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Kevin Roche

The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry through Roche Consulting, LLC. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.

May 03 2022

A company called Hello Heart raises a fresh $70 million in capital for yet another app that supposedly helps improve management of cardiac health.  I despair about the sanity of venture capital and private equity investors, they just seem to keep making the same mistake of funding companies that don't really do anything clinically worthwhile, but then I remember THEY ARE PLAYING WITH OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY and they are really good at the greater fool theory--they dump bad investments on some other chump before the problem becomes apparent--see Teladoc, e.g.

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/hello-heart-notches-70m-scale-cardiovascular-health-app-among-employers
Apr 30 2022

Having private investors own health care facilities isn't all bad.  They may jack prices up mercilessly, but they don't appear to hurt outcomes for care and may even improve them, according to this study in JAMA.  Mortality relatingt to hospitalizations for heart attacks was lower following an acquisition of a hospital by private equity, but there were no changes in spending or quality for other conditions studied.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2791727?utm_source=silverchair&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=article_alert-jamanetworkopen&utm_content=wklyforyou&utm_term=042922
Apr 28 2022

You may recall how I mock some of the insane IPO valuations and acquisition activity in health care.  Here is an example of why.  TelaDoc, a large telehealth provider which went public at an absurd valuation, and then wasted huge amounts of money on acquisitions that made no sense, like Livongo, a supposed disruptive care management company, is taking a $6.8 billion impairment charge to write down the value of those acquisitions.  The stock price, already socked over the last few months, sunk to an even more depressed, and for shareholders, depressing, level, but at least it is getting closer to its actual value as a company, which might be zero.   Don't ever buy hype, especially in health care.

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/teladoc-takes-66b-hit-q1-write-down