Teladoc may finish 2022 better than expected, at least in revenue. At the JPMorgan (JPM) annual healthcare conference, CEO Jason Gorevic shared a revised but still preliminary projection that Q4 would finish up a tick higher than expected–between $633 million and $640 million in revenue, versus their projection during Q3 that the low side would be $625 million. FY2022 revenue was updated to be the $2.403 billion to $2.41 billion range. The big contributor? Their mental health app BetterHelp. Their growth, according to Mr. Gorevic, is “staggering’. Silicon Valley Bank (SVP) analyst Stephanie Davis calculated a growth rate of 43% for the business, up from previous management targets. Teladoc’s optimism is tempered by the no/slow growth economy projected for this year, both direct to consumer and corporate. To help boost the latter, it is launching a new app for health plan members and company employees access to all of Teladoc’s clinical programs. Healthcare Dive, Becker’s

Despite the uncertain economy, funding continues in various rounds, especially in still-hot areas such as remote/virtual behavioral therapy and payments, but nowhere near the bubbly level of 2021:

CVS Health’s open piggybank helped to fund NJ-based Array Behavioral Care’s $25 million Series C. Other investors included HLM Venture Partners, OSF Healthcare System, Wells Fargo, and three others. Array will use the funds to scale its virtual behavioral therapy platform.  Mobihealthnews, Crunchbase

In that interesting area called healthcare fintech, the cleverly-named Paytient now has an additional $40.5 million in Series B funding, bringing their total to $63 million. Paytient provides corporate employees, health plan members, and health system patients with a card-based Health Payment Account (HPA) that includes a line of credit. Release, Mobihealthnews 

In hospital-to-home respiratory care, still in stealth Telesair raised $22 million in Series A funding, led by Pasaca Capital with participation from existing and new investors such as Honeywell Investors, ZhenCheng Capital, Shangbay Capital plus three others. According to the release, funding will be used for the commercialization of the Bonhawa Respiratory Humidifier for use in the ICU and the development of a second-generation, revolutionary product for hospital-to-home. Mobihealthnews   

Also highlighted in Mobihealthnews‘ article is a $10 million Series B for ModifyHealth, which delivers prepared, medically tailored meals and provides advice from dieticians. ModifyHealth provides certified low FODMAP meals for those with irritable bowel syndrome or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), as well as Mediterranean, low-sodium, and gluten-free (celiac disease) diet meals. Censinet, a developer of healthcare cybersecurity software, also landed $9 million in a funding round led by MemorialCare Innovation Fund, Rex Health Ventures, and Ballad Ventures plus five others for a total of over $22 million.  Release  CARI Health, a San Diego startup developing a wearable sensor for medication management, gained $2.3 million in seed funding from the San Diego Angel Conference plus four other funds. Release

The pace of layoffs may have slowed, but the numbers have not.

Alphabet’s Verily health tech development unit is discharging 15% of current staff, estimated at 240 people.  This is part of a reorganization designed to move to financial independence from Alphabet/Google. It’s categorized among Google units as ‘Other Bets’ which is appropriate given that so far, their bets haven’t hit any jackpots. An example we covered back in 2015-16 was a glucose monitoring contact lens developed with Alcon, an on-the-face of it Preposterous Idea that died about that time. Current discontinued areas include remote patient monitoring for heart failure and micro needles for drug delivery. Employees were told to leave the office for the remainder of the week; further information including separation would be sent to them via email. Since 2017, it has raised over $2 billion. You wonder where it went. CNBC

Cue Health, a home diagnostics company, is cutting 388 employees, about 26% of its workforce, effective March. This is in addition to an 170-person manufacturing worker layoff during the summer. Cue bet heavily on growth of its at-home molecular Covid testing packs sold direct on a membership plan [TTA 12 Nov 2021], plus to pharmacies and to businesses. It expanded from about 100 workers in 2020 to more than 1,500. That growth has cratered along with the entire testing market for a pandemic that is no longer there. According to Mobihealthnews, they have submitted to the FDA for new test such as an EUA for a combination flu and COVID-19 diagnostic as well as de novo clearances for its flu and COVID-19 standalone tests.