All Posts By

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 07 2015

Sherpaa has guided investors to give it $2.25 million more in investment to support its telehealth service of connecting employees to physicians.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/05/sherpaa-tacks-2-25m-investors-expansion-employer-enabled-telehealth/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=194f88b377-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-194f88b377-67648197
May 07 2015

CareLinx, which hooks seniors up with caregivers, has linked to another $5 million in capital.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/05/carelinx/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=194f88b377-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-194f88b377-67648197
May 06 2015

IMS Health, which provides information on drug sales, has acquired a British health analytics firm, Dataline Software.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150506/NEWS/150509943?utm_source=modernhealthcare&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150506-NEWS-150509943&utm_campaign=hits
May 06 2015

Evolent Health, a "population health" company, has filed for an IPO to raise $100 million.  The company lost $52 million last year so I guess this is a new way to value firms.  Now tell me that this isn't absurd.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/05/6-takeaways-evolent-health-ipo-registration/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=8616b5e369-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-8616b5e369-67648197
May 05 2015

Symbir, a vendor of health care compliance software, has acquired CBR Associates, a credentialing services company.

https://www.pehub.com/2015/05/pe-backed-symplr-acquires-cbr-associates/
May 05 2015

DaVita got hammered with a $495 million fine to settle Medicare fraud and abuse charges relating to charging for unused drugs.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_28046592/davita-will-pay-495-million-settle-atlanta-whistleblower
May 04 2015

Health IT security vendor Imprivata has acquired HT Systems, which offers a palm-vein identification system, for around $20 million.  The deal was done on a handshake.

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/imprivata-acquires-ht-systems-adding-patient-id-capabilities
May 04 2015

Truveris' National Drug Index shows that drug unit prices continue their rapid ascent in 2015, rising 3.8% in the first quarter, led by brand price growth of 5.7%.

http://truverisblog.tumblr.com/post/117605470877/2015-prescription-drug-prices-jump-another-3-8-in
May 03 2015

Obtaining MORE capital, MORE Health has raised $3 million to support its business of connecting Chinese doctors with US specialists.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/05/nea-invests-3m-health-startup-connecting-chinese-doctors-patients-us-specialists/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=63b4aa1f71-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-63b4aa1f71-67648197
May 02 2015

A preliminary release from Aon gives an expected medical and pharmacy trend for employers of 5.4% in 2015 and 5.9% in 2016, driven higher by pharmacy costs that are estimated to increase 9.5% in 2015 and 10% in 2016.

http://aon.mediaroom.com/2015-04-20-Aon-Analysis-Shows-Double-Digit-Increases-in-U-S-Pharmacy-Costs-by-2016
May 02 2015

A study in Health Services Research finds that creating hospital network tiers with differential copays can cause hospitals to lower prices and for more admissions to occur in preferred tiers.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-6773.12291/abstract
May 02 2015

MD Insider has raised $9.5 million to compete in the commodity market of offering price and quality information about physicians and other providers.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/05/md-insider-playing-physician-data-transparency-war-win/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=c727044440-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-c727044440-67677117