sound United albatross flies off)

Holding this over: The weekend read: why SPACs came, went, and failed in digital health–the Halle Tecco analysis/memorial service; why OpenAI is going to be a bad, bad business (Grab the cuppa and lunch for a good read and podcast. Updated–Also Tecco’s blog post on why she quit being an angel investor.) 

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News roundup: Omada Health files for IPO, UPMC-Redesign partner on chronic pain management, OK and PA AGs warn 23andMe users to delete data, Verily to build Parkinson’s dataset, what payers paid for exec security

May 13, 2025 | by

Omada Health’s IPO filing kicked off the week’s news. The chronic condition care management company is the second with a major IPO this year, stirring a dormant healthcare market. There aren’t a lot of offering details in the 9 May SEC Form S-1 registration and preliminary prospectus, but the IPO will launch on Nasdaq Global Markets under the symbol OMDA. There is no disclosure of timing, number of shares to be offered, or pricing. Their prior funding since 2011 is over $528 million through a Series E and debt financing, with lead investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Norwest Venture Partners, Wellington Management, New Enterprise Associates, and Founder Collective (Crunchbase).

Omada’s focus on ‘bending the disease’ curve via a ‘between-visit care model’ for diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and MSK patients has met with success. With a listing of 2,000+ customers and over 679,000 total members enrolled in one or more programs, their 2024 revenue grew 38% from $122.8 million to $169.8 million in 2023, with Q1 2025 by 57% to $55.0 million from 2024’s $35.1 million. Revenue does not mean profit, with net losses of $67.5 million in 2024 and $47.1 million in 2023, with $9.4 million in losses during Q1 2025 reduced from $19 million in Q1 2024. CNBC, Mobihealthnews, FierceHealthcare

Larger and MSK-focused competitor Hinge Health announced its own IPO back in mid-March [TTA 14 Mar] via a SEC S-1 filing and preliminary prospectus, but sent out word that it was postponing by April [TTA 8 April]. With markets doing much better, it’s anticipated that their debut on the NYSE will be this summer. Their funders which have invested over $826 million since 2012 are undoubtedly eager for ROI.

The Redesign Health-UPMC Enterprises partnership launches Glimmer Health. The new company supports primary care physicians to manage their patients’ chronic pain. Chronic pain affects 25% of, or 70 million, US adults. It addresses the lack of resources that primary care practices generally lack to manage the chronic pain of their patients. The Glimmer Health platform integrates advanced medical expertise, behavioral health support, and seamless care coordination via specialized nurse-practitioners, care managers, and social workers to coordinate care plans and guide patients. The company grows out of UPMC’s pain clinics and 12 years of experience in comprehensive assessment and multimodal treatment approaches. Ajay Wasan, M.D., M.Sc., professor of anesthesiology and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and vice chair for pain medicine at Pitt and UPMC, who leads the clinics, is now medical director of Glimmer Health. CEO is Alissa Meade, previously CEO of Together Senior Health, sold last year to Linus Health according to her LinkedIn profile. UPMC release

“Delete Your 23andMe Data!” say Oklahoma’s and Pennsylvania’s Attorneys General. Oklahoma’s AG Gentner Drummond finally got the news (via the wind whistling down the plains?) along with Pennsylvania’s AG Dave Sunday that 23andMe went bankrupt in March and it, or parts, are up for sale. The two AGs advise citizens of their respective states to delete their data, instruct 23andMe to destroy their test sample, and revoke research consent for their data. Well, the rush is over at least…it’s better late than never. The instructions are clear, though their efficacy with 23andMe in actually removing it, including survey data, versus following FTC policies on securing the data, is in reasonable doubt [TTA 3 April]. After all, user genetic data and information is all that 23andMe has to sell.  Oklahoma AG’s release, The Oklahoman, Levittown (PA) Now

