Tag: primary care

TimeDoc Health Raises $48.5M for Virtual Care

Posted on by Jason Barry

Virtual care enablement company TimeDoc Health recently clocked in $48.5M in Series B funding to help physicians establish new remote care capabilities for a post-pandemic environment.

The latest financing pushes TimeDoc’s total raise to $58.2M, with recent demand for hybrid care and staff support creating a need to quickly expand the company’s growing roster of over 150 care coordinators.

  • TimeDoc’s virtual care platform aims to lighten the burden of overworked physicians through three major service lines: chronic condition management, remote patient monitoring, and behavioral health integration for primary care.
  • The company positions itself as a way to increase the bandwidth of primary care teams by allowing them to leverage additional personnel alongside its services as standalone solutions, or as supplements to existing approaches.
  • Unlike other care coordinators that often go D2C, TimeDoc works directly with PCPs so that they can better manage their patients in between appointments, while also driving reimbursements for remote patient monitoring and chronic care management.
  • The new funding will be put towards doubling the size of TimeDoc’s care coordination team and expanding its customer base beyond primary care practices towards more traditional health systems and accountable care organizations.

The Takeaway

TimeDoc is no stranger to the fact that the benefits of virtual care programs are best realized through long term engagement. By recognizing that care coordinators are instrumental in making this happen, then offering flexible services that tailor staff support to the needs of individual organizations, TimeDoc could gain an edge by truly meeting providers where they are instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach.

Mantra Raises $22M for Student Mental Health

Posted on by Jason Barry

Many mental health startups are beginning to take a specialized approach to treating a specific population, a strategy that is delivering impressive results for Mantra Health.

Student-focused clinic Mantra Health closed a $22M Series A round to address the growing prevalence of mental health disorders on US college campuses, raising its funding total to $27M.

  • Mantra Health equips campus counseling offices with dedicated therapists and a digital platform to work as an extension of on-campus providers. Since introducing its Higher Education solution in 2020, Mantra has expanded to 52 US colleges accounting for over 500k students.
  • The treatment model begins with an online assessment to introduce students to their care options, before allowing them to schedule an initial video consultation. The Mantra provider then works alongside the student to create a personalized care plan involving therapy, lifestyle adjustments, and possibly medication.
  • The funding will be used to enhance Mantra’s clinical infrastructure to handle more complex diagnoses and expand its nationwide provider network. The company stated that it will need to quadruple its team within the next year to meet overwhelming demand – 100% of its partner campuses renewed or expanded services in 2020.

Mantra’s Future After Funding

As part of its expansion, Mantra is launching a new program to support students with long term mental healthcare needs, working with the students’ health plans as the payor instead of the school.

The long term care program allows graduating students to keep their current provider or make an appointment with a new one that has access to a Mantra Collaboration Portal designed to ensure patients receive care continuity during a major life transition.

Aledade Acquires Care Planning Company Iris Healthcare

Posted on by Jason Barry

Value-based care enablement company Aledade announced the acquisition of Iris Healthcare, a provider of Advance Care Planning (ACP) solutions for the seriously ill.

  • Aledade uses data analytics and guided workflows to help primary care practices with the shift to value-based care. The company’s platform helps practices identify and better manage their highest risk patients.
  • Iris Healthcare provides ACP services aimed at reducing unnecessary care while ensuring that critically ill patients receive care consistent with their values and preferences by formally documenting those wishes in an advance directive.
  • The tuck-in acquisition will see Iris’ ACP offerings folded into Aledade’s new health services unit called Aledade Care Solutions, which is designed to give the company’s partners more ways to address their current inefficiencies.
  • Combining Iris’ services with Aledade’s predictive algorithm and data will help better identify patients who could benefit from ACP, which demonstrated better outcomes and higher patient satisfaction following a successful pilot program last year.

Change the Model, Change the Results

Aledade’s software-led model for assisting providers is highly scalable, allowing it to be more capital efficient than competitors that are building value-based primary care clinics from scratch. The company’s contracts collectively cover more than 1.7M patients (up 20% from last year), and it’s operations rank it among the coveted healthcare startups that are turning a profit.

Aledade was profitable for the second straight year in 2021 with gross revenue of $300M, a figure that it expects to double by 2023.

Vera Acquires Castlight for $370M

Posted on by Jason Barry

Healthcare’s long march towards value-based care recently took another step forward with the announcement that Vera Whole Health is acquiring care navigation company Castlight Health for approximately $370M.

Vera will acquire all outstanding shares of Castlight for $2.05 per share (a 25% premium), which will be welcome news for recent investors but do little to ease the losses of those that picked up shares for nearly $40 following Castlight’s 2014 IPO. 

