Telemedicine vendor Teladoc is acquiring InTouch Health, a competitor, for $600 million. For that price it gets only about $80 million in revenue. This is a typical trajectory and one that should concern investors. Telemedicine has potential and can add value to the system but it is highly hyped. So companies feed on that hype, get a high value, can't really generate the revenue, or certainly the profit expected, and then start doing acquisitions to divert attention and try to create something that can generate a return.
https://medcitynews.com/2020/01/teladoc-to-acquire-intouch-health-for-600m/?utm_campaign=MCN%20Daily%20Top%20Stories&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=81813316&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--uaddBADxNazP3_Zy68p593_j4qD_-b2dDHGAyN6DzxC2NogJCIpBo9ZxxhoBluRLJxpYr12vMYjXFhufmaeM519LEWtmkDTKLQHt9GsYO8ulJ-ZA&_hsmi=81813316&rf=1A study finds marginal benefit from an embedded clinical decision support system in regard to medication use.
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A program of intensive management of high-cost patients didn't appear to improve outcomes.
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Komodo Health dragoons investors out of $50 million in new capital for its "living map" of clinical data that will supposedly transform health care. Heard that before?
https://medcitynews.com/2020/01/startup-building-living-map-for-healthcare-raises-50m/?utm_campaign=MCN%20Daily%20Top%20Stories&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=81682331&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--GiEdrFM8JtiGx80-WTWqrS3n9YMl1BB_v__mPr3REJmC1kow-TNRvg4x_eNiDGUhTTSqi3njsq1b5uqRlFyawrhbtuMLBS7kQvkq6Wtb9OV6M3yo&_hsmi=81682331The gap between payments to hospitals by public payers like Medicaid and Medicare and private plans has surprisingly narrowed in recent years.
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Pieces Technologies tries to make a whole, or fill a hole, getting $25.7 million in new funding for its software that collects data about patients from non-health sources, like food banks and job assistance services. The latest in the social determinants of health fad.
https://medcitynews.com/2020/01/startup-that-pieces-together-data-from-hospitals-community-raises-25-7m/?utm_campaign=MCN%20Daily%20Top%20Stories&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=81624736&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8IGkylRHBoWoN7q-nTpYKuKIJNUx6kul9i2Ws1Qk5CjDkMYjNt7vjY_Xkif0GD0_y1v6OBBMGiRPtFB8fV0hjpr7qsy9nHzvBR0KBYdwd8BLvP79Q&_hsmi=81624736&rf=1The Commonwealth Fund explores Medicare spending trends by age group.
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I think I don't understand this. Cogitativo, which offers some AI driven software to help providers improve performance, raised $18.5 million in new capital. This sentence from the company encapsulates the BS that permeates certain segments of health care and which should be a warning sign for any thoughtful investor but clearly isn't. "Cogitativo's machine learning platform disrupts the rapidly growing market for healthcare performance improvements by enabling payers and providers to identify and challenge system complexities."
https://www.morningstar.com/news/pr-newswire/20191218sf71019/cogitativo-raises-185m-series-b-round-of-financingAn article in JAMA Network Open gives some further insight into practice pattern decisions and diffusion of new treatments.
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Hospital quality of care was more likely to remain the same or decline than improve following involvement in a merger or acquisition.
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About this Blog
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. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.
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