Short takes: both Clover and Oscar in the black; Aetna prez booted after 11 months; Ava-VSee bedside robot; updates on Change, OneBlood ransomware, Masimo proxy fight

August 8, 2024 | by

Clover Health’s milestone–a first-ever profitable operating quarter. Not only that, but it was an impressive turnaround from the prior year. With results in their Q2 operating net income of $7.2 million, versus a $28.9 million loss in 2023, these results were far more favorable directionally than the adjusted EBITDA which was $36.2 million versus $9.9 million for the prior year. Insurance revenue was also up 11% to $349.9 million, attributed to member retention and an improved medical cost ratio (MCR) of 71.3%, down from 77.9% in the prior year. Additional revenue from other operations, such as the recently introduced Assistant AI, is minimal. The 2024 forecast stays ‘in the clover’ with raised forecast revenue of $1.35 to $1.375 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $50 million to $65 million. Also helpful is their lifted Star rating from 3 to 3.5 for 2025. FierceHealthcare, Clover earnings release

Rival Oscar Health also stayed Back in Black for the second quarter running–CEO Bertolini wouldn’t have it any other way (or else–see below right). Q2 net income rose to $56.2 million which was a a $71.7 million improvement versus prior year. Adjusted EBITDA also nicely improved to $104.1 million, a $68.6 million improvement. Revenue increased to $2.2 billion, a 46% increase over the prior year. Their MCR went down .9 points. The overall forecast for the year wasn’t provided. Membership was up over 600,000 in their main business of individual and small group insurance, with Bertolini pointing out that this was powered by plan growth in 80% of the states where they operate. Oscar exited Medicare Advantage at the end of 2023, and is shifting to marketing ICHRA, or individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements that permit small businesses to offer employees individual health plans subsidized by employer contributions. After this year, the 58,000 members left in the unprofitable Cigna co-branded small group program will exit [TTA 10 May]. Oscar release, FierceHealthcare

Back in Mr. Bertolini’s old stand, Aetna, results weren’t so cheerful–and their president walked the plank after less than one year. The reorganization announcement was made on the earnings call yesterday, effective immediately. CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch will oversee the daily operations of the health benefits segment along with Aetna’s CFO. CVS VP/chief strategy officer Katerina Guerraz will move over to become Aetna’s chief operating officer.

What initiated it: while health benefits’ revenue stayed in the black, going the wrong way were operating income decreasing 39.1%, the medical benefits ratio (MBR) soaring to 90% from 86% in prior year and the medical loss ratio (MLR) going up to 89.6% from 86.2%. These were attributed to increased utilization, the decline in Medicare Advantage Star ratings, Medicaid acuity, and a revised risk adjustment in the individual exchange business. Something in this immediately doomed now former president Brian Kane, who joined only last September. His last post was at Humana as chief financial officer and leader of their primary care business. CVS Health release, FierceHealthcare, Healthcare Finance

Marrying robots with telemedicine, VSee is partnering with Ava Robotics to create an autonomous robot for telepresence use in hospital intensive care units. This would enable remote emergency physicians to be present at the point of patient care, interact with patients, consult with onsite staff and make treatment decisions. The projected market is smaller regional hospitals and ICUs.  VSee already markets telemedicine carts and portable diagnostic and home care kits. Availability is not disclosed. VSee release, Mobihealthnews

VSee also announced a partnership with Wichita, Kansas community health provider Stand Together for its Aimee telehealth services. Telehealth at their centers will be available to participants for a monthly charge of $4.99 or a single virtual urgent care appointment for $9.99. VSee release

Ransomware strikes again. Non-profit blood donation organization OneBlood was hit on 29 July by a despicable ransomware attack that disabled much of its blood collection services for over 250 hospitals in the southeastern US. They continued to operate at reduced capacity and called for donors of O positive blood, O negative blood and platelet donations. The perpetrator, ransom demands, and breached information were not disclosed. On Monday 5 August, systems were partially restored in time for Tropical Storm Debby’s assault on many southeastern states. From a OneBlood spokesperson: “Our critical software systems have cleared reverification and are operating in a reduced capacity. As we begin to transition back to an automated production environment, manual labeling of blood products will continue. Additionally, we are beginning to return to using our electronic registration process for donors.” DataBreaches.net, FierceHealthcare, HealthcareITNews

Hard-hit Change Healthcare is still playing games with reporting to HHS’ Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Parent UnitedHealth Group reported the ransomware shutdown and data breach to OCR, a full five months after its occurrence. The number reported is the OCR minimum of 500, when it is well known that it affected millions of patients. UHG started direct patient notification on 31 July after weeks of delay, but stated to OCR that they are still determining the number of individuals affected. Provider notifications started in late June [TTA 21 June]. This followed after a hostile dispute earlier that month where UHG tried to push patient notifications onto providers, which HHS decided was 100% UHG’s responsibility. [TTA 5 June]. OCR FAQ update, HealthcareITNews

Masimo and activist shareholder Politan Capital continue to slug it out down to the 19 September shareholders meeting. Back in mid-July, Masimo postponed the meeting, originally scheduled for 25 July. At that time, Masimo filed a complaint in the US District Court for the Central District of California against the two Politan representatives on their board of directors plus Politan’s two nominees that proxy materials contained false statements and violations of the Exchange Act. The suit added that board member Quentin Koffey, also Politan’s chief investment officer, was secretly conspiring with a plaintiffs’ bar law firm currently in litigation with Masimo.

The latest revelation per Strata-gee 7 August: Politan’s countersuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery states that the charges filed by Masimo in the District Court are based on ‘unnamed sources received from a third-party opposition research firm…’ and Masimo’s outside counsel does not know the identity nor ever spoke to the sources. This was filed against CEO Joe Kiani, independent director Craig Reynolds, and director Bob Chapek as a breach of Delaware law.

To date, Masimo has not confirmed their sources to the Delaware court. 

As previously reported [TTA 17 July], the proxy fight was triggered by the value of the company, reduced substantially after Masimo’s snakebit 2022 acquisition of Sound United’s consumer audio brands, Politan’s move to control the company, and kick out the CEO Joe Kiani.  The fight on the Masimo board of directors for two open seats pits the Masimo slate of CEO Joe Kiani and outside candidate Christopher Chavez, against Politan’s Darlene Solomon and William Jellison. Politan already holds two seats and with a win of two additional seats will control the company. Masimo plans to sell the consumer audio and healthcare (baby monitoring) businesses to another unnamed investor, retaining their professional healthcare and pulse oximetry products.

Stay tuned to the next episode of this soap opera.

Short takes: Medicare telehealth flexibilities may extend; ‘no interest’ in Transcarent sale; NeueHealth ekes out positive net income; Cigna and Oscar break up; DocGo, Ascension cyberattacked (updated)

May 10, 2024 | by

Two-year extension of telehealth flexibilities advances in Congress. A small telehealth victory was notched in the House, where the powerful Ways and Means Committee passed the Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act by a vote of 41-0. The bill would extend many of the Medicare and Federal program telehealth waivers and flexibilities established during the pandemic to the end of 2026. It is now expected that the House will bring the bill to the floor for a full House vote in the fall session. Ways and Means’ jurisdiction is over most financial and revenue-raising Federal measures, such as taxation, Social Security, and Medicare. Highlights of the bill:

  • Geographic and originating-site waivers
  • Ability for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) to continue to furnish telehealth services
  • Expanded list of eligible Medicare providers, allowing physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, and audiologists to render telehealth services
  • Ability to offer audio-only services
  • Repeal of telemental health in-person requirement
  • Preservation of the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program through CY2029

Parts are controversial, such as the telemental in-person requirement, hospice recertification, and guardrails around durable medical equipment (DME) and clinical diagnostics requiring reports to prevent fraud, waste and abuse. The bill did not include remote prescribing of controlled substances. Expect further markups to be made before passage in the House, later in the Senate, and the joint bill. The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) applauded the bill with the main caveat being around telehealth controlled substance prescribing. Full text, FierceHealthcare, ATA release

Glen Tullman rules out a sale of Transcarent–but not an IPO. On the heels of a substantial $126 million in Series D funding and a  jumbo $2.2 billion valuation [TTA 8 May], Transcarent’s CEO Tullman, in an interview with MedCityNews, stated that he had “no interest” in selling the company. Transcarent is already run “like a public company”, has a strong leadership team already in place, and “we’ll make any exit decisions for the right reasons.” Mr. Tullman has already run four public companies and IPO’d three: CCC Information Systems (in auto insurance), Livongo, Allscripts (now Veradigm), and Enterprise Systems. Livongo was sold to Teladoc in 2020, with consequences. Veradigm, the former Allscripts, went public in 1999–25 years ago in a vastly different world. Their big bet in enterprise health navigation is now on AI for both physicians and members.

