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 21 2014

Gelesis has raised $12 million for its obesity treatment that causes a greater sense of fullness in the stomach during eating.

http://medcitynews.com/2014/05/obesity-treatment-looks-like-pill-acts-like-device-takes-12m-investors/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=037e5029e2-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-037e5029e2-67648197
May 21 2014

Talkspace has raised $2.5 million for its business of connecting therapists to clients.

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/05/12/talkspace-raises-2-5-million-to-deliver-affordable-therapy-online/
May 21 2014

Vivify Health, formerly known as Intuitive Health, has raised $3.4 million for its cloud-based care management platform.

http://mobihealthnews.com/22051/intuitive-now-vivify-health-raised-3-4m-from-ascension-heritage-group/
May 21 2014

Alere, which has been under fire from shareholders for its move into disease and population health management, is spinning off its original diagnostic testing unit.

http://investors.the-bbigroup.com/~/media/Files/B/BBI-Group-IR/documents/bbi-group-itf-final.pdf
May 20 2014

A study in JAMA Internal Medicine claims that CMS could save over $8 billion a year on Medicare spending if certain common items of "low-value" care were eliminated, including a number of screening and diagnostic tests.

http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1868536
May 20 2014

Brown & Brown, a large insurance service company, has acquired Axia Strategies, which provided consulting on various aspects of health care management to health plans.

http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/brown-brown-inc-announces-the-asset-acquisition-of-axia-strategies-inc-nyse-bro-1909975.htm
May 20 2014

HHS 2015 Exchange Rule

https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2014-11657.pdf
May 19 2014

ActualMeds, which provides software to help patients and provides manage medications, has raised $400,000.

http://www.pehub.com/2014/05/actualmeds-picks-up-400k/
May 19 2014

A survey from Buck Consultants finds that in 2014 employer health plans are expecting about an 8.5% to 8.7% increase in medical costs, which likely would lead to at least similar-sized premium increases for the next year.

ww.buckconsultants.com/portals/0/publications/press-releases/2014/NR-National-HC-Trend-Survey-2014-0515.pdf
May 19 2014

A brief from the Urban Institute argues that the employer mandate in the reform law could be eliminated without causing much impact on employment related coverage.  Might be the initial attempt at cover for the Administration to remove the mandate.

http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/413117-Why-Not-Just-Eliminate-the-Employer-Mandate.pdf
May 19 2014

A study in JAMA Internal Medicine finds that adding remote monitoring to an ICU does not reduce mortality or length of stay.

http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1868535#Discussion
May 19 2014

A survey by MdLive, a large telemedicine provider, finds that many young adults prefer the convenience of telehealth visits.

https://www.mdlive.com/news/press_05142014b.html