News roundup: Teladoc’s improved Q3, PursueCare resuscitates Pear’s apps, AMA removes 16-day RPM requirement in 2026, PatientPoint intros Innovation Network, PeopleOne’s $32B raise, Cigna-Humana again a no-go

October 31, 2024 | by

Teladoc beat the Street for Q3–even with a still gasping BetterHelp. Their Q3 under new CEO Chuck Divita was an improvement over their dismal Q2 [TTA 1 Aug] where Teladoc posted a $838 million net loss, largely made up of a $790 million impairment on BetterHelp’s sinking performance. BetterHelp, the direct-to-consumer mental health portion of their business, continues to sink in an overcrowded market even though telemental health remains in or near the lead in competitors’ recent funding rounds. Revenue this quarter decreased 10% to $256.8 million. CFO Mala Murthy admitted that BetterHelp is a “business in transition,” although the from-and-to remain opaque. 

That bit of bad news aside, Q3’s net loss was only $33.3 million, a big improvement over Q2 2023’s $57 million loss. This quarter also included $3.6 million in restructuring costs related to severance and office space reductions. Revenue declined by 3% to $640.5 million, following on Q2’s 2% decline, which is not a good trend. Adjusted EBITDA was $83.3 million, down 6%. Integrated Care (their main business) segment revenue increased 2% to $383.7 million.

For the nine months of 2024, revenue was off 1% versus prior year at $1.9 billion with a cumulative net loss of $952.8 million. Integrated Care’s revenue grew 5% to $1,138.2 million, with BetterHelp again declining 8% to $790.9 million. 

Divita and Murthy both attributed slowing growth to increased acquisition costs which impact the DTC model of BetterHelp–and that isn’t expected to change. They see greater opportunities for overall growth in international business, which also has less expensive international ad spending. The analyst quoted by FierceHealthcare believes that Teladoc is still in the process of adjusting to a slower growth model and focusing on profitability. Shares remain up slightly at around $9 since yesterday’s report, an improvement over their August lows at $6-7. Release

PursueCare revives Pear Therapeutics’ two FDA-cleared addiction apps. Both RESET and RESET-O have been relaunched by PursueCare, a Connecticut-based addiction recovery and behavioral health virtual care service. The two apps were cleared under Pear’s ownership and to date are the sole the only FDA-cleared prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) for substance use disorder (SUD) and opioid use disorder (OUD). They provide a self-guided 12-week course of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), in which patients are incentivized to complete lessons, adhere to treatment, and abstain from drug use. PursueCare’s virtual clinic model uses a smartphone app and utilizes a care team model to provide telehealth treatment for opioids, alcohol, stimulants, and other substances, including medication assisted treatment (MOUD), counseling, psychiatry, case management, pharmacy, and treatment for addiction-related health conditions. Mobihealthnews, PharmaPhorum, Release

Not covered by Mobihealthnews is the backstory on PursueCare’s acquisition of Pear’s PDTs. As we reported when Pear was sold off by the US District Court in Delaware in bankruptcy to four companies, one of the big acquirers of Pear assets was its former CEO, Corey McCann MD, doing business as Harvest Bio LLC. Harvest paid $2 million for the ISF licenses and patents, plus Pear assets related to schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, depression, and the remaining pipeline projects. They also bought the corporate trademarks, the PearConnect commercial platform, and the rights to the FDA-cleared reSET and opioid-specific reSET-O programs/apps. The two RESET apps were then sold to PursueCare last December along with RESET-A for alcohol addiction for an undisclosed price. This has FDA breakthrough device designation but is not yet marketed by PursueCare. PursueCare also raised $20 million in a Series B in January led by T.Rx Capital. McCann, one of T.Rx Capital managing partners, joined PursueCare’s Board of Directors at that time. Healthcare IT Today  Does this begin to resemble about three degrees of separation?

The American Medical Association (AMA) made life a little more marketable for remote patient monitoring (RPM) companies. As of 2026, the AMA in its remote physiologic monitoring CPT codes will no longer require 16 days of continuous monitoring within 30 days in order to qualify for coding reimbursement. It’s a pity it won’t kick in for over a year, so RPM companies will just have to hang in there till then. FierceHealthcare

PatientPoint launches Innovation Network, names chief experience and innovation officer. The digital health company that provides health information at 35,000 patient point-of-care locations announced at HLTH that their new CEO, Sean Slovenski, will be forming a network that connects leaders from various industries with a vision of transforming healthcare. The founding partner is Verizon joined by LG, GoodRx, and Thrive Global. Its purpose is to “foster collaboration to develop patient-first solutions that address some of healthcare’s most pressing challenges.” PatientPoint’s new chief experience officer Shawn Nason joined from his own consultancy six months ago as chief of staff and head of experience and is considered to be expert in disruptive innovation and human-centered design. Release