Back to the New Reality, Bizarro World edition. NeueHealth, which is achieving a world record in Dodging Disaster while paying out leadership bonuses, eked out a decent Q1. The former Bright Health Group managed to squeak out revenue of $245.1 million, operational net income of $5.7 million, and an adjusted EBITDA of $2.5 million compared to a Q1 2023 loss of $5.7 million. This doesn’t mean it was profitable because its net income for Q1 was a negative $28.5 million. Revenue dropped by 18%–$55 million–compared to Q1 2023. New Enterprise Associates (NEA) must be pleased, as they are now 60% owner of the operation with another loan of $30 million secured by penny warrants [TTA 16 Apr]. The full year guidance was reaffirmed at $1 billion in revenue with 70% coming from its NeueSolutions business (their management services for ACOs and IPAs), and adjusted EBITDA between $15 million and $25 million. What remains, of course, are the UXBs–the problems with their financial reporting as noted in their 2023 results and that ever-so-nasty $400 million in payments due to CMS in March 2025, as well as to Texas on their exited ACA plans. But NeueHealth has played both ends against the middle and tied up creditors in Gordian knots for a couple of years, so why not keep on keepin’ on for now? Release, earnings call transcript, FierceHealthcare   TTA 5 April

The much-touted partnership of big Cigna and insurtech Oscar Health is breaking up. The Cigna + Oscar joint program covers the small group business. As of the end of Q1, it had 61,428 members enrolled. The program, which had no forecast of profitability, will end in 2025. CEO Mark Bertolini’s statement was rather forceful in this regard. Oscar is shifting to marketing ICHRA, or individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements that permit small businesses to offer employees individual health plans subsidized by employer contributions. Cigna will continue to offer plans for the small and midsize group market. Becker’s

Cyberattacks strike DocGo, Ascension Health. DocGo reported a data breach in its 7 May Form 8-K filed with the SEC. It involved a limited but unspecified amount of protected health information (PHI) of patients using its ambulance services, but was confined only to that. No other report of the breach has been made. This followed a positive Q1 report of revenue up to $192.1 million, from $113 million in the same quarter 2023. Net income was $10.6 million versus last year’s net loss of $3.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA went up to $24.1 million versus $5.6 million. DocGo provides telehealth/RPM, mobile urgent care, disease management, and medical transportation services. It recently lost its lucrative but controversial NYC migrant service contract but retains city Health + Hospitals contracts and some smaller housing service contracts. Mobihealthnews Ascension Health, on the other hand, has had a serious disruption in some clinical operations affecting an undisclosed number of hospitals and systems, but was reported in Michigan. On Wednesday, Ascension detected unusual activity in select technology-network systems. They advised business partners to sever connections to their systems and have brought in Mandiant to assist in investigation and remediation efforts. Ascension is one of the largest health systems in the US, with 140 hospitals in 19 states plus the District of Columbia. Healthcare Finance, Detroit Free Press, Ascension website

Ascension Update: Reports since yesterday are now far more exact. Its EHR, MyChart, several systems for ordering tests and medications, plus some phone systems are unavailable across the system. Some appointments and surgeries have been postponed. There are emergency diversions of care in some locations. Ascension’s statements to media has been that ‘downtime procedures’ will be in place ‘for some time’. There is no timeline given for restoration. Becker’s, Healthcare Dive

 

News roundup: Transcarent raises $126M; 98point6 lays off; Oscar notches first profit; Steward Health’s Ch. 11; Amazon Clinic GM leaves; Amwell’s down but hopeful Q1; Hims founder gets political

May 8, 2024 | by

A study in contrasts

Already well-funded Transcarent gains another $126 million in a Series D round. Total outside funding is $424 million that boosts its valuation to $2.2 billion. This round will fund expansion and development efforts plus enhancing the platform’s AI capabilities. The Series D round was led by General Catalyst and Glen Tullman’s 7wireVentures, with participation from new investors Memorial Hermann Health System and Geodesic Capital, along with existing investors. As noted in our Rock Health analysis (but not in the company’s release), this raise had a ‘sweetener’ of a 2.5x return should the company IPO or M&A.  Transcarent is an enterprise health navigator that enables employees to use a single platform to navigate their needs for medical, surgery, pharmacy, and mental health care. Transcarent’s differentiator in this space for large self-insured employers is that Transcarent steers employees to higher quality, lower cost care settings. Their pricing is also based on actual users only in risk-based agreements, versus the more common per member per month (PMPM) care management model. Transcarent also pays health systems up front for surgical procedures.

Tullman, who is also Transcarent’s CEO, is well known for creating high profile companies that eventually are sold or IPO’d for high valuations. These deals make his followers money, but often not the buyers (ask Teladoc) or the employees left in the lurch. This Editor does wonder, given the state of US business right now, how this competitive enterprise care management niche earns this kind of investment and valuation. Release, Mobihealthnews 

One of Transcarent’s buys last year was 98point6’s virtual care and related assets that included 98point6’s physician group, self-insured employer business, and an irrevocable software license in a deal worth potentially $100 million according to publicity. 98point6 then had a well publicized and $32 million-financed pivot to being a software company and licensor, acquiring remaining assets from asynchronous telehealth provider Bright.md this past January for 55% in equity and 45% in cash. Despite all this, little noted was that at the end of April was that 98point6 laid off an undisclosed number of its estimated 100 US-based staff. One wonders if this affects service to Bright.md’s provider customers. GeekWire

On the health plan side, rebooted insurtech Oscar Health finally got into the black with $177.4 million in net income for Q1 and beat earnings per share estimates. It’s no surprise to those of us who’ve followed the modus operandi of Mark Bertolini, who took the reins a year ago March [TTA 30 Mar 2023] and stated at the time that his focus was moving Oscar to profitability. Total revenue was $2.1 billion, a 46% increase versus Q1 2023, driven primarily by higher membership, rate increases, and lower risk adjustment as a percentage of premiums. Release. Becker’s, FierceHealthcare Their full 2024 is projected at $8.3 to $8.4 billion in revenue, $125 to $175 million in adjusted EBIDTA. Oscar solely offers ACA exchange plans for individuals and small groups, having exited Medicare Advantage after 2022. Release

Steward Health Care filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 6 May. As forecast when the company moved to sell its provider group Stewardship Health to Optum [TTA 18 Apr], Steward’s debt load in its 31 hospitals and operations forced the restructuring on Monday. What’s owed: $1.2 billion in total loan debts, about $6.6 billion in long-term lease payments, north of $600 million to 30 of its largest lenders (Change Healthcare, Philips North America LLC, Medline Industries, AYA Healthcare and Cerner). There’s $289.8 million in unpaid compensation obligations: $68 million to its own workers in unpaid employee salaries, $105.6 million in payments for physician services and $47.7 million owed to staffing agencies. Topping it off–$979.4 million outstanding in trade obligations, of which approximately 70% are over 120 days past due.

