Sun Life, the largest private stop-loss carrier to self-funded plans, is acquiring PinnacleCare, which offers health care navigation services to help employees find cost-effective health care.
For those who have been here for CV-19 posts, this is the first in what will be a lot of posts back to health care business and policy. Many have this one sentence format on a capital raise or transaction. I will give a little more explanation than a normally would about the significance. You will also note my love of puns. Accolade, which offers assistance to employees in making health care decisions, is buying PlushCare, which provides telehealth visits for primary care and mental health. The price is an astounding $450 million dollars. Virtual care has expanded during the epidemic, but it is a commodity and a no-barrier business. Too much capital floating around in health means lots of bad deals in the long-run. No plaudits from me for the deal.
As is usually the case in health care, the big just keep getting bigger. UnitedHealth Group's Optum division is buying NaviHealth, which helps manage post-acute care for Medicare Advantage members.
Another typical post. For new readers, this blog usually is all health care business, policy, and research and one staple is me making fun of the ridiculous names people put on their start-up health care companies. Wellth, which uses behavioral economics to encourage better treatment plan aherence, has raised $10 million in new financing. Now normally I would find a pun or something that I at least think is clever about that name, but right now I am multi-tasking listening to the daily coronavirus briefing, and that is just depressing.
Yikes, another non CV item. Change Healthcare, which offers a variety of health care analytics and administrative services, is buying an e-prescribing business for $213 million and selling one analytics unit to Kaufmann Hall.
Look, a non-coronavirus item. Medicaid health plan operator Molina is buying Magellan's health plan business and its care management and PBM businesses for around $820 million.
Jay Battacharya is a Stanford University based physician and economist. We shared a video of a discussion with him on coronavirus issues a couple of weeks ago. Here is a followup in which he talks about where we are now, including his work on antibody prevalence studies and the need to take into account the health harms of the lockdown.
Fruit Street goes bananas, becoming the apple of investor's eyes and raising a fresh $17 million in financing for its diabetes prevention program. Hope investors don't end up with sour grapes. Orange you glad I did this post.
Telehealth Solution, which offers telemedicine capabilities in institutional settings, has received an undisclosed amount of additional capital from a private equity firm.
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.