  • Castlight’s digital platform combines health benefits and care navigation to help employers and health plans make better decisions surrounding plan design, while also enabling members to easily connect with “the right care at the right time.”
  • Vera’s model centers around whole-person care through its network of primary care providers and clinics. The company operates entirely at risk, allowing it to retain any savings from care management after a flat per-member, per-month rate for customers.
  • The combined company aims to scale value-based care in the employer market by integrating Castlight’s navigation platform with Vera’s clinical network, while also allowing employers to participate in full risk-sharing for their commercial populations.

The Takeaway

Merging value-based primary care with navigation has been a go-to strategy for providers looking to offer more personalized care while simultaneously controlling expenses. We saw a similar move with the merger of Doctor on Demand and Grand Rounds early last year, and Vera’s acquisition of Castlight could be a sign of more consolidation to come in 2022.

Hydrogen Health Begins Primary Care Roll Out

Posted on by Jason Barry

When Hydrogen Health launched in April of this year, it set out to bring new digital health tools to consumers and employers, a goal that is coming into fruition with the announcement of the nationwide rollout of its Virtual Primary Care offering.

  • Hydrogen Health is a joint venture between K Health, Anthem, and Blackstone, offering payors and employers a platform to integrate text-based chats and telehealth visits into their existing services.
  • K Health is Hydrogen’s flagship product, leveraging AI to provide patients with personalized information about how their symptoms compare to others experiencing similar symptoms, while collaborating with affiliated clinicians to improve outcomes.
  • Virtual Primary Care was originally piloted by Anthem over the summer, but Hydrogen is now expanding to other large employers and health plans to help reach an additional 10M people by the end of 2022.

The Next Generation of Virtual Primary Care

Virtual Primary Care advances Hydrogen’s strategy of building continuous primary care relationships, complete with end-to-end diagnosis and management of chronic conditions without a reliance on in-person visits.

The approach combines K Health’s digital-first platform with a recently expanded affiliated clinician network, addressing issues with traditional care models such as low doctor availability and long wait times.

If a patient requires a referral to specialty care, a board-certified clinician will help navigate them to appropriate providers, creating an easy way for consumers to transverse digital and in-person care.

You’d be hard pressed to find a digital health startup that isn’t talking about removing friction from healthcare, but Hydrogen Health clearly plans to be a leader among those walking the talk.

CVS Shifts Store Strategy to Omnichannel Healthcare

Posted on by Jason Barry

Consumers’ growing preference for omnichannel services has put a lot of pressure on brick-and-mortar retailers to adjust to the times or risk losing business, a message that CVS has clearly received as it looks to move beyond its corner drugstore image.

CVS Health announced that it will close 900 stores over the next three years, equaling roughly 9% of the company’s US footprint. The closures are part of a broader strategy overhaul to focus more attention on digital growth while reimaging its stores as healthcare destinations.

The foundation of CVS’ future retail strategy involves three new store formats:

  • Sites dedicated to offering primary care services
  • HealthHUBs designed for everyday health and wellness needs
  • Traditional CVS Pharmacies with prescription services and personal care products 

The move into primary care is particularly interesting. CVS’ current Minute Clinics use RNs for services such as physicals or flu shots, while generating referrals for nearby primary care providers. Although it’s unclear whether CVS will staff physicians in its new formats, the move suggests it is attempting to keep these patients in its ecosystem.

Other synergies are possible with CVS’ payor arm Aetna, which already provides plans nudging members to visit MinuteClinics by charging lower copays. The local density of people with Aetna coverage will factor into the decision of which stores to close, and CVS hopes to capture the downstream benefits resulting from preventative screenings.

The Takeaway

At a time when digitally-native competitors like Amazon are flooding into the healthcare space, CVS is aiming to leverage its biggest advantage over these new entrants: its physical presence.

If CVS can successfully transition its stores into healthcare destinations, its scale would allow it to serve thousands of patients per day, expanding access to primary care while driving in-store volume of wellness products and long-term gains for Aetna members.

Oak Street Acquires Specialty Care Provider RubiconMD

Posted on by Jason Barry

Value-based primary care network Oak Street Health acquired RubiconMD for $130m, adding virtual specialty care to its existing services focused on seniors in the Medicare Advantage population.

  • Oak Street operates by initiating full-risk contracts with Medicare Advantage plans, taking on complete economic responsibility for patients in exchange for per-member, per-month compensation. Oak Street Health currently operates over 100 centers across 18 states and is the only primary care provider endorsed by the AARP. 
  • RubiconMD’s network contains over 230 specialists across all major specialties, with a virtual platform that provides clinical insights on specific patient cases and allows primary care providers to directly manage more of a patient’s care needs.
  • Integrating specialty care into Oak Street’s value-based model will enable it to improve coordination between PCPs and specialists while streamlining operations, an important component to successfully managing a full-risk model.

