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☆ Health VC firm SpringTide Ventures just closed its second $65 million fund. Here's what a startup needs to get its backing.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewAustin Walters started SpringTide Ventures in 2018 to disrupt healthcare by democratizing access to health innovations. The firm just closed its second $65 million fund to make more of those bets. A tough fundraising environmentAfter closing on its first $20 million fund, which the firm began investing out of in 2019, SpringTide originally set a $100 million target in 2021 for its second fund, Walters said. SpringTide picks a different focus area each time — most recently, home health, where the firm has invested in companies like family primary care startup Nest Health. By solving significant problems with advanced technologies, these companies have natural competitive advantages that allow them to drive outsize returns for the firm, Walters said.

Persons: —, Austin Walters, Walters, Henry Ford, We're, SpringTide, Justin Hackworth Photgraphy SpringTide, OpenLoop, outsize, SpringTidew hasn't, " Walters Organizations: Service, SpringTide Ventures, Tiger Global, Sonic Healthcare, Business, Health, Ally Bank, Troomi Wireless Locations: Boston, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, New York

☆ Exclusive: Ex-Truepill CEO just scored $6 million to help health plans and pharma companies ditch middlemen and work closely with patients
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

He's launched a new company, Foundation Health, to help them do that quickly and at a low cost. Foundation aims to make it easy for insurers to set up their own online pharmacies and pharma companies to sell drugs directly to consumers. "The main focus area for us is to help health plans disintermediate PBMs," Afridi said. Foundation Health wants to help customers ditch big PBMsFoundation's software enables a few different things. Finally, direct-to-consumer health companies can plug into Foundation's technology to power their services, instead of building their own pharmacies and hiring doctors.

Persons: Umar Afridi, disruptors, Afridi, He's, disintermediate, Garry Tan, Y, they've, pocketing, Eli Lilly's, Jack Altman Organizations: California, Cuban, Plus, Business, Foundation Health, Foundation, pharma, Alt, Liquid Ventures, Exceptional, Storm Ventures, PageOne Ventures, Federal Trade Commission Locations: drugmakers

☆ 'You can't unscramble that egg,' top healthcare analyst reacts to DOJ's UnitedHealth antitrust probe
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

In this videoShare Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via Email'You can't unscramble that egg,' top healthcare analyst reacts to DOJ's UnitedHealth antitrust probeJon Ransom, Raymond James, joins 'Fast Money' to talk UnitedHealth's DOJ woes, the state of the healthcare sector, weight-loss drugs and more.

Persons: Jon Ransom, Raymond James

☆ We're updating price targets for 6 stocks and changing our rating for Palo Alto
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The Club on Friday is changing the rating and price target on one of our favorite stocks, and updating the price targets on 5 other names in the portfolio to reflect recent quarterly earnings reports, new developments at the companies and broader economic forces. We're increasing our price target on shares of Palo Alto (PANW) to $300 from $280. We're raising our price target on shares of Salesforce (CRM) to $275 from $240. We're lowering our price target for Ford (F) stock to $13 from $16. We're lifting our price target on shares of Eli Lilly (LLY) to $630 from $600.

Persons: PANW, Ford, Linde's, Linde, Eli Lilly, it's, It's, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim Organizations: Palo, Palo Alto Networks, Costco, Ford, UAW, Management, Motors, GM, Linde, LIN, P Healthcare, donanemab, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, CNBC Locations: Alzheimer's, Lilly, Santa Clara , California

