News roundup: Veradigm facing Nasdaq delisting, UpHealth files Chapter 11, Virgin Pulse-HealthComp $3B merger, MidiHealth’s $25M Series A, Inbound Health’s $30M Series B

September 29, 2023 | by

Veradigm way out of compliance with Nasdaq, faces delisting. Nasdaq apparently is facing the end of its patience with Veradigm (the former Allscripts) and is moving to delist the company from the exchange as of 20 September. Veradigm plans to appeal to the Nasdaq Hearings Panel to gain an additional 22 days. Starting in March, the company has attributed to a massive financial software flaw the delay of its annual report for 2022, a restatement of FY 2021, and reporting of their 2023 Q1 and Q2 financials to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). All these are required by Nasdaq for listing. After multiple extensions begged from Nasdaq since June, whether 22 days will make any difference is doubtful. Veradigm closed today at $13.38. Stay tuned. Release, Becker’s Health IT, TTA 23 Aug

UpHealth Holdings filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, to reorganize. The parent company UpHealth Inc. claims this was not due to operational shortfalls, but to a court decision that found that the company owed investment bank Needham & Company $31 million in fees as a result of its November 2020 SPAC [TTA 26 Nov 2020]. The company release is unusually coy but states that the Chapter 11 was necessary to “mitigate the financial impact of the trial court’s decision” and was not the result of operation nor will affect operations. This was a more complicated than usual SPAC that merged the public entity, GigCapital2 Inc., with UpHealth Holdings and Cloudbreak Health to create a $1.3 billion (at that time) digital health company, UpHealth Inc., with care management platforms and virtual care infrastructure plus behavioral health services. Cloudbreak Health is not in Chapter 11. The UpHealth Inc. stock on NYSE stopped trading with the bankruptcy on 19 September and is currently at $0.98 from a 2021 peak of $28. Another cracked SPAC.  MarketWatch, HIStalk.

In more cheerful funding news:

Employer wellness platform Virgin Pulse and benefits analytics platform HealthComp to merge. The $3 billion deal creates a combined entity that will improve outcomes and lower costs for primarily self-insured employers and members through the Homebase for Health platform. Chris Michalak of Virgin will serve as CEO of the combined entity upon anticipated closing in Q4. The merger is backed by New Mountain Capital, Marlin Equity Partners, Blackstone, and Morgan Health, with New Mountain Health to be majority owner. FierceHealthcare, Healthcare Dive, Virgin release

MidiHealth backed by GV (Google Ventures) in $25 million Series A. MidiHealth focuses on female menopause and midlife transitional care in a direct-to-consumer model. Investors Frederique Dame and Cathy Friedman from GV are joined by current investors Felicis, Semper Virens, Icon, 25M, and Operator Collective, for funding to date of $40 million. The menopause/women’s health segment is one of the few bright spots of the current wobbly healthcare funding scene. MidiHealth recently inked a deal with fertility benefits company Progyny to widen their scope to midlife care for US employers.  Release, FierceHealthcare

And it’s a $30 million Series B for Inbound Health. Based in Minneapolis, the company assists hospitals and health systems to offer acute and post-acute/skilled nursing facility-level care in the home. Funding was led by HealthQuest Capital with participation from existing investors Flare Capital Partners and McKesson Ventures for total funding to date of $40.25 million. The new funding will assist expansion into new markets including further development of the company’s clinical programs, the next evolution of its proprietary technology and advanced analytics platform, and the continued build-out of customized operating assets focused on supply chain, labor, and logistics. Hospital-to-home is another one of the few bright spots this year.  Release, Axios

The magic quadrant matrix strikes again for health tech and investment potential

May 24, 2018 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Medical-social-quadrant-box.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Deceptively simple, the quadrant matrix can make sense out of actions and decisions. As a management tool, it can help you prioritize what is most urgent and important, or how to vary your supervisory/coaching style based on the person’s skill and will levels.

Here we see the magic box used by Krishna Yeshwant, MD, a doctor and investor with GV, Alphabet’s venture firm, to sort out all those Next Revolutions in Health Care. The factors that Dr. Yeshwant uses pertain to the end user’s medical and social needs, often called social determinants of health (SDH). Both are meshed, whether in an active older veteran who lives alone in a rural area but manages his diabetes well, or in a homeless substance user in a city with multiple medical conditions.

Most non-medical entrepreneurs prefer to develop tech and services for people like them with low medical/low social needs, such as virtual doctor apps, concierge primary care, and wellness apps. It’s a crowded quadrant and perhaps is over-served. Those with a medical background appear to gravitate to the diagonal quadrant–high medical/high social needs, such as those targeted to the ‘underserved’ with diabetes or high-need care model management, such as Aledade and Iora Health. Where does the investment money go? Their money goes to companies which have developed high medical need therapeutics such as expensive treatments for cancer, neatly avoiding those complex social factors.

What is missing: innovation in low medical/high social needs. This group is at high risk to move into high medical needs due to their lack of organization and access to/willingness for primary care. This Editor agrees, but if another factor is observed–profitability–this is likely the least potential of the four. So if you want to get Dr. Y’s attention and maybe some moolah from Alphabet…. From his presentation at the HLTH meeting last week in Las Vegas. CNBC.