Short takes: Walgreens now majority share of VillageMD, CareCentrix; Lark Health lifts $100M, UnitedHealth Group’s profitable Q3 and Change delay

October 14, 2021 | by

Walgreens has ‘gone big’ with its VillageMD primary care practice investment, putting on the table $5.2 billion. It’s now t the majority owner with 63% of the company, up from 30% last year. Their projected number of co-located full-service Village Medical practices is projected to grow to 600 by 2025, up from a current 52. VillageMD is still planning an IPO in 2022, making for a potential great ROI for Walgreens. Walgreens Boots Alliance also invested $330 million in CareCentrix, a post-acute and home care provider, for 55% of the company. CareCentrix was a recent investor in Vesta Healthcare [TTA 9 April]. Wrapping it all up is their new Walgreens Health, for tech-enabled consumer-directed primary care, post-acute care, and home care.

Weight loss and chronic conditions app Lark Health flew into a $100 million Series D, led by Deerfield Management Company, with PFM Health Sciences and returning investors Franklin Templeton, King River Capital, Castlepeak, IPD, Olive Tree Capital, and Marvell Technology co-founder Weili Dai. Their total funding since 2011 is over $195 million (Crunchbase). Lark claims an AI-based platform for individual coaching in weight loss along with related conditions such as diabetes, pre-diabetes, diabetes prevention, cardiovascular, and behavioral health. The platform logs and provides immediate feedback on food and tracks data from sources like Apple Health. The new funds will be used for R&D and to expand its virtual care integrations to more payers. Current payer partnerships include Anthem, Highmark BCBS, and Medical Mutual. Release, MedCityNews, FierceHealthcare

UnitedHealth Group, parent of UnitedHealthcare and Optum, reported $4.1 billion in profit for Q3, notching $72.3 billion in revenue for the quarter, a tidy gain over year prior’s $65.1 billion. The mega-acquisition of Change Healthcare to fold into OptumInsight is further delayed, being worked towards a closing of early 2022, having hit more than a few strong regulatory headwinds and the rocks of DOJ [TTA 14 Aug].  Becker’s Payer Issues, FierceHealthcare 

Short takes 9 April: Doro phones to elderly isolated; funding to Vesta Healthcare, Zedsen; Anthem partners with Canvas EMR, Health Metrics (AU) new owner

April 9, 2021 | by

Today’s News from all over roundup….

Doro in the UK is participating in the ‘Do Good’ initiative with the mobile network giffgaff. Doro is donating 500 Doro phones to isolated elderly people across the UK, as part of their efforts in other countries such as Germany, France, and the Nordics. The tie with giffgaff came about after their announcement of ‘goodybank’ to help those in UK communities facing hardship. Release

Vesta Healthcare raised $65 million in a venture round, bringing its financing since 2018 to $105 million (Crunchbase). Vesta connects a network of caregivers to at-home care and clinical care management. This round was led by Deerfield Management with participation from existing investors Oak HC/FT, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Lux Capital, Generator Ventures, Nationwide, CareCentrix, and Epstein Partners plus K2 HealthVentures. Vesta is HQ’d in New York City and provides services in five states, which will be expanded with the new funding. Release. Hat tip to HISTalk

London-based Zedsen raised $12 million (£8.7 million) in a Series B which apparently is its first reported financing. Also joining them is Dr. Caroline Hargrove CBE, former CTO of Babylon Health, as Chief Technology Officer. Zedsen provides non-invasive skin biosensor-based monitoring of human body functions to create personalized insights about health, fitness, diet, and emotional wellbeing. The investors include: Joseph R. Grano, former Chairman and CEO of UBS Financial Services Inc; Nasser Kazeminy, Investor, Founder of NJK Holding and Chairman of the Ellis Island Honor Society (EIHS); Tony Rice, Former CEO of Cable and Wireless; Bonnie Mcalveen Hunter, Chairperson of the Red Cross; and Jim Harpel, Investor at Palm Beach Capital. Release, Mobihealthnews

Health payer Anthem is constructing an interesting partnership with a physician-targeted EMR, Canvas. Canvas will integrate Anthem member information into their EMR workflows as part of Canvas Payer SDK (software development kit). The company is leveraging this function as in primary care, usually health insurance claims data are a reliable source of patient data. They also gained a brand new Series A of $17 million funded by Inspired Capital and IA Ventures after seed and venture rounds. Becker’s Health IT, TechCrunch 

And Down Under, Tanarra Capital acquired a majority stake in Health Metrics, a software provider that supports Australia’s residential aged care, retirement living, community, and disability sectors.