CVS Health CFO Shawn Guertin on his company’s acquisition targets.

Primary Care

Cano Health Explores Potential Acquisition

The retail healthcare buyout bonanza doesn’t seem to want to take a week off, and Cano Health is now the latest company to drum up acquisition rumors.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that “talks are serious” and could be wrapped up in the next few weeks, with Cano already attracting attention from at least two potential suitors.

The first was Humana, who already has strong ties to Cano following a $100M investment in 2019. The second turned out to be none other than everyone’s favorite drugstore turned healthcare heavyweight, CVS Health.

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, Cano Health is a value-based primary care provider with 143 clinics in 9 states and mostly focuses on the Medicare Advantage population.

• Cano went public via a SPAC merger in 2021 at a $4.4B valuation and since then has fared about as well as other SPACs of the same vintage. Let’s just say it still isn’t quite back to that $4.4B mark, even after shares popped 30% on the takeover rumors.

• Similar to Amazon’s recent pickup, One Medical, Cano has been looking for ways to raise capital to sustain its operations – and given that 44% of Cano’s 282k members are in the MA program – pursuing an acquisition by a major payor makes sense.

For Humana’s part, an interesting stipulation in its earlier investment in Cano gives the payor first right-of-refusal in the event of a sale.

• Humana is already second in the MA market behind only UnitedHealthcare, and it’s been very vocal about plans to add over 100 more senior-focused clinics by 2025.

CVS Health, and by extension Aetna, has also been aggressively pushing into the MA market and isn’t shy about acquiring the strategic pieces to do so. See Signify Health.

• After losing out on the One Medical acquisition to a tech giant with deep pockets, Cano would be a great way for CVS to continue building out its clinical assets.

The Takeaway

Big ticket acquisitions are turning into regular fixtures in our top story coverage as the crash in high flying valuations puts plenty of appetizing startups on the M&A menu. In the case of Cano, whoever comes out on top will gain a strong foothold in senior primary care, and it’s easy to imagine that other acquirers will be hungrily eyeing other players in the space like Oak Street and ChenMed.

Meeting Clinicians Where They Are

Check out connectRN’s new blog to learn how the health system of the future can leverage community and flexibility to keep care personal while supporting its staff and patients.

How Medallion Helped Skintap Launch in 15 States

In order to launch and scale, Skintap had to build a network of dermatologists who could see patients across the US. Learn how Medallion helped Skintap’s providers get licensed in over 15 states in less than four months – without any headaches and well before their launch date.

The Wire

• Device Connect for Fitbit: In one of their first major healthcare initiatives since joining forces in 2021, Google Cloud and Fitbit debuted Device Connect for Fitbit to help providers tap into data from Fitbit’s wearables. The service includes tools to manage patient data sharing and seamless integration with Google Cloud’s BigQuery analytics dashboard, opening up new ways to use Fitbits as RPM devices before and after surgery, for chronic condition management, and during clinical research.

• Differing Opinions on Mental Health Apps: A small JMIR study found that healthcare “professionals” (clinicians / academics) view popular mental health apps significantly more favorably than consumers with lived experiences of mental health problems. After comparing ratings from 21 consumers with established ratings from professionals for 11 apps, there was disagreement on 53.2% of the apps, with professionals more likely to give higher star ratings (4.56 vs. 3.58) and recommend the apps to others (4.39 vs. 3.44).

• Wysa Joins PlanSource: The Wysa app is now available as a mental health benefit to PlanSource’s network of small to mid-sized employers, adding to Wysa’s recent momentum after closing a $20M Series B and receiving FDA Breakthrough Device Designation to use its tech for MSK pain. Wysa’s chatbot guides users through CBT for mood-related issues while triaging patients towards higher levels of care if needed.

• Even Babies Don’t Like Kale: Digital health, or at least obstetric imaging, became a mainstream news story this week after researchers released ultrasound images showing fetuses reacting to the taste of different foods. Researchers had pregnant women (32-36 weeks) expose their babies to carrot and kale flavors, finding that fetuses respond with smiling faces to carrots and crying faces to kale, which the internet was quick to accept as proof that even babies in the womb don’t like kale.

• Patient Portals for Depression: A growing number of adults with depression and anxiety are using online patient portals to manage their care, according to new research in Psychiatry Research Communications. Among the 3,194 patients included in the study, use of online patient portals increased from 36.3% in 2017 to 50.4% in 2020, most commonly for viewing test results (86%), messaging providers (60%), and filling medications (47%).

• NIH Backs Eko: Smart stethoscope startup Eko secured a $2.7M grant from the NIH to work with Lifespan Health System’s Cardiovascular Institute to collect real-world ECG and phonocardiogram data using the Eko DUO ECG + Digital Stethoscope. This data will help Eko develop an algorithm that can detect pulmonary hypertension and stratify its severity.

• Chronic Conditions and Medical Debt: Although medical debt is commonly associated with cancer and low income levels, a new study led by Rutgers University researchers revealed that medical debt’s impact is felt across all income levels and many conditions. Out of 9,174 surveyed families, medical debt was most frequently reported in lower-income households with heart disease and anxiety disorders (ORs = 2.64 & 2.16), middle-income households with chronic lung disease and mood disorders (ORs = 1.73 & 1.53), and higher-income households with a current smoker (OR = 2.99).

• Komodo & UMD Research: Komodo Health and the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy are partnering to provide UMSOP researchers with access to Komodo’s longitudinal patient insights and real-world data for healthcare research. The researchers plan to use Komodo’s data to focus on pandemic-related disruptions to healthcare services, the impact of public policy changes, and measuring the financial burden of disease and SDOH.

• Employer Healthcare Cuts: A WTW survey of 455 employers found that controlling healthcare spending is a top priority over the next three years, with 7 in 10 respondents expecting costs to increase by 6% this year alone. In order to manage costs by 2025, 19% are implementing higher OOP costs for less efficient sites of service, 22% plan to cut down on fraud and waste, and 25% are adding concierge plan navigation.

• Supercharged Cancer Moonshot: Although the federal government’s Cancer Moonshot remains largely unchanged from its launch in February, President Biden revealed actions to “supercharge” the initiative. Updates to the Cancer Moonshot include: (1) the formation of a federal Cancer Cabinet, (2) plans to have the private sector share more cancer research data, (3) the launch of Trials.Cancer.gov, and (4) the signing of an executive order ensuring that biotechnologies invented in the US are manufactured domestically.

Patient Engagement for a VP of Patient Experience

Nuance’s patient engagement guide for hospital execs gives a patient’s-eye view of the engagement experience and explores what the growing demand for convenient interactions means for the VP of Patient Experience.

Streamlining Care With BrainInsight AI

Discover how Hyperfine’s BrainInsight AI tools are streamlining patient care by giving clinicians the quantitative biomarker information needed to reduce the burden of manual brain MRI measurements and decrease the time to diagnose and treat.