Alphabet/Google’s Verily health data/AI unit to build a Parkinson’s molecular research dataset. With a $14.7 million grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF), Verily will be building what they term is a comprehensive molecular dataset to advance Parkinson’s disease research. The dataset is based on data previously collected as part of the Personalized Parkinson’s Project (PPP), a collaboration with the Radboud University Medical Center, in a two-year longitudinal study of 520 people with Parkinson’s. It included detailed clinical histories, data from the Verily Study Watch, imaging data, and matched biospecimens such as blood and cerebrospinal fluid. It will be made publicly available to researchers through Verily’s Workbench solution. According to Verily’s release, the molecular data includes:

  • A comprehensive, high-resolution immunogenomic data resource to fuel research on the immune system’s association with Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis.
  • Whole genome sequences for those that have consented to enable discovery of genetic factors associated with different aspects of Parkinson’s disease.
  • Metabolomic and alpha-Synuclein data, which have shown promise for assessing and predicting disease activity and stages.

No deadline was disclosed. Mobihealthnews

How much does it cost to protect healthcare corporate executives? Executive security is one of those hidden costs that is not always easy to determine. Some receive it, others do not, at least for public consumption or paid for by the company.

  • UnitedHealth Group in 2024 totaled $1.7 million in security costs.  The largest cost was for executive protection for Optum CEO Heather Cianfrocco, $926,989. CEO Andrew Witty’s security costs, not included in the $1.7 million, totaled $150,951. He was also required to use the company’s corporate aircraft for business travel (cost not itemized) and was encouraged to do so for personal travel, should the plane be available. Witty did not use it for the latter in 2024. Brian Thompson unfortunately received no security.
  • CVS Health did not itemize direct security costs for CEO David Joyner in 2024. His disclosed expenses from October on were $15,787 on personal use of the company plane; $7,713 for the use of a company car and driver; and $82,603 on home security. Personal travel expenses using company resources must be reimbursed over $250,000 (!). Previous CEO Karen Lynch racked up expenses of $242,051 on personal aircraft use; $95,199 on the use of a company car and driver; and $44,645 on personal protection. Security totaling $56,610 was extended to her for six months after she was replaced by David Joyner.
  • Cigna’s CEO David Cordani is required to use the company aircraft for business and personal travel. The latter totaled $231,008 in 2024. Spending for executive protection was not disclosed. Cigna does not consider security a perquisite for executive compensation purposes. There is no further information about executive security.
  • Elevance Health lists executive security as “other perquisites” and apparently it is modest. For CEO Gail Boudreaux, they spent $93,387 and for Peter Haytaian, president of Elevance’s Carelon unit, $36,213. Boudreaux also was permitted limited use of corporate aircraft for up to 50 hours of personal flight time each year not to exceed a total of $199,000 in costs. 
  • Centene Corporation discloses few costs around executive security, only providing it to CEO Sarah London until December 2024. Her 2024 security totaled $69,133. Interestingly, CFO Drew Asher received $98,358 in protection services and COO Susan Smith $33,244. London also had $143,854 in expenses for personal aircraft usage. Centene policy is that the aircraft is available for security reasons but did not disclose whether London or other executives were required to use the plane for business use.
  • Finally, Humana’s only disclosures around security was for the perquisite of personal corporate plane usage, and it’s limited. CEO Jim Rechtin incurred $36,166, with former CEO Bruce Broussard spending $37,434 .

FierceHealthcare’s Paige Minemeyer did the dig.

Breaking: 23andMe files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy–whither customer data and security? An impact similar to Theranos?

March 24, 2025 | by

The exploding plastic inevitable comes to its inevitable end. 23andMe’s board filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the Eastern District of Missouri (!) Federal bankruptcy court on Sunday night (Case 25-40976). Anne Wojcicki, CEO, 49% controlling shareholder, and board member, stepped down from the CEO position, but remains on the board. Interim CEO is Joseph Selsavage, 23andMe’s chief financial and accounting officer,  according to their SEC Form 8-K filing.

In their announcement, 23andMe will, with court approval, actively solicit asset sales over a 45 day period.

Anne Wojcicki’s final non-binding proposals on 10 and 11 March were rejected by the Special Committee of the board of directors evaluating asset sales and now the bankruptcy.