Debtor-in-possession is now Medical Properties Trust (MPT) which will finance $75 million up front extending to $225 million more if Steward’s asset selloff milestones are completed on time. MPT will need to be far more forthcoming about Steward’s finances than Steward has been. The Stewardship Health sale to Optum now has to pass through the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas as well as Massachusetts regulators. Becker’s, Healthcare Dive 6 May, 7 May

Amazon Clinic loses its general manager, Nworah Ayogu, MD. He departed for Thrive Capital, a secretive VC (based on its website) that invests in technology, internet, and software companies. Dr. Ayogu, who doubled as chief medical officer of Amazon Pharmacy, stated the move will enable him to focus “exclusively on healthcare” after nearly four years with Amazon. He launched Clinic in November 2022 to a full 50-state rollout of the asynchronous and synchronous telehealth service last August, after a privacy challenge that escalated to the Senatorial level and forced a rollout delay [TTA 1 Aug 2023]. It sounds more like the doctor needs to go on a break. Amazon has not announced a replacement nor has Thrive issued any information. Becker’s, Modern Healthcare

Amwell’s soft Q1 reflective of telehealth as a whole. Its Q1 revenue of $59.5 million was 7% below Q1 2023’s $64 million, and missed Mr. Market’s forecasts. Where there was improvement was that net loss narrowed considerably to $73.4 million from prior year’s $398.5 million, when it took a hefty non-cash goodwill impairment charge. The bright spot Amwell is forecasting is that their Federal contract with Defense Health Agency, jointly with Leidos, will impact by Q4. Their part of the Digital First initiative for the Military Health System (MHS) will replace the current system, MHS Video Connect, with Amwell Converge [TTA 15 May]. Their pending NYSE stock delisting they plan to remedy with a reverse stock split to be announced.  Healthcare Dive, Amwell’s SEC Form 10-Q

Hims CEO and founder Andrew Dudum Does a Dumb. Mr. Dudum made a statement that on X that was interpreted by most to be encouraging the disruptive anti-Israel university and elsewhere protests which have roiled cities like New York and Los Angeles for weeks and are canceling graduations at Columbia University and University of Southern California. A statement like “If you’re currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your university’s divestment from Israel, keep going. It’s working.” and went on to say that companies would be eager to hire them is plain and clear. It immediately garnered criticism from investment group, industry, and software heads, as well as conservative and moderate media. This Editor will put on her marketing cap and remind Mr. Dudum of Marketing 101–be memorable, but do not offend the customer or investors who give you money. You have, after all, a company that depends upon appealing to a wide spectrum of people with easy and recurring telehealth prescriptions for hair loss, weight loss, skin problems, women’s health concerns, and erectile dysfunction. Your statement was not only completely unnecessary but also inflammatory at a bad time–it offended many customers no matter what religion or beliefs. Stock dropped. Customers canceled. Note to Mr. Dudum: if you want a thriving business, don’t live up to your name. FoxBusiness

News roundup: ONC recommends ‘nutrition labeling’ for healthcare AI apps but Google moves forward; CVS’ health services rebranding as Healthspire (updated); Clover Health repots out of ACO REACH

December 6, 2023 | by

Straining toward a model for AI app information? The latest grope by Federal regulators towards the “trustworthy use of artificial intelligence”, as the American Telemedicine Association terms it, is a labeling system that has been likened to ‘nutrition labeling’. This near-incomprehensible analogy to food labeling was proposed back in April by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), now headed by Micky Tripathi, Ph.D. This disclosure would consist of how the app was trained, how it performs, how it should be used, and how it shouldn’t, which does not sound onerous at all. The disclosures are designed to forestall issues around performance and bias that have previously appeared, such as Epic’s AI system designed to predict sepsis risk and an algorithm designed to flag patients needing assistance with complex treatment regimens. 

An optional proposed disclosure around how the app was trained and tested would be important to healthcare organizations but potentially problematic to developers. There are quite a few caveats expressed by Silicon Valley investors around hurting startups and even giants like Epic through over-disclosure of proprietary information, enabling reverse engineering and poaching of intellectual property. Everyone likes transparency, trust, safety, and efficacy, but the conundrum is to disclose what is needed for proper and cautious use without providing an entreé to IP. Wall Street Journal, Becker’s, ATA release and AI principles 

Google, predictably, damns the torpedoes, full speed ahead with healthcare AI. And intends to write the rules. They’ve deployed AI tools already with Mayo Clinic and HCA Healthcare–Mayo for medical records and research papers, HCA for clinical notes. EHR Meditech is using Google’s AI for clinical documentation and to summarize patient histories. Bayer is also working with Google. Their products include a licensed algorithm for breast and lung cancer detection, a tool for diagnosing diabetic retinopathy, and a question-answering bot. Google makes no secret that they plan to influence Federal efforts at setting standards by hiring lobbyists, most of whom are out of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and playing a large role in industry groups such as the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI).  If you believe that Google, Microsoft, Amazon (playing catchup), or other healthcare service companies like UnitedHealth Group’s Optum will twiddle their thumbs and wait for the Feds to set standards and (good grief) enforce disclosure on AI tools, this Editor has several lovely bridges for sale. POLITICO, Becker’s

CVS Health grouping health services and multi-payer assets under CVS Healthspire. Monday’s announcement at the Forbes Healthcare Summit will roll up new $20 billion acquisitions Oak Street Health and Signify Health along with 1,100 MinuteClinics, the CVS Caremark pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), CVS Specialty, and its new Cordavis operation that works with pharmaceutical companies to bring to market  biosimilars. The rebranding, a clever melding of ‘health’ and ‘inspire’, will start this month into 2024. It’s not revealed whether the current names will be sunsetted for CVS Healthspire, or whether they will keep their established brand names. The parallels are with Evernorth (Cigna), Optum (UnitedHealth Group), and Carelon (Elevance, the former Anthem) in creating a vertically integrated healthcare company. At Investor Day, CVS Pharmacy announced a cost-plus arrangement for retail prescriptions built on the cost of the drug, a set markup, and a fee that reflects the care and value of pharmacy services–clearly in competition with Mark Cuban CostPlus.  Forbes, FierceHealthcare, CVS release, Investor Day release  

Clover Health exits the advanced value-based primary care program, ACO REACH. Clover’s exit at the end of the 2023 performance year after two years disbands their practice arrangements for CMS’ advanced original Medicare shared savings program, formerly Direct Contracting, and provision of beneficiary services after completing their required wrapups and reporting. It is part of their recent moves to become profitable, focusing on their Medicare Advantage business and Clover Assistant management. They outsourced their Medicare Advantage plan administration to UST HealthProof for a savings of $30 million and laid off 10% of staff as part of restructuring. A 2021 SPAC on Nasdaq debuting above $16 that survived investigations by the SEC and DOJ now has shares trading currently under the $1.00 minimum for listing. Clover also finally settled seven shareholder lawsuits over its non-disclosure of the DOJ investigation at the time of the SPAC. Cleaning house is all part of living to fight another day, like other ‘insurtechs’ such as Oscar Health. Clover release, FierceHealthcare  Also: Looking back at insurtechs and their ‘disruption’,  Insurtechs in the widening gyre

Living to fight another day: insurtechs Bright Health, Clover Health, and Oscar Health report improved Q2s, H1s (updated)

August 10, 2023 | by

Have the upstart payers turned a corner–even if that means exiting the business? ‘Insurtech’ is the term given to the tech-enabled, health tech-friendly US payers which were supposed to deliver health insurance plans more efficiently (buy online!), more conveniently using apps and telehealth, lead in value-based care through strong networks, provider software, internal automation tools, and wrap it up with a ribbon of lower delivery cost to consumers, from those who needed individual exchange plans to Medicare Advantage. This utopian model cracked like the SPACs of Bright Health and Clover Health, and the IPO of Oscar Health, as this Editor noted last month, perhaps to the glee of traditional payers. But when survival is at stake, some surprising things can happen. All three are Not Dead Yet.

Bright Health Group succeeded last month in selling its remaining plans to ‘pure payer’ Molina Healthcare–their California Medicare Advantage plans Brand New Day and Central Health Plan. The deal: purchase 100% of the issued and outstanding capital stock of the two plans in a deal structured to be about $600 million. The Catch-22: stay solvent and absorb plan operational costs and losses (which are many) until Q1 2024 when the Molina deal will close. [TTA 6 July]

Last Friday (4 August), Bright secured a life preserver and line just as the waves started to crash–$60 million through a credit facility with an investment partnership of New Enterprise Associates (NEA). They also entered into a permanent waiver of default on its existing credit facility, which expires in February 2024. This has to refer to their prior $500 million credit facility with JP Morgan which was long overdue and now waived until the Molina close, apparently. Bright also is issuing penny warrants to NEA to purchase up to 1,656,789 shares of the Company’s common stock to the lenders under the new credit facility, approved by the board without the usual shareholder approval. This leaves an open question about who is really controlling the company. Release, Healthcare Finance, FierceHealthcare

There seems to be an even brighter (sic) picture in that their adjusted EBITDA for Q2 and H1 were actually in the black: $6.4 million for Q2 and $670,000 for H1. Even more bullishly, they project a full-year profitable adjusted EBITDA.