☆ Walgreens is cancelling corporate bonuses as big pharmacies face increasing difficulties
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Walgreens on Tuesday sent out a notice to staff announcing that annual bonuses would not be funded. Tuesday was the second day of a planned three-day series of scattered walkouts by Walgreens pharmacy staff. A Walgreens representative clarified to CNN that only managers were eligible for bonuses at pharmacies. “We are building on the company’s pharmacy strength and trusted brand to evolve healthcare delivery. Stefano Pessina, the former Walgreens CEO and current executive chair of the board, worth nearly $7 billion, made more than $8 million in compensation last year, according to Walgreens compensation filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Persons: Manmohan Mahajan, ”, Fraser Engerman, Tim Wentworth, Neal Sample, Rosalind Brewer, Vincent Alban Vincent Alban, Reddit, Stefano Pessina, Shane Jerominski Organizations: New, New York CNN, Walgreens, Employees, CNN, Walgreens Boots Alliance, ”, Rite, CVS, REUTERS, Reuters, Securities and Exchange Commission, Labor, Reuters Labor, Workers, American Pharmacists Association Locations: New York, Deerfield , Illinois, U.S, Southern California, Deerfield, Il, Arizona , Washington , Massachusetts, Oregon

☆ California healthcare provider's move shows pitfalls of Medicare Advantage
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Mark Miller | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

But Part D prescription drug or Medicare Advantage coverage should be reviewed. Medicare Advantage enrollment has grown quickly over the past decade, partly due to its all-in-one features and lower upfront costs. Medicare Advantage plans can drop healthcare providers from their networks - and that happens when providers and insurers cannot agree on contract terms. The Scripps decision marks a new twist: healthcare systems deciding to drop out of Medicare Advantage. During the annual enrollment period, it is possible to drop Medicare Advantage in favor of traditional, fee-for-service Medicare.

Persons: Scripps, Chris Van Gorder, ”, “, Sophie Exdell, Medigap, Exdell, Mark Miller, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Scripps Health, Diego, Medicare, Scripps, Health Insurance, Program, Reuters, Thomson Locations: San Diego , California, Southern California, San Diego, Connecticut, Maine , Massachusetts, New York, In California

☆ Insurers and drug-industry middlemen are cashing in on the weight-loss drug frenzy
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Insurers and the drug-industry middlemen they own stand to earn more as healthcare spending increases. AdvertisementAdvertisementFor US health insurers, explosive demand for new weight-loss drugs likely means bigger profits. Insurers and the drug-industry middlemen they own stand to earn more as weight-loss drugs drive up healthcare spending, BofA analysts wrote. Meanwhile, if the drugs help people live longer, insurers could earn more from higher enrollment in their health plans. As weight-loss drugs drive up healthcare spending, insurers will make more moneyWeight-loss drugs, which can cost around $1,000 a month, are driving up healthcare spending.

Persons: Li Ran, Brian Evanko, Evernorth Organizations: Trilliant Health, Bank of America Global Research, Getty, Cigna, CVS Health, UnitedHealth Group, CVS, Kaiser Family Foundation Locations: Xinhua, GLP

☆ Corti, a health tech startup using AI to improve patient consultations, just raised $60 million with this 12-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A health tech startup using AI to make patient care more accurate and efficient just secured a $60 million Series B round co-led by Prosus Ventures and Atomico. Copenhagen-based Corti, founded in 2016, has developed an AI assistant that analyzes patient consultations in real-time and reduces administrative work. Its widget sits on a doctor or nurse's computer, records conversations, and analyses them in real-time to support the medical practitioner's decision-making. Cleve said healthcare had become "very fragmented" and that there was pressure from "personnel deficits everywhere" with burnout becoming endemic. It will also keep investing in research and development, improving medical practitioners' workflows, and generative AI.

Persons: Corti, Andreas Cleve, Cleve, EIFO Organizations: Prosus Ventures, Atomico Locations: Copenhagen, Europe, Danish

☆ Walgreens just made another big bet on healthcare, weeks after its CEO exited. A top exec shares how the company plans to partner with doctors.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In an interview with Insider, the head of Walgreens Health shared his vision for the business. It spent $5.2 billion to buy a majority stake in the primary-care company VillageMD and invested $3.5 billion to help the clinic chain acquire an urgent-care company. The company reported in June an operating loss of $1.4 billion in its Walgreens Health business in the first nine months of its fiscal year. Walgreens pharmacists could work with VillageMD doctors to better care for patients with chronic health conditions, he said. Integrating Walgreens' healthcare businessesWalgreens' strategy for how it would tie its growing number of individual healthcare businesses together hasn't been clear, but Driscoll gave some clues.