Anne Wojcicki’s statement on X early on Monday morning was of a piece with her statements as 23andMe entered its death spiral starting in 2023. “We have had many successes but I equally take accountability for the challenges we have today. There is no doubt that the challenges faced by 23andMe through an evolving business model have been real, but my belief in the company and its future is unwavering.” In her post, she also said that she would bid for assets sold by the company. 23andMe has not issued any further statement or response to their former CEO’s comments.

The Chapter 11 versus 7 filing means that 23andMe will continue to operate as it sells assets and eventually shuts. It will be up to the board–including Ms. Wojcicki–and the bankruptcy judge regarding the disposition of the company’s assets, which include teleprescriber Lemonade and the large 23andMe genetic database. Those assets and liabilities essentially cancel each other out: $100-500 million in assets and the same in liabilities, according to the filing.

And about that large genetic database–the California attorney general Rob Bonta has already advised California 23andMe registered users to delete their data and request their samples to be destroyed. However, as previous articles have discussed, your data remains–de-identified, which the AG’s statement doesn’t go into in its “reminder” (more like a press opportunity for a 2026 reelection bid?). Mercury News  See today’s update for how-tos–and experiences in deletion.

23andMe has stated that it will not change the way that consumer data is stored or safeguarded, and will continue to operate as usual through the Chapter 11 process. They published an ‘open letter’ blog for customers that positions them as finding “a partner (Editor’s emphasis) who shares our commitment to customer data privacy and allows our mission of helping people access, understand and benefit from the human genome to live on.” which is frankly, misleading.

Perhaps the Chapter 11 is saving Ms. Wojcicki from a tremendous financial mistake in buying out the rest of the common shareholders, though the filing wipes out her investment in the company. It will be interesting to see the court’s comments on the ownership of what at its peak was a $6 billion-valued public company. CNBC  

This story is developing, but has developed ‘legs’ like Theranos in terms of mainstream impact. When YouTube tarot card readers are covering it….   

Updates 25-26 March   

MedCityNews yesterday recapped the various Wojcicki-led efforts to take the company private as Readers have been following, with the interesting addition that by 10 March, at least one minority shareholder, Zentree Investments, felt slighted. Zentree then bought more Class A stock to boost its ownership stake to 13%. (I wonder how they woke up on Monday.) Unfortunately, there were no further insights on why New Mountain Capital retreated from its short-lived offer to buy 23andMe with Ms. Wojcicki that went sideways by 28 February.  (Perhaps someone found something that led to the mutual conclusion of ‘Are we crazy?’)

The first hearing before the bankruptcy court, the Debtors’ First Day Motions, will be tomorrow, Wednesday 26 March, in St. Louis before the Honorable Brian C. Walsh. 

There is no hint of a pre-packaged bankruptcy leading to a reorganization of the business in any of the materials linked below.

From the Form 8-K and the Kroll case summary (Kroll is the claims agent for the company):

  • 23andMe has agreed with a lender, JMB Capital Partners Lending, LLC, to obtain up to $35 million in a senior secured term loan credit facility (DIP Facility). The debtor-in-possession financing from JMB is to pay for the Chapter 11 administrative costs and for working capital. This is subject to the bankruptcy court’s approval.
  • Subsidiaries of 23andMe (such as Lemonaid) will continue to operate. Lemonaid Health and two pharmacy operations are listed as  debtors in the filing.
  • On 21 March, Joseph Selsalvage was paid a retention cash bonus of $500,000 for his services through 31 December this year or 23andMe’s emergence from bankruptcy, whichever is earliest. If he leaves before the end of the retention period or is terminated for cause, the entire amount will be clawed back. The only exceptions are death, disability, or departure for ‘good reason’ as defined in the retention agreement.
  • The board was increased to five members, adding Thomas B. Walper as a non-employee member of the board and the Special Committee (formed for buyers) through the 2027 shareholders meeting. He will be paid $35,000 per month. Mr. Walper is a partner at Los Angeles’ Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP and specializes in bankruptcy law.
  • Any transaction will be subject to customary regulatory approvals, including, as applicable, the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

From the 23andMe release:

  • The Special Committee rejected Anne Wojcicki’s final bids in the amended Schedule 13D made on 10 and 11 March.  
  • The company in the Chapter 11 will sell substantially all of its assets in a Section 363 sale.
  • Matt Kvarda, a managing director at Alvarez & Marsal, was appointed as chief restructuring officer.
  • First day motions (tomorrow) include requesting from the court authority to pay employees and certain vendors, reducing operating expenses such as real estate leases, and resolving all outstanding legal liabilities stemming from their October 2023 cyber incident.

