News roundup: WeightWatchers in 45-day prepackaged Ch. 11, Neuralink BCI successful in ALS subject, telehealth VR reduced TMD pain–study, AliveCor maxes up KardiaMobile 6L, TytoCare-Allina Health partnership, UHG-Amedisys divest some more

May 8, 2025 | by

WeightWatchers (WW) unburdens itself of debt in a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The reorganization under the bankruptcy filed yesterday in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware will take $1.15 billion of a total $1.62 billion (as of March 2025) in debt off their books while providing it with enough capital to reemerge in an estimated 45 days or around 1 July, or less. The Chapter 11 plan retains $175 million from their revolving credit facility, reduces its annual interest payments by $50 million, and extends their debt maturity dates. With bankruptcy court approval, their lenders receive new secured debt and equity. In the company statement, CEO Tara Comonte expressed confidence about WW’s future:  “The decisive actions we’re taking today, with the overwhelming support of our lenders and noteholders, will give us the flexibility to accelerate innovation, reinvest in our members, and lead with authority in a rapidly evolving weight management landscape.” The first day hearing is on 8 May. WW release, Kroll case information

WW entered the GLP-1 prescription weight loss drug race relatively late, last October, with compounding semaglutide, which boosted their fortunes for a time. They acquired telehealth provider/clinical weight manager Sequence in mid-2023 [TTA 2 Mar 2023], then formed the WeightWatchers Clinic program by December [TTA 21 Dec 2024] Results this year were projected at 140-160,000 subscribers. But that was not enough to correct WW’s problems, which were a profound loss of total subscribers: in Q1 2025 3.4 million subscribers versus 4 million in Q1 2024, with 2.8 million of them. Stock had traded on Nasdaq for some months below $1, with today’s trading below $0.50. Shares had lost 71.9% over the past 12 months, making it a (money) loss for nearly all common stock holders. Morningstar

The (physical) weight loss segment now dominated by Hims & Hers, Ro, LifeMD–now with prescription deals for Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy—and other telehealth providers and teleprescribers such as Teladoc, FuturHealth, RemedyMeds, Eden, and many others, made WW a latecomer. Even CVS Caremark got into the partnering act when it switched over to Wegovy from Lilly’s Zepbound in its standard formulary. This move may lure more members to its weight management program. As with Ro and LifeMD, the lowered cash pricing is $499/month. Healthcare Dive. For WW, is this a lasting cure or just kicking the can down the floor?

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) notch a big win. At the end of April, Neuralink confirmed its third successful implant, this one in an ALS patient, Brad Smith. The disease rendered him non-verbal, on a ventilator, and paralyzed below the shoulders. With the Neuralink brain implant, about the size of five quarters, he can now communicate verbally through his MacBook Pro and play video games only with his thoughts–essentially telepathy. He created a video using a voice cloned from previous recordings when he could speak, and using a mouse to create the narration. Previously, he used an eye gaze controller to communicate. This is truly miraculous and flying under the radar. Mobihealthnews, RedState  The previous recipients, Noland and Alex, are both paraplegics[TTA 21 Feb 2024].

Next up is Blindsight, which Elon Musk has said that will be tested in humans by the end of 2025 [TTA 10 Apr]. There is also a Canadian clinical trial, the “Canadian Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface” (CAN-PRIME) for subjects with tetraparesis or tetraplegia resulting from cervical spinal cord injury or the neurological disease ALS [TTA 27 Nov 2024].  A competitor of Neuralink, Precision Neuroscience, closed a Series C at $102 million last December.

A telehealth virtual reality (VR) solution effective for reducing chronic pain. A study published last month in Nature/NPI Digital Medicine demonstrated significan reductions in a 54-participant group, with some receiving telehealth-based immersive VR intervention on chronic orofacial pain (temporomandibular disorders or TMD) versus an audio-only (MP3) same-content control intervention and non-intervention on five-day ‘waves’. Pain intensity, unpleasantness, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and mood were monitored. There was significant reductions achieved with the immersive VR on pain intensity and other factors, with lesser results achieved with the MP3 intervention. The study directionally confirms results in other studies on lower back pain and other pain studies. Researchers were based in the University of Maryland School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and Towson University.