Persons: Rosalind Brewer, Brewer, James Kehoe, John Driscoll, Walgreens, Driscoll, Pearl Organizations: Walgreens, Walgreens Health, Shields Health Solutions, Pearl Health, CVS, Health, Amazon, Walmart Locations: Shields, Pearl

☆ The White House plan to sell Bidenomics: Hit the road, ignore the polls
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

US President Joe Biden speaks about his economic plan "Bidenomics" at the Philly Shipyard, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 20, 2023. But the choreographed excitement and stagecraft on display in Philadelphia belied a different sentiment among voters about what's been dubbed "Bidenomics." "Together we are transforming the country, not just through jobs, not just through manufacturing, but also by rebuilding our infrastructure," Biden told a crowd of hardhat-wearing union workers who stood atop steel beams three storeys high. We've got a long way to go on the economy," Biden told the shipbuilders. "I'm here to say we have more work to do, but we have a plan that's turning things around pretty quickly."

Persons: Joe Biden, what's, I've, Biden, Patrick Murray, it's, Biden hasn't, Jennifer Granholm, Xavier Becerra, Jill Biden, We've Organizations: Philly Shipyard, CNBC, America Economic Survey, Monmouth University, Biden, Monmouth University Polling Institute, Energy, Human Services, Citigroup Locations: Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, America, Philly, U.S, Monmouth, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio , Michigan, New York

☆ Obesity drug Wegovy's popularity has US employers rethinking insurance coverage
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Patrick Wingrove | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] A selection of injector pens for the Saxenda weight loss drug are shown in this photo illustration in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., March 31, 2023. A new and more expensive version of the drug specifically for weight loss, called Wegovy, had been approved in 2021 by U.S. health regulators. Employers that cover weight-loss drugs have required medical practices to document patients’ need for Wegovy since it was approved. The federal Medicare healthcare program for Americans aged 65 and older cannot cover weight loss treatments by law. Only 16 states – the most populous being California, Pennsylvania and Michigan – cover Wegovy and other obesity drugs under their Medicaid plans for low-income patients.

Persons: Jim Vondruska, Shawnte, Aon, Mercer, Willis Towers Watson, Eli Lilly, Jeff Levin, Levin, Scherz, Michael Manolakis, William Yancy, Manolakis, Patrick Wingrove, Michele Gershberg, Suzanne Goldenberg Organizations: REUTERS, New, Warner Bros, Warner Bros Discovery Inc, Reuters, Marsh & McLennan, Employers, Barclays Research, Novo Nordisk, Duke University, Thomson Locations: Chicago , Illinois, U.S, New York, Marsh, Wegovy, California, Pennsylvania, Michigan

☆ Legendary VC Vinod Khosla predicted in 2016 that AI would eventually transform healthcare
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In a 2016 paper, Vinod Khosla predicted that there will be some form of automation in healthcare. Buzzy healthcare startups utilizing AI are now capturing the attention of VCs amid a broader wave of AI interest. Hippocratic AI, which recently raised $50 million for its seed round, plans to use machine learning to train AI models for use in healthcare. Carta Healthcare, which uses AI to help healthcare providers cut costs, announced this month it raised $25 million. And New York-based startup Hyro, raised $20 million to replace outdated chatbots in healthcare with conversational AI.

