TTA Where *Is* Spring? 3: SPACs–why they cracked, Hinge Health and FTC-PBM delays, Transcarent’s tune change, UK’s pivot on NHS research data, why OpenAI is losing its way, more!

April 11, 2025 | by

 

11 April 2025

It’s still a chilly Spring in your Editor’s whereabouts, but we have, fresh out of the hothouse, a bumper crop of news and opinion. The big read for the weekend is Halle Tecco’s quantifying of the Cracked SPAC phenomenon and what’s happened with OpenAI. Transcarent closes its Accolade buy and changes its tune to ‘one place’, Walgreens doing a bit better. In touting, Keir Starmer’s bet on NHS data research and Elon Musk on human trials for Neuralink Blindsight. Hinge Health may postpone its long-awaited IPO and FTC pauses its long-awaited toss of the book at PBMs. Plus a new Perspectives on rural healthcare and telehealth.

The weekend read: why SPACs came, went, and failed in digital health–the Halle Tecco analysis/memorial service; why OpenAI is going to be a bad, bad business (Grab the cuppa and lunch for a good read and podcast) 

Extra, extra!: ATA Action forms Virtual Foodcare Coalition, Ophelia and Spring Health partner on opioid treatment, ISfTeH renews NSA status with WHO (More action from ATA Action and a partnership to watch in telementalhealth)

Midweek roundup: Transcarent closes Accolade; Walgreens beats Street; New Mountain Capital’s Office Ally buy-in; Neuralink Blindsight human trial coming up; PM Keir Starmer touts NHS data research; FTC’s PBM litigation break (Transcarent’s pivot?)

Rock Health’s digital health Q1: more money, fewer deals, more additions and partnerships in ‘leapfrogging’ (Still in a minor key this year)

News roundup: Hinge Health may postpone IPO, Rite Aid may enter 2nd bankruptcy, Veterans Affairs committees want new EHR costs & timeline, fired Texas health plan head hired private eyes to spy on members, providers, lawmakers (The last one is shocking)

Perspectives: Bridging the Gap in Rural Healthcare Through Telehealth (From Yosi Health)

Last week: A relatively light news week in a so-far chilly, stormy Spring. Our top article is not one, but two dives into the Unicorn Known as Hippocratic AI. 23andMe’s sale isn’t attracting a lot of buyers (deliberate?) but presents even more problems for the users who took their surveys. Dr. Oz confirmed for CMS as HHS goes on a GLP-1 diet and then some. VA adds to their Oracle 2026 rollout, ATA Action enlarges, and DOJ seeks execution for Brian Thompson’s assassin.

News roundup: 9 additional VA centers named for Oracle 2026 EHR rollout; ATA Action acquiring, expanding with DTA; Dr. Oz to lead CMS while HHS cuts; DOJ seeks death penalty for Mangione  (VA creeps forward, ATA Action enlarges, HHS chops, justice awaits)
Are Hippocratic AI and AI “nurses” the wave of the future–or just another tide of hype? Two articles question. (A needed discussion on this particular unicorn and whether its AI capabilities are all they’re pitched to be)
23andMe’s slim list of prospective buyers–who must uphold privacy policies, according to the FTC. But what about that survey information? *Updated* (More problems with 23andMe’s sale–and if you took their surveys, they have more data on you)

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Rock Health’s digital health Q1: more money, fewer deals, more additions and partnerships in ‘leapfrogging’

April 8, 2025 | by

There’s a small uptick and some optimism in the air for US digital health deals after all. After a 2024 that realistically was a ‘down round’ or Back To 2019, 2025 is picking its way through the New Reality of Global 52-Card Pickup, powered by a new US government and still-defining AI technology. Let’s unpack what Q1 was like in Rock Health’s view:

  • Funding was $3.8 billion across 122 deals, with an average deal size of $24.4 million. Compared to Q1 2024, total investment was up ($2.7 billion) as was the average size ($20.6 million) but number of deals were down (133).
  • Q1 funding also exceeded Q4 2024 funding in a pattern typical of the past few years.
  • 83% of deals were seed, Series A, and Series B rounds, not much different than 2024’s 86%. There were a few exceptions listed by Rock Health. By far the largest was Hippocratic AI’s $141M Series B but also Achira’s $33M seed, and Open Evidence’s $75M Series A. MSK player Vori Health sported a $53 million Series B in March
  • There were only 5 Series D or larger deals but three were jumbo sized: Innovaccer ($275M), Abridge ($250M), and Qventus ($105M), which pulled the average up to $105 million, nearly double that of FY 2024.

Rock Health is mum on unlabeled or funding not disclosed deals, such as the ones TTA noted through the quarter: Summer Health -Caraway, Neuroflow-Quartet Health, Iris Telehealth-InnovaTel, Dispatch Health-Medically Home, and Wysa-April Health.  It also doesn’t provide its usual analysis of healthcare value propositions and clinical indicators.

An interesting analysis in the shorter-than-usual announcement breaks down an approach they’ve dubbed ‘leapfrogging’, defined as ways companies can acquire knowledge or shift to respond to market dynamics:

  1. Tapestry Weaving. It’s a quaint way of saying that capabilities can be bought through M&A. (Business can be bought that way too–Transcarent closed its $621 million buy of enterprise care navigator Accolade today.) 
  2. Modular Tech Stacks. This type of tech design allows companies to switch out or add in tech as the market changes or better tech emerges.
  3. Channel Partnerships. Companies, by adding partners, add capability at low cost and reach, though the logistics of partnering, the integration cost and quality of service aren’t easy lifts.
  4. Engaging Disruptors. Companies invested in certain standard processes can expand by allying with their disruptors, versus viewing them as competitors. 

