If you are wondering about the sanity of the market, wonder no more. Castlight came public at $16 a share and popped to over $40 a share. This for a company with $13 million in revenue and tens of millions of dollars in accumulated losses. And in a market with no barriers to entry and no proprietary value. Transparency and decision support will be, no, are, delivered free by a number of organizations. What are supposedly smart investors thinking? I suspect we will see a number of acquisitions made by Castlight to prop up a very bad business model. And we will see every other "transparency" or similar health care company try to go public.
A study in JAMA is the latest to recognize the health burdens that caregiving by family or friends may place on the caregiver and to suggest things that can be done to alleviate those burdens.
An analysis in JAMA finds that most discontinued trials are not published, often because they were likely showing negative interim results. The analysis also shows that patient recruitment is a major issue.
Nextimage, which provides radiology management services primarily for workers' compensation, has acquired WorkWell, which offers services related to prevention of soft-tissue and musculoskeletal injuries.
Here is an extreme warning of the danger of defective HIT products; Cerner has apparently paid over $100 million in an arbitration award stemming from a dispute with a North Dakota hospital using Cerner's software.
In the very odd category, research in JAMA suggests that having a casino open or expand is correlated with a decrease in rates of childhood obesity among Native Americans. No explanation provided.
CMS has withdrawn its controversial proposed changes to the Part D drug benefit program, which would have limited preferred networks and changed formularies.
A study in the Journal of Health Economics finds that modest copays on coverage provided to low-income persons might deter excessive unnecessary utilization.
HealthStream, which provides educational content for health care professionals, is paying around $15 million for Health Care Compliance Strategies, which offers online compliance training.
A study in the journal Telemedicine and eHealth finds that patients who use virtual visits do not have fewer in-person visits; in fact the same people tend to be high utilizers of both tele-visits and in-person ones. The study was conducted at the Mayo Clinic and suggests that virtual visits may be additive to utilization and costs, not substitutive.
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.