Persons: Vinod Khosla, Khosla, OpenAI, Kleiner Perkins, Chris Sacca's Organizations: –, Carta Healthcare, Harvard Locations: York

☆ See the 19-slide presentation that got General Catalyst to back a startup tackling a $25 billion problem for hospitals
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The startup used this pitch deck to get backing from top healthcare VC firm General Catalyst. The Magoons' new startup, Adonis, raised $5.6 million in seed funding in October to solve that problem with tech. Just under seven months later, Adonis has raised $17.3 million more in Series A funding, led by top healthcare VC firm General Catalyst. "Given all the work we do with health systems, we know how complicated and poorly organized these systems are, despite all the money they're collecting," she said. Check out the pitch deck Adonis used to get $17.3 million led by General Catalyst.

☆ A top healthcare banker names the 4 industry sectors ripe for M&A
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Pearson said that she expects to see more deals in women's health, orthopedics, cardiology, and kidney care, areas that remain largely unconsolidated today. She worked with Unified Women's Healthcare in its 2020 deal with Altas Partners and Ares Management. Last year, Unified Women's Healthcare acquired digital menopause provider platform Gennev. While some companies in these sectors are making deals to obtain more digital capabilities, others are investing internally in virtual capabilities. Kidney-care-focused companies U.S. Renal Care and DaVita are also investing in their virtual capabilities, she added.

☆ Digital health faces the same hurdle as fintech: Get profitable or get lost.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Digital health, once the darling of the healthcare industry, is having a tough go of it. After a pandemic-fueled surge when health services and offerings utilizing tech were prioritized, digital health has come back down to earth. The similarities between digital health and fintech are striking. For both fintechs and digital health, this year has served as a reminder that they're only partly tech companies. Click here for predictions from 16 bankers and dealmakers on the future of digital health.

The digital-health sector in 2020 and 2021 was the hottest part of healthcare. We spoke with top bankers and dealmakers to understand what comes next as the market cools. The pace of digital-health deals has generally slowed since the highs of 2021. Founders can thank rising interest rates, a punishing stock market for digital-health companies, and a minor banking crisis to name just a few reasons for that. Here are the healthcare industry's go-to investment bankers, in alphabetical order, and their predictions for which trends may push digital-health deals forward after a funding slump.

☆ BANK OF AMERICA: Buy these 16 healthcare stocks to capture their collective 50% upside ahead of a sector rally
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Marley Jay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bank of America says healthcare stocks are usually strong performers in economic downturns. Their solid earnings and low valuations should help healthcare stocks going forward. The firm named 16 favorite stocks in the sector, including 3 that it thinks could double in price. Healthcare stocks aren't having a great year, but Bank of America says it sees signs that the tide is going to turn. Bank of America says the following 16 names are the best defensive and high-upside small- and mid-cap stocks in healthcare.

☆ Bill Gates says AI is set to transform healthcare and lays out the 2 main ways it could change the field
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

He said that AI could help healthcare workers with productivity, especially in poorer countries. Gate's letter, titled "The Age of AI has Begun," outlines two main ways he thinks AI could change the healthcare and medical field in the next five to 10 years. Gates is a cofounder of Microsoft, the tech giant that's been working to incorporate new AI tools from OpenAI into its Bing search engine and Office software. AI could help healthcare workers with productivityGates said he expects to see a lot of innovation in AI that could help healthcare workers with efficiency and productivity. Gates said that the next generation of AI tools will be even more efficient, which will "dramatically accelerate the rate of medical breakthroughs."

☆ Bill Gates just published a 7-page letter about AI and his predictions for its future
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Bill Gates published a 7-page letter on the future of artificial intelligence. The Microsoft cofounder published a seven-page letter on Tuesday, titled "The Age of AI has Begun," outlining his views on the future of artificial intelligence. It's possible that AI could also aid in the treatment of patients who don't live nearby health facilities, Gates wrote. "Even once the technology is perfected, learning will still depend on great relationships between students and teachers," the letter reads. "To make the most of this remarkable new technology, we'll need to both guard against the risks and spread the benefits to as many people as possible," Gates wrote.