PeopleOne Health‘s value-based primary care hybrid model received a nifty $32.3 million Series B funding. It was led by GV (Google Ventures), with participation from investors including healthcare entrepreneur and Transcarent CEO Glen Tullman. Their nine clinics are presently in Pennsylvania with their newest expansion in Palatka, Florida, south of Jacksonville. Their model is employer-focused; employees are fully covered by employers with no copays, deductibles, or coinsurance. It’s claimed that they save up to 30% on healthcare costs. Mobihealthnews, Release

Cigna quashes Humana buy rumors–again. These revived in late summer like pumpkins, but on an investor call Thursday (today), Cigna CEO David Cordani said that instead, their free cash would be used to buy back shares. Unlike other payers, Cigna beat the Street with total revenue of $63.7 billion, up 30% versus prior year. Shareholders’ net income for Q3 was $739 million, less than prior year’s $1.4 billion. The positive picture was powered by strong demand for specialty drugs in Evernorth Health Services but dragged down by a May $1.8 billion write-off of Cigna’s investment in VillageMD [TTA 1 May]. Healthcare Dive, Release

Teladoc CEO Jason Gorevic steps down immediately in shock announcement

April 5, 2024 | by

Teladoc Health announced this morning the immediate departure of CEO Jason Gorevic. The release from Teladoc hit the wires at 6:30am Eastern Daylight Time. Chief financial officer Mala Murthy has taken the CEO position on an interim basis while the board of directors conducts an executive search for a permanent replacement. She will retain CFO responsibilities during the search.

From LinkedIn: Ms. Murthy has been with Teladoc since June of 2019, joining as CFO from seven years at American Express as CFO of their Global Commercial Services segment. Previously she was with Pepsico. 

The industry for some time anticipated Mr. Gorevic’s departure after 15 years due to Teladoc’s lackluster 2023 and a dismal forecast for 2024. Teladoc never really recovered from a disastrous 2020 $18.5 billion acquisition of Livongo engineered by Mr. Gorevic with Glen Tullman, followed by its 2022 $6.6 billion writedown. The share price never really recovered, reaching a high over $293 in February 2021 but eroding quickly after that. It currently languishes at below $15, losing 34% YTD and 95% since 2021. The crash in Teladoc’s value as the pandemic closures of practices resolved was replicated by other telehealth companies such as Amwell, MDLIVE, Included, and most others. But the picture didn’t seem to be clearing. Telemental health provider BetterHelp, which last year was touted as the company’s salvation, wasn’t, falling flat in 2023 revenue. Teladoc’s 2024 forecast was downbeat as well [TTA 22 Feb], but management in the announcement reinforced that they are standing pat on their Q1 and full year 2024 financial guidance.

The usual anodyne statements followed. “We thank Jason for his many achievements and contributions during the 15 years he led Teladoc Health. We wish him success in his future endeavors,” said David B. Snow, Jr., Chairman of the Teladoc Health Board of Directors. To CNBC, Mr. Gorevic said, “I am proud of the impact we’ve made on the healthcare system, and our many accomplishments in advancing innovation and transforming virtual health care from an unrealized promise into a valued reality for our 90 million members.” 

The impression left by Teladoc from press and related news articles, as well as by analysts, was this move was sudden. The precipitating action to remove Mr. Gorevic is yet to be revealed. The release was timed for the usual pro forma Friday, but the morning timing was designed for the markets to lift the stock in week-end trading. Teladoc’s financials have been hammered for the past two years, but no differently than its now extensive competition, with health systems and practices now incorporating telehealth and virtual health software. Another confirmation that this was a sudden move: a quick view of the Teladoc website at 12.30 ET was that Mr. Gorevic was still listed as the CEO; this changed with a second view at 1pm. To be continued…  FierceHealthcare, Axios, HealthcareDive

Weekend recap from HIMSS23: Glen Tullman’s 5 predictions, HIStalk’s random four-day walk, Oracle Cerner integration ‘going great’, Seema Verma to Oracle, Caregility’s debuts three enhancements

April 22, 2023 | by

From the reports on HIMSS23, it seemed almost–normal. Companies were there, attendance was back to near pre-pandemic levels, a normal exhibit hall, and while it was Chicago complete with snow flurries, and there were differences–no aisle carpet in the exhibit hall ‘for the environment’, suits were a rarity, Cerner disappeared into Oracle Health, and the industry was through a cycle of boom then bust–it was almost Old Times. 

So what’s next? Filling that hunger for a future view was Glen Tullman, late of Allscripts and Livongo, now 7wireVentures founder and CEO of Transcarent. His five predictions were:

  1. Consumers are in charge. They have an array of options unless in an emergency. The industry must build a new and different relationship with them
  2. AI will inform the experience. Eliminate paperwork, simplify documentation, analytics to optimize staffing levels, improve use of real-time data in care.
  3. Care will happen in 60 seconds. Quick and convenient response to care has to be the norm, especially for chronic conditions. Without this, three undesirables will happen: avoidance of care, wait until their condition is so serious that their healthcare costs become much higher, or wind up in the emergency department.
  4. Health systems will be the hub…maybe. They can own the consumer health experience. But health systems will need to change their payment model. 
  5. At risk is no risk. Health systems must “lead the way” to value-based care, care quality, and what appropriate care plans should look like.

