News roundup: Masimo has offer to JV consumer business for $950M or more, Get Well sold to SAI, One Medical scored on poor handling of urgent calls from Iora patients

July 10, 2024 | by

Slow early July? Not quite.

Masimo’s maneuvering continues with a potential $950 million offer to buy into its consumer audio and health business. The unnamed offeree listed in Masimo’s latest Form 8-K is a potential joint venture (JV) investor negotiating with Masimo since 7 May. Masimo would sell off the majority stake of its consumer audio and consumer health businesses to the partner, that would make 1) a cash payment to Masimo and 2) contribute cash. The 2 July update confirms that the potential partner is offering in the range of $850 million to $950 million on a cash and debt free basis. It’s by no means a done deal as Masimo is pressing for more cash and for retaining certain intellectual property rights. For instance, Masimo’s IP would be for use solely within the consumer field, not healthcare. The Apple litigation on IP infringement on their pulse oximetry (SpO2) sensors and software would remain with Masimo.

The consumer audio business would include the international audio brands acquired in the $1 billion buy of Sound United in 2022: Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Polk Audio, Marantz, Definitive Technology, Classé, and Boston Acoustics. Their consumer healthcare includes smartwatches and the Stork baby monitor.  MedTechDive

This is an interesting Act 3 Curtain Raiser to Masimo’s ongoing proxy fight with ‘activist investor’ Politan Capital Management, which is attempting to take two more seats on the board of directors and wrest control from the current board controlled by CEO/founder Joe Kiani. Hundreds of Masimo staff have threatened to resign if Politan takes over. The shareholder meeting is on 25 July. TTA 2 July

Get Well, a patient engagement platform, has been acquired by SAIGroup for an undisclosed amount. Get Well serves health plans and systems with patient engagement at point of care, digital care plans, and AI-enabled care navigation. SAI will integrate their existing advanced predictive + generative Eureka AI platform into Get Well’s offerings. SAIGroup has two other AI-related companies in its portfolio: ConcertAI and generative AI RhythmX AI. Michael O’Neil will continue as Get Well Founder and CEO. Release    Hat tip to HIStalk 7/10/24

A story highly critical of Amazon’s One Medical broke over the holiday weekend with a PBS News story about patients put at risk by sloppy call handling. The patients were former Iora Health members, acquired with One Medical, who are older 65+ adults in Medicare Advantage and Medicare Shared Savings Programs (MSSP) ACOs including the advanced ACO REACH model. In March, calls to Iora Health offices were shifted to what Amazon termed ‘mission control’ in Tempe, Arizona. The call center reps did not have access to their records and were not medically trained. The patients were calling with acute symptoms–one of 17 ‘red flag’ symptoms such as symptoms of a blood clot, sudden rib pain, stomach pain and blood in their stool. At the call center, they were not triaged to immediate assistance and instead were given appointments later that day or later in the week. Amazon is claiming that as far as they know, no patients were harmed. Becker’s

As TTA backgrounded on 6 March, the former Iora offices were rebranded, if not closed, as One Medical Senior and they would shift to existing One Medical offices. FTA: Existing patients, many with multiple chronic conditions, reported cutbacks in callbacks, appointment length, physician load, and services provided such as transportation. One clinic had 20 staff cut back to five with patients pushed out to virtual visits–hardly appropriate for a high needs, older, less technologically savvy patient population in value-based care, quality-measured models.

How will these high care needs patients in tightly monitored, intensive programs such as MA and ACO REACH, mesh with the cheap efficient approach that Amazon takes with everything–including One Medical?

Short takes: Will there be an Amazon Clinic?, Transcarent and Teladoc, perfect together?, Get Well partners with Palomar Health, expands with Veterans Health Administration

November 11, 2022 | by | 1 Comment

Did Amazon prematurely leak an initiative? Or was it an error? The Verge reports that a video was uploaded to Amazon’s YouTube page on Tuesday–then taken down–describing a new service that would offer assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of common conditions such as allergies. The Amazon Clinic video depicts a user taking an online questionnaire about their symptoms, After paying a fee, a clinician reviews it, diagnoses, and prescribes as needed, sending to the patient’s pharmacy. The disclaimer: “Telehealth services are offered by third-party healthcare provider groups.” The video directs to amazon.com/clinic which is not live. Another Amazon Mystery. Amazon Care is shuttering and the company is jumping through Federal hoops to get approval to close their buy on OneMedical. Hat tip to HISTalk today.

HISTalk also pointed to a Forbes article on health navigator companies such as Castlight and Firefly Health, with a bit of a ‘sting’ at the end. Transcarent, a health navigator that takes on risk integrating its services into employee benefits, is the latest enterprise founded by Glen Tullman, a serial entrepreneur who founded Livongo, investor group 7Wire Ventures, and built up Allscripts as CEO. The writer speculates that Tullman should buy Teladoc to give Transcarent a distribution system–a built-in network of physicians and health system relationships. Yes, this is the same Teladoc that Tullman sold Livongo to for a tidy $18.5 billion, then earlier this year wrote off $6.6 billion as an impairment. This one drips with irony. With its stock down nearly 90% from its January 2021 high, it’s never been cheaper!

Get Well, an RPM, patient care management, and workflow automation company, announced new and expanding partnerships. The new one is with Palomar Health, a health system in Escondido, California. This will implement Get Well services in four phases in five areas to improve patient experience: digital care management (GetWellLoop), inpatient experience (Get Well Navigator and a workflow automation for hospital staff), emergency department experience, care gap closure, and health equity through additional features. Becker’s  The second is an expansion with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) into 70 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC) and a fifth Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) with nine facilities. They also now have a FedRAMP “In Process” designation for cloud services which is enabling expansion of GetWellLoop care plans with a VAMC. Release (Business Wire)