Since 23andMe’s database includes personally identifiable information and Lemonaid stores medical information as a prescriber of various remedies, it is possible, but to be confirmed, whether Federal entities such as HHS will be involved in approvals of asset sales that have patient information. Those who submitted their tests for genetic analysis are not covered by HIPAA and in fact signed away many of their privacy rights in their submission. 

Information on deleting your user records if you used 23andMe, or you know someone who needs to know how:

Contrary to what many would like to have or to believe, 23andMe retains parts of user information after user deletion, such as: genetic information, date of birth, and gender “as required for compliance”; deletion request information “including but not limited to, your email address, account deletion request identifier, communications related to inquiries or complaints and legal agreements.”

Despite this, deleting your account is the wisest move, according to every expert this Editor has read.

Basically, you are deleting your account, revoking any research consent, and destroying any samples they may have retained. Simple, eh? Not quite! Step-by-step how-to guides are available on ZDNet (simplest) and TechCrunch (scroll to the end). This Editor cannot test as she never used 23andMe. Arundhati Parmar of MedCityNews‘ experience in attempting this process is chronicled in a LinkedIn video and on TikTok.  Expect website crashes, slow responses at best, and more than a few hitches.

New  FierceHealthcare’s Dave Muoio riffs on the data privacy issues which can be summarized as a “data stewardship crisis”. The few protections that members/users have are based on consumer protection laws. 23andMe’s privacy policy, as noted above, was explicit about the minimal protection they offered and that they had the right to access, disclose to others, and sell your genetic information:  “your Personal Information may be accessed, sold or transferred as part of that transaction and this Privacy Statement will apply to your Personal Information as transferred to the new entity. We may also disclose Personal Information about you to our corporate affiliates to help operate our services and our affiliates’ services.” Mr. Muoio reached out to experts at SOCRadar, QuantHealth, the Future of Privacy Forum, the Holland & Knight law firm, Pixel Privacy, and others. The consensus is that state and Federal safeguards are wholly inadequate.

Editor’s opinion:

23andMe’s cavalier attitude during their 2023 data breach, caused by their sloppy security (well documented by others and analyzed in our article here with previous articles linked within it) but blamed by their management on members reusing passwords, was symptomatic of a certain arrogance and attitude. By 2023, the company was already in trouble. Why would anyone believe that they’d be any less cavalier about personal genetic information?

Will this be another ‘watershed’ event like Theranos? The level of mainstream consumer media coverage the 23andMe bankruptcy has received reminds this Editor of the demise of Theranos. But here, there is no glamorous young founder in a black turtleneck jetting about and working in a Silicon Valley high-tech lab perpetrating a fraud. Here, the founder and key shareholder is a mature wealthy woman who kept a fairly low profile, the technology worked, the consumer business broke fresh consumer ground and, for its time, getting your genetic information and ancestry was a popular concept. GSK’s five year deal was completed–not renewed, but no lawsuits ensued. What was way off was its $6 billion valuation in 2021 after its SPAC and IPO.

Its faltering wasn’t news like Theranos or (for that matter) Walgreens either. The concatenation of failures along the way, save for the 2023-24 data breach/hacking which was news and drove away customers by the carload, was hardly noted at all. Yet suddenly. every one who ever dealt with 23andMe is anxious about their DNA being sold, with rumors of nefarious buyers like Bill Gates and from China popping up with notorious frequency.

We’ll see if this leads to change in genetic privacy laws and policies.

Weekend reading: 23andMe’s up in the air future, including genetic data; Walgreens debates What To Stop and Start; what if healthcare pursued a zero-failure rate?