  • Reduced Q2 and H1 net losses: Q2 was $125 million versus $284 million in prior year. For H1 2023, the losses were $312 million and $488 million respectively.
  • Their other businesses in consumer care delivery, value-based care with providers in shared risk including ACO REACH (NeueHealth), and enterprise seemingly perform well. Their 2023 totals: consumer care $250-275 million, care solutions $900-925 million, and enterprise $1.15 -$1.2 billion.
  • Lives covered in value-based care are up to 371,000, an increase of 214% over last year’s 118,000–excluding any covered under their now exited commercial plans. Release,  Healthcare Finance

Looking at Clover Health, it was revealed this week that they survived a delisting off Nasdaq, which happens when the minimum closing share price requirement falls below $1 for at least 10 consecutive days. Now with closings for 10 days over $1, they are in Nasdaq’s good graces for now. They are exploring a reverse stock split or authorized share reduction, to be discussed at the 30 August shareholder meeting.

Clover then followed this up with a cheerful lead in their Q2 results that they had adjusted profitable EBITDA of $10 million versus last year’s $83.9 million loss. This is also remarkable as their revenue fell by over $333 million to $513.6 million due to a drop in non-insurance revenue of $384 million. Insurance plan revenue made up some of it by growing 17% to $314.4 million. In total, Clover recorded a net loss of $28.8 million. But for the year, adjusted EBITDA is projected to remain in the red between $70 and $120 million. Mobihealthnews, FierceHealthcare, release

Clover provides both Medicare Advantage (MA) plans in eight states plus a tool for practices, Clover Assistant, which assists in patient chronic care management through machine learning and aggregated data. They also entered value-based care in 2021 in the Medicare Direct Contracting (now ACO REACH) model which was a major loss generator in 2022 (Healthcare Dive) and has been cut back. Clover also survived an epically cracked SPAC out of the gate in January 2021 with the news that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had been investigating the company on investor relationships and business practices starting in fall 2020. A little over a month ago, the company finally settled seven shareholder lawsuits over its non-disclosure of the DOJ investigation at the time of the SPAC [TTA 28 June]. 

Now to NYC-based Oscar Health reporting its Q2, the first under its new CEO Mark Bertolini [TTA 30 March]. Their adjusted EBITDA went from red to in the black with a Q2 of $35.6 million, an improvement of $111.4 million versus prior year, and the second profitable quarter in a row with H1 adjusted EBITDA of $86.6 million, improving by $198 million from 2022. Revenue for Q2 was $1.5 billion with H1 at $3 billion. Net loss narrowed substantially to $15.4 million, an improvement of $96.7 million versus prior year, with H1 loss at $55.3 million, reduced by 70% from last year’s $187.3 million. The year will still be in the red with projected EBITDA loss of $75 to $175 million. The reasons for this gap–two profitable quarters, but an overall disappointing year–are not clear.

Bertolini touted factors such as improved medical loss ratios and rate increases. Oscar also pulled out of unprofitable Affordable Care Act marketplaces in Arkansas, Colorado, and California, as well as trimming MA plans in New York and Texas. On the earnings call, they announced that they were given state approval to resume MA enrollments in Florida and that they were relaunching +Oscar with help from ChatGPT to build automation tools in its Campaign Builder platform. In other news, their CFO is stepping down on 13 August, but remains on the board. He will be replaced internally by the chief transformation officer. Other staff are reportedly changing. Release, Healthcare Dive, FierceHealthcare

Update: you may also want to read Ari Gottlieb’s comments on these three companies on LinkedIn from the view of an expert financial analyst. Further comments on Bright’s perilous situation and Clover’s ‘legitimately good quarter’ here.

Why the ‘insurtechs’ didn’t revolutionize health insurance–and the damage they may have done

July 7, 2023 | by

crystal-ballIce water on hopes that many placed in ‘insurtechs’. This is the umbrella term that healthcare dubbed the upstart tech-enabled, health tech-friendly US payers which were supposed to deliver health insurance plans more efficiently (buy online!), more conveniently using apps and telehealth, with strong networks and at a lower delivery cost to consumers, from those who needed individual plans to Medicare Advantage. Around 2019-2020, these insurers gained billions in funding before going public through IPO or SPAC: Bright Health’s $500 million Series E in 2020 was only a chunk of their total $2.4 billion; Oscar Health raised $1.6 billion, Clover Health $1.3 billion. All three have struggled to stay clear of the insolvency precipice, with Friday Health Plans going over [TTA 23 June]. Bright Health Group will be exiting the insurance business after this year with the stock sale of their plans to Molina Healthcare–provided they survive to Q1 2024 [TTA 6 July]. Oscar and Clover have exited states and cut back offerings. In April, in a real retrenching, Oscar hired on Mark Bertolini, late of Aetna, pushing back a founder to an operational role. 

This Editor, in a marketing assessment for a client two years ago, believed as many did that Insurtechs Were The Future. At the very least, their practices would be adopted by the legacy insurers: easy online enrollment, lower premiums, predictive analytics, machine learning, digital documentation, online health education via apps, outsourcing areas such as customer service 24/7 and even marketing. Even those like Cigna through their Ventures arm bet some millions on insurtechs redefining payer-member relationships and payer structure, gaining better margins at profitable lines of business like Medicare Advantage (MA) and special needs plans (SNPs). After all, these plans did have people with decades of experience at insurers in their management, didn’t they, and they’d know what NOT to do. (And that’s the problem with gazing into crystal balls…eyestrain.)

Marissa Plescia’s article in MedCityNews is an excellent review on why the insurtechs’ centre did not hold. Key points made from her dive among the experts:

  • They underpriced and took heavy losses to grow their member base
  • They didn’t understand that some ‘inefficiencies’ in the health insurance market exist for reasons–perhaps not good ones, like state mandates through their departments of banking and insurance, but they exist and cannot be ignored. [Ed.–health education for MA has to be provided or at least available in written form in most if not all states]. Compliance can’t be skirted or ignored. Were they paying attention to the compliance of their plans?
  • They didn’t pay provider claims efficiently or at all [the SSM lawsuit of Bright]–a nifty way to lose networks and be sued by states, very damaging if the network wasn’t all that competitive to begin with.
  • Contracted rates with providers weren’t competitive. Were they managing risk adjusting coding well? 
  • Did they leverage sales channels beyond online such as brokers and their provider network? What about customer service?
  • The plans were not sticky enough to create some loyalty to an infamously non-loyal product

The insurtechs perhaps expected the technology to do too much–and for legacy payers to not catch up to them if they weren’t already moving there. Another problem–they (largely) were.

Disruption–but not the Clayton Christensen definition. Their disruption so far has been financial and legal (insolvency, cracked SPACs, lawsuits, share prices below $1.00, and delistings pending), loss of coverage for members; unpaid providers. With this track record, investors will avoid this category beyond the legacies. States won’t approve new plans from new companies. (This Editor believes that there are some overlooked positives such as inclusion in marketing of specialized and underserved groups, as well as some forced streamlining of processes.) There will be survivors–Alignment Health, kind of a below-the-radar operation and an afterthought in funding at $375 million, is in a few states and is mentioned. It’s also hard to bet against Bertolini leading Oscar–except that this is maybe Act V for him and he’s had his share of bunts and misses (bunt–ActiveHealth Management, misses–Healthagen, CarePass, iTriage) before his contentious departure from CVS. But in this particular widening gyre, while more revelations will be at hand, innovative newcomers in health plans won’t be seen for a long time, if ever. If the saga of airline deregulation (1980-1995) is a model, payer disruption just took a fraction of that time.

