My BS meter went way up on this one. India-based company Practo Technologies, which offers a health care technology platform and has raised a lot of money to support it, is laying off 150 employees in what it referred to as part of the annual appraisal process. Uhhh, we appraise that our company isn't doing very well, so we don't need you any more.
A Mercer survey finds that over half of all large employers offer a high-deductible plan, but only 1/4 of workers enroll in them. Only 6% of large employers make it the only choice, even though the plans lower cost.
Okay, its getting weird out there, or maybe wired. Palarum secures $3.4 million to develop products with a fabric that will monitor and report patients' movements. Its an IoT play. ooooohhhhh
Medicare's policy of not paying for certain hospital-acquired conditions produces the greatest reductions in these events in hospitals that have the greatest proportion of Medicare revenue to total revenue, according to research in Medical Care.
Hospital readmissions are lower when informal caregivers are integrated into discharge planning activities, according to a meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Quality Systems, a vendor of EHR and other health care software, through its NextGen subsidiary, is acquiring Entrada Systems for $34 million, kind of astounding since Entrada has revenue of $12 million and a loss of $2 million. Entrada has a mobile app that allows patients to access EHR and other provider systems.
Blink Health quickly garners $90 million in fresh funding to support its software that allows patients to order generic medications online and pick them up locally. Investors hope their capital doesn't disappear in a Blink.
UnitedHealth has sold its Connextion unit to customer service communications vendor TeleTech for $80 million, which seems like it must be a less than UnitedHealth paid for the unit, so either they are keeping some of the business or other payers weren't that interested in buying or continuing to use Connextion's services when it was owned by UnitedHealth.
Patient engagement (let's see, where have I heard that phrase before) firm Global Behavioral Solutions, picks off a rival, literally, acquiring Rival Health, which has a platform to help patients manage wellness.
global behavioral solutions rival health
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.