November 8, 2024 | by

While 23andMe figures out a future….what happens to the genetic data?  Troubled 23andMe today announced that it will be reporting its FY2025 Q2 numbers next Tuesday 12 November. An interesting part of their release is that shareholders can submit and upvote questions to management via the Say Technologies portal–and they’re blistering. They ask about the plan for recovery (132 votes, 60K shares represented), whether the company will be sold off piecemeal (128 votes, 73.5K shares) and a sale of the company (78 votes, 47.8K shares. Also questioned (38 votes, 3.4K shares): the addition of three new board members, none of whom have biopharmaceutical experience as all former CFOs outside of healthcare. These replace the seven that ankled on 17 September [TTA 17 Sept]. 

To Wojcicki, of course, with her reported 49.99% of voting control, shareholders’ questions aren’t really going to matter. Whether they will be addressed on Tuesday is anyone’s guess.

Many 23andMe customers have questioned how to remove their personal genetic data from their database, which if en masse will reduce the value of the company. This TechCrunch article explains how that data is not covered by HIPAA privacy regulations, but 23andMe’s own retention rules.

If 23andMe sells, the data goes with it. If there is no sale, apparently recent Wojcicki statements indicate that the model going forward for the company is the sale of that data to pharma developers and researchers, ditching its independent drug discovery, and moving into telehealth prescribing of GLP-1 drugs through its Lemonaid subsidiary. 

For those concerned about their privacy, or wary of a change of ownership, accounts can be easily deleted–but not the genetic information. TechCrunch gives how to delete your account–but apparently that won’t delete your genetic information, date of birth, and gender. 23andMe will also retain limited personal information attached to your account for an undefined time. Individuals can also reverse their consent for sharing that information with researchers, but cannot remove it. 12 million people have reportedly given consent–deliberately or not. A real lesson on oversharing for millions–if they care. 

What can Walgreens reasonably stop or reverse in its multiple series of Bad Decisions? A short interview at HLTH with US Healthcare head Mary Langowski indicates that there’s not much that hasn’t been already announced. We know that VillageMD is shuttering locations and is up for sale. 1,200 retail locations will be closed over the next three years. But what else to stop? “A lot of what I’ve fo­cused on in the first six months, is re­al­ly, it’s okay to stop stuff. What are we gonna stop?” While it’s totally fine to fail ‘at some things’, these weren’t small fails. Wentworth is concentrating on the new chief commercial officer selling Wal­greens’ ser­vices to pay­ers, providers, and life sci­ence com­pa­nies, such as clinical trials capabilities, CareCentrix, and Shields Health. There’s also some push towards “build­ing a stand­alone phar­ma­cy busi­ness rather than a ver­ti­cal­ly in­te­grat­ed busi­ness”. Endpoints News

Thinking about if healthcare adopted a ‘zero-failure’ rate. Michael Alkire’s (CEO, Premier Inc., a health system operational improvement provider) daughter was on Alaska Airlines’ Flight 1282 on 5 January 2024. That was the Boeing 737-9 MAX flight that had a blowout of a mid-cabin exit door plug placed there instead of an emergency exit door. The blowout was due to four improperly installed (loose) bolts. It occurred at 16,000 feet and the lower altitude, combined with no one seated in that row, contributed to a 100% survivability rate and a successful landing, though passengers were injured. Anyone with an interest in aircraft knows that one little thing, like a worn jackscrew on a rudder or an untightened bolt, can lead to a non-survivable crash.

Mr. Alkire’s point is that we should be striving, as the airlines and aircraft manufacturers have done (which failed in this case) for zero failure in healthcare.  He cites the well-known statistic that 98,000 people die each year from medical errors. We don’t have a culture of continuous performance improvement. For one, clinical innovations can take nearly two decades to become standard practice. Yet it works. Simple things, such as clinical surveillance in nursing homes, can reduce adverse drug events by 92%.  Much more to ponder in this Influencer contribution to MedCityNews. (And Boeing has a long way to go to restore trust–buying back Spirit AeroSystems, the former Boeing Wichita, is a necessary start they are finally making.)