Short takes:

AliveCor is adding to its new KardiaMobile 6L Max KardiaAlert. KardiaAlert is now integrated into KardiaCare, a subscription service for the KardiaMobile 6L Max AI-assisted ECG monitor. The consumer purchase of the KardiaMobile 6L Max includes the device and a one-year subscription to KardiaCare, which now includes the KardiaAlert feature. The six-lead KardiaMobile 6L Max identifies up to 20 arrhythmias with a clinician review. Introductory price is $169. Release

Allina Health deploying TytoCare at 12 urgent care locations. The Midwest health system is adding the TytoCare Pro Smart Clinic service to a dozen of its urgent health locations in order to shorten wait times and offer additional remote treatment. For Allina, this allows their urgent cares to see more patients, offer hybrid care, and additional services such as heart and lung exams (featuring AI-driven wheeze and crackle detection), throat and ear assessments, skin exams and body temperature measurements. Allina Health, with hospitals in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, already uses TytoCare remote monitoring in hospital settings. TytoCare release

UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys persist. The long-running and DOJ-challenged acquisition by UHG of Amedisys home care is once again trying to remove the anti-competitive stumbling block by divesting more home care and hospice operations, this time to BrightSpring Health Services and Pennant Group. This was disclosed in Amedisys’s SEC Form 8-K. It is contingent of course on the closing of the UHG buy. BrightSpring is based in Kentucky and Pennant in Idaho. Pennant’s own SEC filing lists their purchase price as $102.5 million. The total number of operations to be sold is not disclosed. UHG and Amedisys extended their runway on closing to 31 December in January.  Healthcare Dive, Home Health Care News

The Department of Justice has been prominently blocking the $3.3 billion UHG acquisition, announced in what seems an eon ago in June 2023, on anti-trust grounds nearly immediately after the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR Act) premarket notification was filed, but most recently in a civil lawsuit filed last November in District Court in Maryland. The DOJ was joined by the Attorneys General of Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York. It alleges elimination of competition, harm in over 100 markets, falsely certifying compliance with HSR Act requirements, withholding documents, and much more. Additional background on that lawsuit is here. As this Editor said when UHG won in Federal court on acquiring Change Healthcare, a win they have 190 million reasons why to regret, “DOJ has a long memory, a Paul Bunyan-sized ax to grind, and doesn’t like losing.”

News roundup: Hims, Ro, LifeMD and Novo Nordisk partner on Wegovy prescribing (updated); Commure partners with HealthTap for virtual care after hours; WebMD Ignite adds texting to member health ed; hellocare.ai raises $47M for virtual nursing

May 1, 2025 | by

Partnerships and add-ons are much in the news this week.

Hims & Hers isn’t worrying about GLP-1 drug sourcing. Neither are Ro and LifeMD. All three made a deal with Novo Nordisk on providing branded Wegovy to cash-paying members with a prescription. Wegovy is supplied through NovoCare Pharmacy through each of the telehealth suppliers.

Hims & Hers received immediate benefit–their stock jumped 23% on Tuesday above $33. Wegovy is already available to Hims & Hers members, but  those without a membership, they will bundle a membership with Wegovy and supply services including 24/7 care, nutrition guidance, and clinical support, starting at $599/month. Longer term, the two companies plan to match up Novo Nordisk’s technologies with Hims & Hers’ ability to scale access to care. Novo Nordisk’s programs with competitive telehealth prescribers Ro and LifeMD start at $499/month, but may be more based on services provided.