What’s not mentioned in the report are the high profile failures this quarter: 23andMe’s bankruptcy, Walgreens’ sale to Sycamore Partners, and Veradigm’s failure to sell itself.  Given the past few months, we’ll be doing a lot of ’embracing uncertainty’ this year!  Also FierceHealthcare

News roundup: MSK is ‘it’ with Hinge Health’s IPO filing, Vori Health’s $53M raise, Dario Health’s 33% revenue increase; CoachCare buys VitalTech, ModMed investor sells majority stake, Health NZ uses Excel–only; Holmes gets rehearing extension

March 14, 2025 | by | 1 Comment

Companies in MSK therapies (and more) were the ‘IT’ this week:

Hinge Health’s IPO filing this week the talk of healthcare finance. In the teeth of a roiling market (for no good reason at all in C), Hinge’s SEC S-1 filing of a preliminary prospectus has many agog. Hinge had a 33% 2024/2023 revenue growth to $390 million and $468 million in billings, 2,250 employer clients and approximately 20 million contracted lives as of the end of last year. Net loss was reduced substantially, to $11 million from 2023’s $108 million.

Not disclosed in the filing are the number of Class A shares on offer (on the NYSE under HNGE) or the pricing range. According to FierceHealthcare’s and TechCrunch’s IPO specialist source at Renaissance Capital, Hinge Health could raise $500 million in its IPO. It already has substantial funding through 10 rounds, the last 2021’s Series E of $400 million, totaling $826 million .(Crunchbase) Its backers who are prepping for a partial or full exit are 8% shareholders Coatue, Tiger Global Management, Whale Rock Capital Management, Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Partners (19%), and Atomico (15%). Founders Daniel Perez (CEO) and Gabriel Mecklenburg (director) own 18.9% and 8.2%, respectively. It is one of the largest and most successful in a highly crowded market in MSK therapy and virtual physical therapy, with Sword Health its largest competitor–and also talking IPO. And like others, it has diversified into other medical areas: pain management (Enso) and female pelvic health.

Surprisingly, Hinge Health was first incorporated in 2012 as a private limited company in England and Wales. It was incorporated in Delaware in 2016. Release, Mobihealthnews

One of Hinge’s competitors, Vori Health, scored a $53 million Series B funding round. New Enterprise Associates (NEA) led this round along with previous investors  AlleyCorp, Intermountain Health’s Intermountain Ventures, Echo Health Ventures, and Max Ventures, bringing their total funding since 2020 to $109 million. Vori’s model is physician-led with patients working with a virtual care team organizing care from diagnosis to therapy, prescriptions, labs, and imaging. They claim results of 91.6% of patients reporting clinically significant pain improvement, 78-90% reduction in elective orthopedic surgeries, a 42% decrease in opioid utilization, and up to a 68% reduction in depression and anxiety among patients. The funding will be used to deepen its value-based care initiatives (including evolving toward models with two-sided population health risk), invest in advanced data analytics for more precise targeting of high-risk members, and enhance its AI-powered technology platform and clinical programs to benefit patients, employers, and health plan partners. Release, Mobihealthnews

Another competitor which has considerably branched out from MSK is Dario Health. Their 2024, marked by the dizzyingly funded acquisition of Twill telementalhealth [TTA 29 Feb 2024] bumped up in full-year by 32.9% to $27.0 million, from $20.4 million in 2023. Net loss was reduced to $42.7 million from 2023’s $59.4 million. While still in MSK, Dario has branched out into diabetes, hypertension, weight management including GLP-1 therapy with MedOrbis, and behavioral health in-person and app based management in a B2B2C model for members of health plans and other payers, self-insured employers, providers, and consumers. Back in January, they completed a $25.6 million private placement of 25,606 shares to extend their cash runway. Release, Mobihealthnews

NYC-based CoachCare is acquiring Carrolton, Texas-based VitalTech. Both companies monitor chronic conditions via remote patient monitoring (RPM) and are about the same size. Acquisition cost was not disclosed. VitalTech CEO Jeh Kazimi and the under 50 person VitalTech staff will be joining CoachCare. CoachCare claims that they cover 200,000 patients in 3,000 locations. Release

Investor Warburg Pincus sells majority stake in ModMed to Clearlake Capital. The investment was not disclosed, but reports indicated the valuation of the EHR and practice management system company is estimated now at $5.3 billion. Summit Partners and ModMed cofounders Daniel Cane and Michael Sherling maintain a minority share. ModMed has been for sale on and off since 2022, most recently in January, but was looking at acquisitions last fall. Original reporting was from the Financial Times. Axios, Bloomberg Law, Release

And you think you might be behind the times? Health New Zealand likes to keep it simple…very simple. They run all their financial management on a single Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. HNZ spends NZ $28 billion and replaced 20 district health boards to consolidate their efforts, increase efficiencies, and reduce costs. According to their health minister, HNZ operates an estimated 6,000 applications and 100 digital networks. The Deloitte survey found at least five major issues, from hard-coded financial data making updating and sourcing difficult to do and trace, to simple human errors. Is that all? So if you need a chuckle… TechRadar

And even more head-shaking is Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes challenging the courts, yet again. A report through Reddit, posted by legal maven mattschwink, tells us that she, through her attorneys, two days after the Ninth Circuit upheld both her and Sunny Balwani’s verdicts [TTA 5 Mar], filed on 26 February to extend the time to file a motion for a rehearing. It was granted on 3 March. The filings are noted on the public site Court Listener. Given the track record of these courts, the likelihood of a rehearing by a larger panel in the Ninth Circuit or even by the US Supreme Court on finding some kind of error in both the original verdict and appeal is akin to a snowball lasting in the Bryan, Texas prison courtyard on July 4th. But she does get attention.