The Takeaway

RubiconMD was built to support the exact type of health centers managed by Oak Street, and the acquisition provides Oak Street with a proven platform and a large specialist network instead of having to develop both from scratch.

Although Oak Street was an early entrant in the value-based care segment, the RubiconMD acquisition highlights the scale needed to compete for contracts with a limited pool of employers and payors, likely foreshadowing more consolidation on the horizon.

23andMe Enters Virtual Care With Lemonaid Health Acquisition

Posted on by Jason Barry

Genetic testing company 23andMe announced plans to acquire Lemonaid Health, a virtual care and pharmacy provider, in a $400m agreement expected to close by the end of 2021.

After going public earlier this year, 23andMe began to see a slowdown in purchases of its direct-to-consumer genetic tests, causing the company to search for new revenue drivers outside of its flagship product.

  • 23andMe is a consumer genetics company with a mission to help people access and benefit from the human genome. It has multiple FDA authorizations for genetic health risk reports, and began working on drug development with GlaxoSmithKline after an investment from the pharmaceutical company in 2018.
  • Lemonaid Health offers same-day telemedicine appointments and prescription drug delivery, leveraging clinical algorithms to assist its medical providers with treatment of a variety of common medical conditions.
  • Following the acquisition, 23andMe will be able to provide genetically-informed primary care, using genetic testing as a foundation for individualized treatment plans and disease management. 23andMe plans to accomplish this in part by using its FDA-approved pharmacogenetics reports, which indicate how efficiently different people metabolize certain drugs.

The Takeaway

Combining 23andMe’s consumer business with Lemonaid Health’s telemedicine and pharmacy services gives the company unique positioning in the increasingly crowded virtual primary care market. Activating a large existing customer base with a promise of personalized healthcare has been a popular strategy with recent digital health moves (Headspace Health, Crossfit Precision Care), and could give 23andMe an advantage over more traditional providers.

Unsatisfied Patients Turn to the Internet

Posted on by Jason Barry

According to a new study from the AHIMA Foundation and Kelton Global, there is a large disconnect between the information shared by doctors and their patients’ understanding of it.

This communication breakdown leaves patients confused about how to proceed, prompting many to turn to other resources to feel more in control of their health.

  • The survey was distributed to a nationally representative sample of US adults in August 2021 (n=1,059), finding that 76% of Americans “do not leave their doctor’s office on a positive note,” due in part to lacking clear answers to questions (24%) or not having the chance to ask any questions (17%). 
  • After these visits, 62% of Americans are “not extremely confident” in their understanding of information discussed with their doctor, while 15% admit feeling more confused about their health than they did before their appointment.
  • As a result, 80% of Americans research medical recommendations online following an appointment, reporting that they are confident the information on the internet is credible (86%) and that it allows them to feel more confident in their doctor’s recommendations (35%).

The Solution

The researchers conclude that having access to a complete picture of your own health, whether through a doctor’s visit or internet research, is the key to seeing better health outcomes. Most Americans seem to agree, with 81% of survey respondents saying that if they had access to all their health information, such as medical records and test results, they’d see at least one improvement in their health management.

Walgreens Doubles Down on Primary Care

Posted on by Jason Barry

In a move to accelerate its value-based primary care strategy, Walgreens announced that it plans to take an ownership stake in VillageMD with a $5.2b investment.

The investment gives Walgreens a 63% stake in the primary care company, making it “the first national pharmacy chain to offer full-service primary care practices with primary care physicians and pharmacists co-located at its stores all under one roof at a large scale.”

  • The partnership originated with a 2019 pilot program of five co-located primary care practices designed to more closely coordinate care between patients’ physicians and pharmacists. It has since expanded to 52 co-located primary care practices, with plans to have at least 1k “Village Medical at Walgreens” locations by 2027.
  • VillageMD offers same-day appointments with its physician-led teams that include nurses, lab techs, and behavioral health specialists. It also helps physicians transition to risk-based care models, an approach that appears to be working: full-year expected revenue is $1.3b, a sharp increase from $217m in 2017.
  • Walgreens announced a new division called Walgreens Health to house VillageMD and its other clinical services, which includes the recent purchase of a 55% stake in care-at-home company CareCentrix. Walgreens Health’s goal is to provide whole-person healthcare to the 75% of Americans who live within five miles of a Walgreens.

Industry Impact

Retail clinics are quickly becoming a popular pursuit as companies like Walgreens, Walmart, and CVS Health rush to expand their clinical footprints to cater to the growing number of consumers seeking convenient care close to home.

Walgreens stated that it plans to make consumer health a key “growth engine” through partnerships in primary care (VillageMD) and post-acute services (CareCentrix), driving more volume of in-store health products while expanding healthcare access.

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