Week-end roundup: Cano Health’s $60M loss and divesting, Oscar Health exits CA, UCSF Meta Pixel lawsuit narrows, Syneos goes private for $7.1B, Envision nears Ch. 11, Australia’s A$429M EHR modernization funded

May 12, 2023 | by

Cano Health’s Q1 was not a cheerful one, what with a board fight, the Cano 3 resigning and nailing a long list of grievances to the door, and a new chairman of the board, Sol Trujillo, who specializes in turnarounds. The results bore out the Cano 3’s concerns, with a $60.6 million net loss versus 2022’s barely-there $100,000. Revenue increased 23% to $866.9 million but per member per month (PMPM) revenue fell 13%, driven by a higher proportion of non-Medicare members but partially offset by membership growth: 388,667 including 207,420 Medicare capitated members, an increase of 44% and 29% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA was only $5 million, compared to $29.2 million in Q1 2022. What’s being divested to improve cash flow are the proverbial ‘non-core assets’ which are outside of Medicare Advantage–a complaint of the Cano 3 who noted things like family self-dealing and a murky relationship with a Miami claims recovery outfit. Cano also raised 2023 forecasts for membership and total revenue, but no mention of growth in medical centers. Cano earnings release, Healthcare Dive, Digital Health Business

In other slimming-down news, Oscar Health will exit its exchange plans within Covered California at the end of the year. While they have 35,000 members, their medical loss ratios (MLR) are over 100% versus the desired 80%. (MLR, a key metric in exchange plans, is defined as the proportion of total paid medical service claims and all quality improvement activities together, then dividing that number by the total premium revenue minus all allowable deductions. New CEO Mark Bertolini says they will return when Oscar reshapes their product offerings and strategy. This Editor hears a heavy boot drop. Healthcare Dive

Lawsuits of health systems on Meta Pixel being used to send private patient information to Facebook and other third-party advertisers are now rolling through the courts. The class action against University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Health just got a little narrower. Judge William Horrick of the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted defendant UCSF Health’s motion to dismiss several plaintiff claims. As a public entity, UCSF argued that the “unjust enrichment” claims were invalid. ‘Jane Doe’s’ lawyers representing the class of patients have a deadline of 30 May to amend the breach-of-contract claim. Health systems caught up in the ad pixel mess should follow this closely, though Becker’s seems to be the only news coverage. Our coverage of Meta Pixel

And in other healthcare news from two ends of the spectrum:

  • Biopharma contract research organization (CRO) Syneos Health will be going private in a $7.1 billion deal.  Elliott Investment Management, Patient Square Capital, and Veritas Capital are leading the cash buyout for $43.00 per share, a tidy 24% premium to the 13 February closing price, which is a somewhat unusual delay but apparently due to heavy media speculation around it. Syneos was formed in the merger of two large CROs, InVentiv Health and INC Research, and as a public company has been on the share price roller coaster, though the category is considered to be highly attractive for investment to improve the odds of biopharma success.  The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year. Syneos release, Healthcare Dive
  • Healthcare staffing company Envision Healthcare envisions filing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy soon, according to a Wall Street Journal report. They are carrying about $7 billion in outstanding debt, ongoing and costly legal spats with UnitedHealthcare, and has had difficulty finding physicians and nurses that are contracted to augment hospital staff. Conflicts with payers center around out-of-network billing charges which are far above the customary and the ‘no surprises’ patient protection billing law that took effect this year. Investor KKR owns the company and reportedly has already written it down. Their EBITDA cracked from $1 billion in 2020 to about $250 million in 2022. FierceHealthcare, Healthcare Dive

And Down Under, the modernization of Australia’s health system EHR, estimated to cost A$429 million over two years, is now funded in the 2023-4 budget. The My Health Record (MHR) modernization will improve data sharing across service settings, sharing of pathology and diagnostic imaging information, and increase usage of MHR by allied health professionals. The budget also includes substantial fresh funding to the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA)–over A$325 million over four years and an ongoing A$80 million–and A$5.7 billion to Australia’s national Medicare program including strengthening primary care and urgent care. IT News (Australia)

Mid-week corral: CVS closes Signify Health; Bertolini to lead Oscar Health; ViVE highlights from Wellvana, AWS, Everly Health; Better Therapeutics lays off 35%, CoverMyMeds 815

March 30, 2023 | by

CVS closed its acquisition of Signify Health today. This $8 billion transaction ($30.50/share) adds a network of more than 10,000 clinicians nationally, including the 170-provider Medicare ACO group originally organized by Caravan Health. It was beneficial to the major shareholder group, New Mountain Capital and their investors, which owned 60% of Signify and have a tidily profitable exit. The CVS press release stated that Signify would continue to operate as a ‘payer-agnostic’ business within CVS Health. As earlier stated, Kyle Armbrester, Signify’s CEO, will continue to lead the business. Also Healthcare Dive (updated)

The bulldog engineer of the CVS-Aetna merger, Mark Bertolini, now tapped to head Oscar Health. Bertolini, the former chairman/CEO of Aetna (center), in the past three years since his unwilling (according to him) departure from the CVS board of directors [TTA 6 Feb 2020], has not been idle. From 2022, he was co-CEO of asset management firm Bridgewater Associates, and in the last 18 months, he has been a ‘strategic advisor’ to insurtech Oscar. Now he moves to the CEO office effective next Monday (3 April) and joins their board. Co-founder Mario Schlosser (left) steps back from CEO to president of technology, reporting to Bertolini, and joins the board. Joshua Kushner, a co-founder and major investor (Thrive Capital), as well as executive chairman of the board, is on the right in the leadership picture supplied with the Business Wire release.

Once a skeptic of insurtechs like Oscar, Bertolini by his statements is now a true believer. In a call with investors on Tuesday, he cited their technology that included digitization, individualization, and personal care. A major factor is that consumers are more comfortable since the pandemic with telehealth. Oscar was a pioneer in offering free telehealth with their plans.

Investors have pressed Oscar to get over to a profitable state by next year. Oscar has not been profitable since its 2012 founding by Schlosser, Kushner, and the long-departed Kevin Nazemi. In the time since Bertolini joined as an advisor, they have largely shed their Medicare Advantage business and concentrated on their individual market and ACA plans, which have seen huge growth along with overall record enrollment on the exchanges. But Oscar paused on new ACA signups in Florida and hauled back its glitchy and over-featured +Oscar tech platform [TTA 24 April 2021], which is now available unbundled. 2022 financials were substantially in the red with a loss of $610 million on revenue of $4 billion (Oscar release). However, the news of Bertolini moving to Oscar’s helm was met with a round of investor confidence. Share price moved from Monday’s close of $3.41 to $6.70 midday Tuesday and has largely stayed in the $6.00 range. Oscar release on Business Wire, FierceHealthcare, Healthcare Dive, YahooFinance

ViVE, the digital health spinoff of HLTH, concluded its annual meeting in Nashville this year with an announced attendance of 7,500, including 650 startups, 425 investors, and 330 hosted buyers. The energetic start on Sunday was sadly marked on Monday with the shooting at the local Covenant School where six were killed. Impressions from an anonymous attendee to HISTalk today were that most of the sessions were panels (which gets more people up front, but can be sunk by a dull moderator) versus individual speakers (who can either be fabulous or duds). Content could have been more inspiring and, as usual, many speakers are throwing out headlines for those in media to write about. This Editor has read relatively little so far but more will come this week. Highlights so far:

