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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 24 2021

Gastro Health is a rollup of gastroenterology practices across the country by a private equity group.  This is a common practice which contributes to consolidation, high prices, high utilization and no improvement in quality.  These private equity groups then sell the entity to another PE group to provide a lucrative exit and on we go.  In this case the Ontario Employees pension plan is the buyer.  I am sure they care a lot about health care in the US.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/05/19/2232340/0/en/OMERS-Announces-Partnership-with-Gastro-Health.html
May 21 2021

And here is why I don't buy the telehealth or any other subsegment hype.  American Well went public last fall at a very high price and shot up even higher, but now it is trading at 70% lower than the IPO price.  Bullshit that doesn't have substance behind it gets caught sooner or later.  Despite being in existence for years and having all the tailwinds of the epidemic behind it, this company is losing a pile of money.  It is in a commodity business with no differentiation and lots of competition.  Most of these high-flying health care IPOs will end up in the same place.

https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/amwl?qsearchterm=amwl
May 21 2021

Not the best name for a company given the epidemic, but Ro, which basically sells health products over the internet, is acquiring Modern Fertility.  Here is the insanity of current investing. Ro raised an astounding $500 million earlier this year.  It is spending $225 million to buy Modern Fertility which offers fertility tests.  So the Modern Fertility shareholders are happy because they took their crappy investment and made money, but the Ro shareholders should be livid, because there is no way you get a return on either the $500 million or the $225 million.

https://medcitynews.com/2021/05/ro-builds-out-womens-health-business-with-225m-acquisition/?utm_campaign=MCN%20Daily%20Top%20Stories&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=128642516&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-86xBgu2mNNnG-zAPm-yUNzRHM8l7JxJe5O8OFe-pl1vaaXZ3Yf3kZqRobfkRuF6_FX9eWBcghQ5gbE0KGNaPRNR6rq15ZCR7LHn9iW1KCHsvFTJZU&utm_content=128642516&utm_source=hs_email&rf=1
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