☆ Bank of America: Follow this 4-part strategy to double the stock market's returns for the next decade
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( James Faris | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bank of America believes small caps will beat the broader market significantly in the next decade. Small caps have outperformed their larger peers lately, and there's reason to believe the trend will continue for the next 10 years, according to Bank of America. The bull case for overlooked small capsBoth valuations and equity flows suggest that small caps are the market's best-kept secret right now. "So definitely for long-term investors, we think this is a great opportunity to overweight small caps." Hall acknowledged that concern but noted that unlike large caps, small caps have already factored in economic weakness.

☆ Inside digital health's reckoning, where once-hot startups are suddenly scrambling for cash
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Blake Dodge | Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Analysts and CEOs told Insider more than half of healthcare startups will shut down by 2024. Healthcare startups looking to stay afloat have been laying off employees left and right. The online pharmacy Truepill burned through its cash as it struggled to fill prescriptions efficiently, two former employees told Insider. A spokesperson for Truepill told Insider in an email that the company's burn rate was in line with its projections. Courtesy NOCDWhile the broader economic pressures will hurt many startups that can't raise, it may help others, experts told Insider.

The officials said the Biden administration was considering steps similar to those already taken by Japan, which said Tuesday that all travelers from mainland China would be tested on arrival, and Malaysia, which has stepped up tracking and surveillance of travelers from China. Taiwan also said Wednesday that travelers from mainland China would have to take a PCR test on arrival, with those who test positive allowed to isolate at home. Last week, India said it would make virus testing mandatory for travelers arriving from China as well as Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand. Any restrictions would be applied to all travelers coming from China, regardless of nationality, the U.S. officials said. Earlier this month, China abruptly eased its “zero-Covid” approach following mass protests, scrapping domestic rules and lifting quarantine requirements for those traveling to China.

☆ A top healthcare banker predicts some digital-health startups will be able to go public in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

SVB Securities' Jon Swope thinks some digital-health startups will IPO in the second half of 2023. In 2021, 15 US-based digital-health companies went public via IPO, according to Rock Health. Only one digital-health company has gone public this year: Akili Interactive Labs, which went public in August in a SPAC deal. Seeing the writing on the wall, digital-health companies like Komodo Health that sought to IPO this year are now putting those plans on hold. But SVB Securities' Jon Swope said he thinks the IPO market will reopen for certain digital-health companies in the second half of 2023.

☆ Amazon has only gotten started with its ambitions to be a serious player in healthcare. Here are 3 acquisitions it could make next year.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The next month, it abruptly announced it would shut down Amazon Care, its app-based primary-care service for employers, three years after launch. In November, Amazon launched Amazon Clinic, a virtual service where patients can pay Amazon directly to get treatment for common conditions like allergies and acne. Natalie Schibell, a vice president and research director at Forrester, said that was a sign Amazon had learned from its mistakes at Amazon Care. When Amazon shuttered Amazon Care, it put those mental-health ambitions on hold. Lennox-Miller said Amazon could buy health data startups the company had already invested in, like the health-equity-focused Harmony Health or the value-based-care data company Clinify Health.

☆ 3 reasons a major health insurer just made a $2.7 billion bet on a Walgreens-backed effort to upend healthcare
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The deal would give it a stake in VillageMD, an annual dividend, and a push toward value-based care. VillageMD said this week that it plans to merge with fellow primary-care provider Summit Health-CityMD in an $8.9 billion deal funded in part by the healthcare giant Cigna. VillageMD CEO Tim Barry Courtesy VillageMD3 reasons why Cigna's investing $2.7 billion in VillageMDEvanko said the investment provides financial and strategic benefits for Cigna. That stake would provide the healthcare company, which reported profits of $5.4 billion in 2021, with an annual dividend of about 5.5% on $2 billion of the $2.7 billion investment, Evanko said, according to a transcript from Sentieo. Evernorth could take what it learns from partnering with VillageMD and extend those capabilities to other healthcare providers it works with, he said.

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