  • Nashville-based Wellvana Health, which provides technology for healthcare providers and health systems to implement value-based care, raised a stunning Series B of $84 million for a total raise of $140 million. Heritage Group and Valtruis co-led the investment with participation from Memorial Hermann Health System. The funding will be used to expand from its present 22 states and over 100,000 lives. Their current agreements are with multiple payers, Medicare Advantage, and three national contracts for the 2023 ACO REACH model. FierceHealthcare, Mobihealthnews
  • Everly Health is moving beyond its current home testing kits to integrate lab testing with telehealth. This will cover certain conditions, such as COVID-19, flu, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), urinary tract infections (UTIs), thyroid, weight management, and men’s and women’s health. Cost is out of pocket $59 and if insurance covers, $10-50. In its weight management program, Everly will offer GLP-1 drugs, a class of drugs that includes Ozempic and Wegovy, to qualified patients. FierceHealthcare
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced 23 startups for their 2023 Healthcare Accelerator: Global Cohort for Workforce. This year’s accelerator cohort is finding solutions for the healthcare industry in three core areas for healthcare employees: retention, deployment, and training. More on the accelerator here and the list here, including 10 from the UK. FierceHealthcare
  • Health systems are demanding a quick ROI on their digital expenditures, according to a panel of CIOs and digital officers from Providence, Allegheny Health Network, Sutter Health, and Adventist Health. It should not be a surprise to anyone that they are looking for returns in the next year or so–yet are pushing forward with investments because of inflation and increased workforce pressures. FierceHealthcare

Another digital cognitive behavioral therapy trims. Better Therapeutics is reportedly releasing 35% of staff, or 15 people, in yet another cutback of another company in the formerly high, wide, and flying sector. Better specializes in prescription digital therapeutics to address cardiometabolic diseases such as diabetes. Better SPAC’d in 2021 [TTA 8 April 2021] hitting the market at $10.25 and currently trading on Nasdaq at about $0.60. According to their SEC filing, they are trying to stretch remaining cash to reach potential FDA marketing authorization and subsequent commercial launch of BT-001 in Type 2 diabetes. Better is in the same jam as competitors Pear Therapeutics and Akili Interactive, both paring back to the bone and looking for buyers, according to Mobihealthnews. Also LayoffsTracker. 

CoverMyMeds, a division of healthcare giant McKesson, is also laying off 815 by mid-April and closing its Scottsdale, Arizona office. The Arizona office has the company’s patient support center; workers there will be given the option to move to Columbus, Ohio. Other offices including Columbus (Franklinton) and Atlanta will be condensed and space leased out. CoverMyMeds automates the prior authorization process for medications for payers. What is unusual is that the company, bought for about $1 billion in 2017, accounted for $1.1 billion of McKesson’s $70.5 billion in 2022 revenue, and $136 million in McKesson profit–the most profitable of their four divisions. Columbus Dispatch, Layoffs.fyi

Week-end news roundup: +Oscar data tech platform pauses, BD buys MedKeeper pharmatech for $93M, Novant’s Meta misconfiguration reveals PHI, Mt Sinai’s Sema4 genomics spinoff releases 250 + founder

August 19, 2022 | by

+Oscar, Oscar Health’s foray into selling value-based health plan management services within a full-stack platform, has taken a minus. They are no longer pursuing relationships until they straighten out the ones they have, which are proving problematic. Their last implementation at Florida-based insurer Health First Health Plans (not to be confused with NY’s HealthFirst) proved to have some problems that prevented them from going live early this year, which were not itemized but were serious enough for Oscar Health to stop acquiring accounts until said difficulties are sorted out.  +Oscar’s platform is designed to deliver medical cost management to payers and value-based care by closing care gaps, improving quality scores, enhancing value, and communicating effectively with patients through its Campaign Builder and Next Best Actions engines (release). How many contracts +Oscar has implemented was not disclosed, although since startup in April 2021, they were claiming a pace of 1-2 annually. Oscar Health has experienced a few bumps since its March 2021 IPO that raised $1.4 billion, what with share prices cruising in the mid-single digits and shareholder class action lawsuits [TTA 19 May]. Healthcare Dive, Q2 results

Medical device giant BD gets into pharmatech with MedKeeper buy for an eye-popping $93 million. The purchase was made from pharmaceutical manufacturer Grifols, SA, a Spanish multinational pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturer, as part of their plan to exit non-core businesses. MedKeeper is a photo-based automation system for in-hospital workflows and systems for pharmacy communications, compliance, and productivity.  BD also owns two pharmacy-related companies in their Medication Management Solutions portfolio, Parata for automating vial filling, packaging, and central fill, and Pyxis automated medication dispensers. Count BD as another company that acquires technology from, as this Editor put it earlier, “healthy health tech companies at the right (discounted) price that fill in their tech gaps.” MedTechDive, BD release

North Carolina provider Novant Health has notified patients of a code misconfiguration of their Meta Pixel tracker that may lead to unauthorized disclosure of their personal health information (PHI). The number of patients is not disclosed. In June, The Markup and STAT jointly published a several-part exposé of the Meta Pixel tracker being loaded into patient portals and the online appointment scheduler, capturing sensitive patient information and sending it to Facebook [TTA 17 June]. The letter explains the event as a campaign to connect more patients to their MyChart portal. The pixel was removed in June (after the article published). Novant determined that PHI could have been disclosed, although they have not uncovered any improper use to date. HealthITSecurity, Novant release

Layoffs and restructurings continue this summer with the latest being Sema4, a population health/analytics/ML/AI-assisted disease model spinoff of Mount Sinai. In what the company (Nasdaq: SMFR) has termed “a series of corporate realignments”, the company is discharging 250 staff, about 13%, plus shedding its founder from both the president and director slots effective immediately. Leading the company will be a transformation management office that includes the CEO and the new chief technology & product officer. On their Q2 earnings call, coupled with the first half, Sema4 disclosed layoffs from first half to total 30% of “legacy” staff to reduce to 1,600 employees. With shuttering some of their lab business and moving of operations, they expect to achieve cost savings of $50 million in 2022 and $250 million by end of 2023, to refocus on what they term their ‘health insights business’. Net loss in the second quarter of 2022 was $85.7 million, up over $40 million in Q2 2021. Yahoo Finance, Becker’s.

Thursday legal news roundup: Oscar Health accused of IPO securities fraud; Venezuelan cardiologist moonlights as cybercriminal, faces slammer; Change Healthcare sues former employee now at Olive AI

May 19, 2022 | by

To use a cliché, what a difference a year makes. In March 2021, insurtech Oscar Health successfully raised $1,4 billion in its IPO with shares at $39. Heady times didn’t last long, with shares tumbling to $5.67 as of this writing. Now the shareholder lawsuits have begun, with the complaint stating that negative effects of COVID-19 on Oscar’s business were not disclosed, specifically the growing cost of the pandemic on testing and treatment costs they would cover, and “Oscar would be negatively impacted by an unfavorable prior year Risk Adjustment Data Validation (RADV) result relating to 2019 and 2020 [and] that Oscar was on track to be negatively impacted by significant SEP membership growth”. The lack of forward-looking disclosure at an IPO is a violation of the Securities Act. The initial lawsuit has been filed in the US District Court for the Southern District Court of New York by shareholder Lorin Carpenter. Multiple law firms have invited shareholders to join in the suit — example from PR Newswire. Also named in the suit are Oscar Health co-founders CEO Mario Schlosser and Vice Chairman Joshua Kushner, plus several investment banks.

Oscar started the year with a Q1 loss of $0.36 per share versus an estimate of a loss of $0.40, but this is less than half of last year’s loss of $0.98 per share. They are also exiting the Arkansas and Colorado markets in 2023. Healthcare Dive

Cardiologist, master cybercriminal, a new Dr. Mabuse? Accused of the creation, use, and sale of ransomware is one Venezuelan doctor and practicing cardiologist, Moises Luis Zagala Gonzalez, a dual citizen of Venezuela and France. The charges by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the Eastern District of New York also detail his “extensive support of, and profit sharing arrangements with, the cybercriminals who used his ransomware programs.” SaaS can’t hold a candle to the RaaS–ransomware-as-a-service–operation he created to sell what he dubbed ‘Thanos,’ allegedly named after a fictional cartoon villain responsible for destroying half of all life in the universe. Turns out that Iranian state-sponsored hackers and fellow ransomware designers really liked it too. If convicted, he faces 10 years in Club Fed–five years for attempted computer intrusion, and five years for conspiracy to commit computer intrusions. Designing criminal software really does test the limits of moonlighting. DOJ release, TechCrunch

Change Healthcare sues former employee at competitor Olive AI. While their merger with UnitedHealthcare is tied up in the US District Court in DC [TTA 23 Mar], Change Healthcare is not letting any courtroom grass grow under their feet. They are suing a former employee, Michael Feeney, with violating the non-compete clauses of his employment contract. The suit was filed in Tennessee Chancery Court, its HQ state. Mr. Feeney has countersued in his state of residence, stating that the non-compete violates Massachusetts law. He was VP, strategy and operations at Change handling physician revenue cycle management. At Olive AI, he is currently SVP, provider market operations. Information is a bit scarce on this and the free article this Editor has found reads machine-translated. If you have access to the Nashville Post or Modern Healthcare it’s probably more decipherable.

