Here is a prime example of policy-making lunacy from those who think they can dictate how people live. Let's make people stop drinking sugary beverages like soda by putting a huge tax on them. A paper at the National Bureau of Economic Research demonstrates that these taxes as enacted in four cities, had basically zero impact, in fact only in one city, Philadelphia, did there appear to be any effect on consumption, and other research has shown that is bogus because people just went outside the city limits to pay less for their soda. These taxes are extremely regressive and do nothing to improve public health. But don't expect the people in favor of them to show any open-mindedness or recognition of the limits of government's ability to affect individual behavior.
https://www.nber.org/papers/w26393
Nov042019
Google is buying Fitbit for around $2.1 billion, putting the wearables maker out of its misery. Fitbit was hot for a while, then crashed on unrealistic growth expectations. And the big tech firms just get bigger and more intrusive.
Eversana, a vendor of commercialization services to life sciences companies, has acquired Cornerstone Research Group, which offers health economics research.
Ooooh, disruption, how cool is that, Sana Benefits reels in $6.3 million in new capital for its software that will fix the "stone age" health insurance industry. It is targeting medium and small employer plans. All it will end up doing is adding cost and complexity.
Scary stuff, boys and girls, investing in the hype of the moment. A company called Socially Determined has garnered $7.3 million in financing for its product that focuses on analyzing and measuring the social determinants of health. Not a ghost of a chance that this succeeds. It will be a zombie company, like a vampire sucking more funds from investors.
Workday Ventures tries to get in a league of its own, as it makes a significant investment in League, which offers software to help employers manage health benefits.
Broad-based health management company Medecision decides to buy GSI Health, which offers software to help providers with value-based payment arrangements, particularly for Medicaid business.
Amazon adds to its health capabilities by purchasing Health Navigator, which offers online symptom checking and triage tools designed to help steer patients to appropriate treatment paths.
Australia-based firm MedAdvisor, which provides an app to help patients manage the medications, raises $11.5 million in new financing, led by HMS Holdings.
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.
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.