Updated: The smaller LifeMD, a below $10 Nasdaq stock, also jumped 40% to above $8 and settled in around $7 this morning (Friday 1 May). (Ro–Roman Health–is a private company.) FierceHealthcare LifeMD also recently acquired assets of women’s telehealth provider Optimal Human Health MD as their entrée into the women’s health market. The new service will be focused on menopause and osteoporosis, monitoring hormone health, bone density, metabolism and long-term wellness. Debut is this summer. No financials were disclosed.  Release, FierceHealthcare

This was just in time to meet the FDA deadline on GLP-1s. All three teleprescribing companies were using less expensive compounding pharmacies to supply generic versions of semaglutide up until recently. In February, the FDA reclassified the drug as no longer scarce, which ended that authorization to sell the compounded drugs as of now [TTA 25 Feb, 27 Feb]. Hims, as the largest, stood to lose the most and fought very hard to keep the compounded versions of these drugs including an aggressive ad blitz blasting the pharmas. Evidently, they’ve now reconsidered–as has Novo Nordisk in lowering prices and selling through the teleprescribers. If you can’t beat them, join them. However, based on what this Editor hears on the radio, companies like FuturHealth are selling compounded versions alongside branded GLP-1 medications. Mobihealthnews, CNBC

Software integration meets virtual healthcare for after-hours coverage. Healthcare software integrator Commure is partnering with HealthTap‘s online primary care network and telehealth services to provide what they term a ‘unified solution that bridges the gap between in-person and virtual care’. Commure’s slightly bewildering tech stack centers on EHR integrations for workflow, scribing, RPM, RCM, and AI-powered agents–along with a workplace security system, Strongline. The partnership now offers to providers turnkey implementation for services such as after-hours coverage and virtual primary care, with the big plus of not adding staff. Mobihealthnews, Release 

Commure’s interesting developments in the past year or so included a fire-sale priced buy of Memora Health for $30 million in December 2024, adding its conversational AI-powered agent to its ‘stack’, undoubtedly to the relief of in-common investors General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). In October, Commure bought ambient AI medical documentation company Augmedix (one of the few SPACs that didn’t crack) in a $139 million deal [TTA 8 Jan].    Axios‘ further analysis of the Memora Health buy is worth a read.

WebMD Ignite’s Coach health education and engagement platform adds text messaging. The Coach platform, used by care managers for health plan members, has added an integrated SMS text messaging app. This provides for plan care managers:

  • Real-time reach: Push notifications ensure messages are seen promptly, keeping health education and motivation top of mind.
  • Custom branding: Text templates can be customized to reflect each health plan’s brand and messaging.
  • Member convenience: Deliver concise, actionable information directly to members’ mobile devices.
  • Seamless workflow integration: Care managers can select, send and track text-based education within Coach, including opt-in and opt-out management.

The text messaging can also be used for population-wide campaigns to engage members at scale for health initiatives. Text’s advantages over email delivery is immediacy and also more narrow targeting, as many have multiple emails but only one (or two) mobile phone numbers. Release, FierceHealthcare  (Disclaimer: this Editor previously worked as a marketing consultant to what was then Krames, now part of the services under WebMD Ignite)

Our one significant raise of the week is (again) in virtual nursing. hellocare.ai‘s $47 million raise was led by HealthQuest Capital led the round with participation from several health systems and digital health investors, including UCHealth, Bon Secours Mercy Health, LRVHealth and OSF Ventures. hellocare.ai provides an in-room AI-assisted virtual nursing platform for “smart hospital” rooms plus telehealth and hybrid care services for hospitals, home care, and primary care. The platform includes virtual sitting in up to 32 rooms 24/7 on a single remote clinician’s monitor, virtual consultation, ambient documentation, digital whiteboards, patient engagement, and hospital-at-home integrated into the hospital’s EHR. hellocare.ai claims installations in 70+ health systems that include the investors. Since 2012, the Clearwater, Florida company has raised over $88 million. Release, Mobihealthnews