As to the lawsuit affecting non-competes due to the tight labor market–don’t count on it. It’s a conflict between the state the company is in enforcing non-competes, versus a state which restricts (or negates) them that is the former employee’s state of residence and work. What wins out will be the interesting part and affect many of us in the US.

‘Insurtech’ Bright Health’s IPO second largest to date, but falls slightly short of estimates (updated)

June 30, 2021 | by

Bright Health Group’s IPO last Friday (23 June) fell a little short of the $1 billion+ raise and valuation projection two weeks ago, but not by much on a bad market day. Their $924 million raise was based on a float of 51.3 million shares at an opening price of $18 per share, with a targeted price range of $20 to $23. (Thursday 1 July’s BHG close: $16.85, a typical pattern.)

The raise compares favorably to Oscar Health’s blockbuster $1.44 billion IPO, Clover Health’s controversial but lucrative SPAC [TTA 9 Feb]. and Alignment Health’s $490 million.  Bright Health also acquired Zipnosis, a telehealth/telemedicine ‘white label’ triage system for large health systems, in April [TTA 6 Apr].

The IPO now creates a company value of $11.23 billion, down from the expected $14 billion. Bright Health is unique in its category in not only offering exchange and Medicare Advantage plans but also NeueHealth, 61 advanced risk-bearing primary care clinics delivering in-person and virtual care to 75,000 unique patients. FierceHealthcare, Reuters, Bright Health Group release. Also see TTA 18 June and 28 May.

‘Insurtech’ Oscar Health adds +Oscar tech platform to market health plan and member engagement services

April 24, 2021 | by

Oscar Health putting $1.4 bn in IPO cash to work. Oscar Health announced the formation of a stand-alone platform, +Oscar, to provide healthcare partners with a range of services to benefit providers, payers, and patients/members. The new unit will be headed by Meghan Joyce as COO and EVP. There is no website yet for +Oscar nor mention of a start of business date but an email contact for the unit.

+Oscar will offer a range of services to enable partners to:

  • Lower costs through an efficient, full-stack platform and health plan infrastructure–integrated, end-to-end health plan services. Oscar is claiming they can achieve the administrative efficiency of far larger health plans, targeting provider-sponsored and regional health plans.
  • Create member experiences that are marketable and can drive growth and retention; that catch the attention of brokers and members plus enables flexible plan designs that can save money for members. Oscar is also hiring out Care Teams.
  • Power effective medical cost management and deliver on value-based care by closing care gaps, improving quality scores, enhancing value capture, and more.
  • Empower providers to manage care at scale: bi-directional integrations with existing electronic medical records and workflow tools.  

Why it’s important. It’s an interesting and fast redeployment of assets developed to run Oscar’s plans and services, repackaged to sell to smaller health plans. Large insurers took years to realize that they could package and sell their systems to other health plans and employers; independent companies do the same (for instance, network management and provider credentialing). Oscar is also partnering with Cigna on co-branded California health plans. Selling the technology can create real revenue (ask UHG’s Optum), even more so than health plans. It also might help their profitability problem [TTA 9 Feb]. Release, FierceHealthcare, Becker’s.

News and deal roundup, 5 March: Oscar Health’s $1.4 billion IPO, telehealth expansion in Congress, what people *really* do during a telehealth visit

March 5, 2021 | by

What a difference a month makes in a blazing healthcare market. ‘Neoinsurer’ Oscar Health went public on Tuesday, selling over 37 million shares at $39 each, reaping an eyeblinking $1.44 bn. While shares took a tumble on Wednesday and Thursday, closing at just above $32, the valuation of the company could be anywhere between $7.92 and $9.5 bn (calculating in options and the like). Quite a difference from the estimate in early February, which was a modest–and as now we know, totally sandbagged–$100 million [TTA 9 Feb]. A lovely payday for their backers and all at Oscar who had stock grants, indeed.

As we’ve seen from recent IPOs, they have all been underestimated (e.g. Signify Health’s $100 million filing transubstantiated into $561 million). The downward glide slope in share price is typical. Whether it will rise will depend very much on strong results for this quarter, half year, and full year as Oscar presses harder into the competitive Medicare Advantage, exchange, and small group markets. How they, and all the other payers do, will be dependent on health policy permutations and emanations from the DC Swamp. CNBC, TechCrunch, FierceHealthcare

Speaking of the DC Swamp, telehealth expansion is enjoying real traction in Congress and with Health and Human Services (HHS). The chair of the House Health Subcommittee, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) has called for many of the flexibilities on payments and locations granted temporarily during the pandemic’s liberalization of coverage to be made permanent. These affect Medicare and other types of Federal payments. [Review of the 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule re telehealth here]  They expire after the public health emergency (PHE), extended in January to end of April, so a clock is ticking, quickly.

The basics are that Congress must pass legislation that removes restrictions on geography (currently rural only) and permits the patient home to be used as a ‘distant site’. Advocates also want to add to Medicare telehealth coverage hospice and home dialysis care, more types of eligible care providers such as physical therapists and other allied health professionals, and audio-only (telephonic) consults. Others are pushing for reinstating HIPAA compliance for telehealth platforms.

The Telehealth Modernization Bill that covers most of the above was introduced on 23 February in both the Senate and House, in a rare show of both bipartisanship and bicamerality. (Excluded: telephonic consults, HIPAA compliance) Rep. Eshoo’s remarks were made during last Tuesday’s Committee on Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing.

HHS is also backing this, based on HHS’ Office of the Inspector General’s recent statement praising the expansion of telehealth. Recognizing that concerns have been raised about ‘telefraud’, IG Christi Grimm noted that they have been vigorously prosecuting fraudulent claims [TTA 2 Oct 20] with telehealth being used in a broad sense for billing other goods and services such as medications and durable medical equipment. FierceHealthcare, Healthcare Dive, ATA News 26 Feb

Speaking of telehealth visits, what do the patients do during them? This Editor had filed away, waiting for an opportune moment to share it, a surprising study by DrFirst, a mobile telehealth and communications platform. It was conducted online during the Pits of the Pandemic (June 2020). It may not surprise you that most patients weren’t fully engaged in the process. Bored, isolated, mostly male patients–73 percent men, 39 percent women–multitasked and distracted themselves during the virtual visit by: 

Surfing web, checking email, texting – 24.5%
Watching the news, TV, or movie – 24%
Scrolling through social media – 21%
Eating a snack or a meal – 21%
Playing a video game – 19%
Exercising – 18%
Smoking a cigarette – 11%
Driving a car – 10% (!!!!)

And the best….Having a “quarantini” cocktail or other alcoholic beverage – 9.4%

Reasons for consults were unsurprising: annual checkup – 38%, mental health therapy – 25%, and specialist visits (e.g., dermatologist, hematologist, or oncologist) – 21%.  N=1,002 US consumers. 44% of Americans Have Used Telehealth Services During Coronavirus Pandemic but Some Admit Not Paying Attention. Also Advisory Board blog.

Deal and news roundup: Cigna acquires MDLive, Oscar Health $1bn IPO preview, Teladoc’s smash revenue–and losses, Medisafe’s $30M Series C

February 27, 2021 | by

The big news this week in Telehealth World is Cigna’s agreement to acquire MDLive. MDLive will be part of Evernorth, Cigna’s health services portfolio. From the release and news reports,  Cigna has been a long-time partner of and investor (through Cigna Ventures) in MDLive, which has grown to 60 million members. No purchase price nor management changes have been disclosed. Headquartered in Florida, since 2009 MDLive raised close to $200 million in investment in five rounds, the last $50 million in private equity in September, and was rumored to be prepping an IPO. 