Interestingly, payers aren’t mentioned in this model–and they see themselves as the hub, not health systems, through their acquisitions are providers and home health. MedCityNews. 

HIStalk’s random HIMSS23 walk. Perhaps the best ‘you are there’ take on HIMSS23 was published over four days by HIStalk, including Dr. Jayne’s commentary. They need no commentary from your Editor, including surviving Chicago’s weather, the distances, the no-aisle carpet exhibit hall, long lines for coffee, and local dining delights including wet beef and tavern pizza (avoid deep dish). Pro tips: if you’re an exhibitor, book meetings in advance to assure your ROI, and nothing beats F2F–true of both HIMSS and ViVE, booths were packed.  They were there so you and I didn’t have to be. Where do you think HIMSS24 will be?

Monday: Mr. HIStalk, Dr. Jayne

Tuesday: Mr. HIStalk, Dr. Jayne

Wednesday: Mr. HIStalk, Dr. Jayne

Thursday: Mr. HIStalk, Dr. Jayne  (see in Mr. H’s comments about how Microsoft has quietly taken the lead in health tech with Azure, Nuance, and now generative AI. Watch out Larry Ellison.) 

Healthcare Dive interviewed David Feinberg, now chairman of Oracle Health. According to him, everything is going great with the Cerner integration. “The integration has been pretty smooth” and they are well on their way to creating “a cloud-enabled health platform that brings all kinds of information together to make individuals and communities healthier around the world” and in building an EHR-agnostic health records database to link thousands of separate hospital databases. No mention of the troubled VA EHR implementation. (Ahem)

Announced during HIMSS as an exclusive to Healthcare Dive, Seema Verma, formerly Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator during the Trump administration, is joining Oracle Life Sciences, the company’s clinical trials business, as senior VP and general manager. She has spent the last two years as senior adviser to private equity firms TPG and Cressey, and serving on the board of directors for health tech companies Lumeris, Monogram, Wellsky, and Lifestance.

And to this Editor, Caregility, a cloud-based virtual care and telehealth platform that connects virtual visits, clinical consultations, tele-ICU, remote patient monitoring, and point-of-care observation in hospitals, announced that they have a new portfolio of AI-enhanced hybrid care solutions built on best-in-KLAS (non-EMR) Caregility Cloud. According to the release, “A computer vision application analyzes live video streams of patients and their environment to detect movement and changes that could lead to adverse events such as falls or self-harm. A contactless monitoring system continuously captures patient vital signs, detecting variations in heart rate, breathing patterns, and movement that could be indicative of physiological events like awakening from sleep or an induced coma. An ambient clinical intelligence algorithm generates documentation from live clinician and patient conversations for the patient’s electronic health record.”

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)

Simplifying engagement in diabetes management

September 11, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Livongo.jpg” thumb_width=”180″ /]Launched at TechCrunch’s Disrupt SF 2014 was a new wireless glucometer, Livongo Health’s InTouch. A M2M palm-sized cellular glucometer, it transmits not only conventional blood glucose readings from test strips, but also activity information (steps) and how you’re feeling. The user also sets it up for who looks at the data and what they see. Data goes to what they term a ‘smart cloud’ (a/k/a data platform) which reviews it based on clinical rules and accumulated personal health history. It is also backed by a virtual care team of certified diabetes educators. Founder Glen Tullman, who was quoted extensively in our well-read Patients should be less engaged, not more, has an FDA clearance in hand, (more…)

Box.com’s odd swerve into healthcare cloud storage and PHRs

March 20, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gimlet-eye.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /] Both The Gimlet Eye (filing from a remote island) and Editor Donna have been pleased users of the Box.com file storage site for storing all sorts of files in the ‘cloud’ (a/k/a Somewhere Out There On A Whole Bunch Of Internet Servers), sharing and collaboration. It’s simple to use, it works and, for our needs, actually free. However founders Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith, who look barely old enough to shave (but smartly have A Touch of Grey in their management team), have their eyes set on far bigger prizes than our mediocre needs. Now they have added ‘special advisers’ Aneesh Chopra, first US CTO, and Glen Tullman, former CEO of Allscripts. Mr. Tullman certainly does add major luster (and connections) and Mr. Chopra, despite the Eye’s consideration of him as hyperbolic and politically, not technically, qualified for his previous positions in the Government and the state of Virginia, adds the inevitable political ones. Having them on the roster also adds heft to their imminently rumored IPO (TechCrunch; update, filed 24 March) and ultimately acing out other file sharers Dropbox in the enterprise area. Expectations are high; Box has $414 million in funding from a roster of investors (including Telefónica and Australia’s Telstra) through a Series F (CrunchBase) with a valuation of $2 billion (TechCrunch) and undoubtedly they’d like some of it back. Soon. (The completely overheated Castlight Health IPO only whets the appetite.)

Healthcare one key to a rich IPO. Box’s healthcare moves point in the enterprise direction. (more…)