Evernorth was rebranded within Cigna last September for management services which can be sold outside of Cigna, a move that follows both CVS Aetna and UnitedHealthGroup. It contains pharmacy benefit management company Express Scripts, specialty pharmacy Accredo, and medical benefit manager eviCore along with several other smaller related businesses. Last year, it brought in $116.1 billion in revenues for Cigna last year, a 20 percent jump from 2019, according to Cigna’s annual report. MDLive release, Healthcare Dive, FierceHealthcare

‘Neoinsurer’ Oscar Health’s IPO raise, scheduled for next week, is now estimated to be in the eye-blinking $1 bn to $1.2 bn range, with over 30 million shares valued at $32-34 per share. At the beginning of the month, it was estimated to be a modest $100 million [TTA 9 Feb]. Daffodils in February? More in TechCrunch, Reuters

Meanwhile, the Big Kahuna of Telehealth, Teladoc, ended 2020 with a smashing $1.1 bn in revenue and equally smashing losses. Their Q4 revenue was $383 million, up 145 percent from $156 million in Q4 2019. Visits skyrocketed due to the pandemic of course–10.6 million, up 156% from 2019. Paid membership hit 51.8 million, up 41 percent from 2019’s 36.7 million. Both membership and visits are expected to increase in 2021. Livongo, acquired in October, added substantially to 2020’s losses of $485 million, up 389 percent from 2019’s $99 million. Q4 losses were $394 million in the fourth quarter, up from $19 million in 2019. FierceHealthcare, Teladoc release

And happily, but more modestly, Medisafe’s smartphone-based medication management app has raised a $30 million Series C, led by Sanofi Ventures and ALIVE Israel HealthTech Fund. From a basic app when this Editor first profiled the company and met Omri ‘Bob’ Shor over a coffee in 2013, the app now is more a digital drug companion and a platform for patient adherence programs. Kudos! Release

‘Neoinsurer’ Oscar Health goes for $100 million IPO; Clover Health’s big SPAC under SEC microscope

February 9, 2021 | by

Oscar Health, one of a number of US ‘insurtech’ or ‘neoinsurance’ private health insurance companies that have nipped at the heels of the Big 9, announced late Friday an IPO on the NYSE. The number of shares and their value is not on the SEC S-1 filing but the estimate of the raise is $100 million. Timing is not disclosed but rumored to be by March or early Q2. The offering is underwritten by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Allen and Company.

Oscar was one of the first to offer members apps, telehealth, and fitness trackers–revolutionary back in 2012 but routine now. Expanding beyond its original base of individual health insurance coverage, it now offers Medicare Advantage and small group coverage in 18 states to over 500,000 members. Oscar remains a virtual-first platform with the majority of its members in Florida, Texas, and California. Oscar makes much of member engagement and its partnerships; 47 percent of its overall subscribing membership and 44 percent of its 55-and-up subscribers are monthly active users. Oscar has also partnered with Cleveland Clinic and other larger insurers like Cigna. 

Financing for Oscar to date is over $1.5 bn. It has tidily grown in geographic coverage, members, and revenue–$1.67 billion in 2020 and $1.04 billion in 2019–no simple feat against the Big 9. Oscar’s problem is profitability–operating losses grew proportionately, $402.3 million (+56% from $259.4 million). Operating expenses also grew by 16 percent. TechCrunch gives additional crunch in the financial analysis (article in part, full paid access). Mobihealthnews

Oscar is one of a few health-tech heavy survivors of insurance companies that bloomed like flowers–and wilted–during and post-Obamacare. Clover Health, which thrived in a slice of the Medicare Advantage market, went the SPAC (blank check) route 8 January with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings. Now with an enterprise value of approximately $3.7 billion, the SPAC indeed put Clover in the clover [TTA 14 Jan].

But perhaps short-lived. Clover’s SPAC is now being scrutinized by the SEC based on last week’s explosive charges by short-seller maven Hindenburg Research (!). Hindenburg’s research report alleges that Clover “lured retail investors into a broken business” by not disclosing a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation that started (at least) last fall. Clover countered that the investigation is “routine” since Clover is in the Medicare business. Thus, it was not disclosed by Clover to investors as ‘non-material’. DOJ investigations are far more serious than CMS fines for compliance violations, which are not uncommon. Back in 2016, Clover was fined just over $106,000 by CMS on misleading marketing practices.

In short, DOJ investigations are never routine. They usually are the start point for enhanced claims scrutiny and a concatenation of charges, as WellCare, then a scrappy upstart insurer, found out over six agonizing years, 2006-2012, that were serious enough to send much of top management to Club Fed.  The Hindenburg paper (linked above) details other business practices that if true, are dodgy at best and fuel for further investigations.

The SEC notice of investigation was disclosed by Clover last Friday evening, usually a good time to disclose Bad News. This SPAC may have feet of clay.  PYMNTS.com, CNBC

New Year’s Deal and Event Roundup: Optum-Change Healthcare, Walgreens-Amerisource Bergen, December’s deal potpourri, CES and JPM

January 7, 2021 | by

Mutated COVID virii may be spreading, the UK locked down tight, but the deals with big numbers just keep on coming….

Change Healthcare not sold for pocket change. $13bn from the coffers of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum took it, though word was that it wasn’t for sale. Change will be part of OptumInsight to reinforce data analytics, technology-enabled services, and revenue cycle management. The deal pays common stock shareholders $25.75 per share in cash plus assumption of Change’s debt. Closing is slated for second half 2021. Neil de Crescenzo, Change’s CEO, will be CEO of OptumInsight which will integrate Change into its structure.

Change houses a dizzying group of diverse businesses including radiology, imaging, revenue cycle and payment management, consumer experience, clinical decision support, workflow integration, communication and payment solutions, network optimization, value-based care enablement….and that is about half of the list. The release emphasized RCM, provider payment, claims transaction analysis, and clinical decision support. It will be interesting what Optum chooses to retain and discard.  Press release, Fierce Healthcare, Forbes. Credit Suisse has also published a lengthy financial analysis (PDF) of the deal which opines that it’s likely to not run afoul of Federal anti-trust interest or significant conflicts of interest (Optum currently serves many payers other than UHC). There may be Federal concern about a concentration of data and transaction information as Change alone serves 19 of 20 major US payers and is a leader in network services and payments.

Walgreens Boots Alliance sells the majority of their Alliance Healthcare pharmaceutical wholesale businesses to AmerisourceBergen, a leading US drug wholesale company, for about $6.5 billion in cash and stock ($6.275 billion in cash and 2 million shares of AmerisourceBergen common stock). Interestingly, Walgreens is the single largest shareholder of Amerisource Bergen at 30 percent of common shares. Both Walgreens and Amerisource Bergen will continue their US distribution agreement until 2029 and Alliance UK with Boots until 2031. One way of interpreting this is fattening their ‘war chest’ for expansion, including their major bet with Village Medical. Perhaps a payer or a health tech company? Press release

December’s potpourri of Big Deals was rounded up by FierceHealthcare:

  • Alphabet’s Verily closed out 2020 with a massive $700 million funding round primarily from Alphabet to fund its commercial work
  • 23andMe got a lifeline of $82.5 million in Series F funding from an offering of $85 million in total equity shares. TTA analyzed why the bloom had faded from the genetic testing rose, so hot only a few years ago, last August and February. Bloomberg
  • New Agey Calm is meditating on $75 million in Series C funding and visualizing a valuation of $2 bn.
  • Pear Therapeutics, developer of prescription apps to treat addiction and insomnia, counted $80 million in Series D sheep. 
  • Provider CityBlock Health raised $160 million to support care for marginalized populations with complex needs and now has an estimated value of $2 bn.
  • On the payer side, Oscar Health raised $140 million in a venture round as we reported before Christmas.
  • And we reported on Everlywell’s digital home testing/telehealth consult Series D of $179 million in early December.

And the Big January Events Roll On, Virtually.  CES 2021 and the JP Morgan Healthcare conference for their clients will be held next week as usual, along with the usual constellation of independent conferences. These are usually a major venue for deals and deal announcements, and even in the virtual space, will likely be no different. One wonders if Haven’s closure [TTA 5 Jan] will be even whispered.