Shots fired by Oracle SVP Ken Glueck

Value-Based Care

Arcadia Acquires CareJourney to Advance VBC

At a time when many people are questioning the effectiveness of value-based care, Arcadia is doubling down on its potential to move the industry forward by acquiring health analytics firm CareJourney.

Arcadia helps payors and providers put their data to work by surfacing insights for use cases like closing care gaps, managing costs, or transitioning to VBC.

• It recently locked in $125M to advance its analytics capabilities, which funded the launch of its data platform and the expansion of its partner ecosystem.

• Last year’s revenue topped $100M, which put Arcadia in profitable territory.

CareJourney offers cost and quality analytics for value-based networks and providers, focusing on Medicare, Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and commercial claims data.

• Its trove of data spans across 300M+ beneficiaries and over 2M providers nationwide.

• That data feeds an analytics platform that helps organizations strengthen their networks, improve provider performance, and better manage at-risk populations.

The power to merge clinical data with claims records makes the combined company greater than the sum of its parts.

• The expanded data resources will fuel advanced analytics for Arcadia’s customers, enhancing their ability to pursue value-based care and market expansion.

• As these analytics unlock new insights, the integration of CareJourney’s solutions into the Arcadia platform will give organizations more operational tools to execute their strategies for improving patient and financial outcomes.

Arcadia’s analytics models are a core differentiator from competitors like Innovaccer and Health Catalyst, and it’s now looking to separate from the pack by leaning in on its strengths.

The Takeaway

Value-based care is hard to get right, but not getting it right hasn’t exactly worked out either. The holes in healthcare’s data analytics capabilities have been a go-to argument for VBC naysayers, and that’s exactly what Arcadia is aiming to solve with its acquisition of CareJourney.

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• Fabric Acquires MeMD From Walmart: The other big move in this week’s M&A double-header came from Fabric, which scooped up Walmart’s telehealth assets through the acquisition of MeMD. Fabric probably has its merger routine down to a science after acquiring Gyant and Zipnosis within the last year, and MeMD will round out the portfolio with virtual behavioral, urgent, and primary care services. MeMD also brings along 30k corporate and payor partners, which should give Fabric plenty of opportunity to cross-promote its solutions.

• Walgreens Q3 Bloodbath: Walgreens’ Q3 2024 investor call went about as bad as possible, with CEO Tim Wentworth sharing plans to close a “significant portion” of underperforming stores and cut its stake in VillageMD. Although Walgreens didn’t specify the exact number of closures, it’s expecting to shutter “up to a quarter” of its ~8,600 stores after reporting a $13B operating loss for the first nine months of last year. The PR spin was that Walgreens is streamlining its healthcare portfolio, but that didn’t prevent shares from plummeting 25% to levels last seen in 1997.

• Telehealth Abortion Found Safe: A new study in JAMA found that mailing patients abortion drugs after an initial telehealth visit is just as safe as requiring patients to undergo in-person consultations with ultrasound scans. UCSF researchers compared protocols used for 585 women seeking abortion, finding that the telehealth “no test” option had abortion completion rates comparable to in-person consultations (94% vs. 93%), with similarly few adverse events.

• Amazon Clinic Rebranding: Amazon Clinic is getting folded into One Medical and rebranded as Amazon One Medical Pay-Per-Visit, which puts more telehealth customers within arms reach of its primary care offerings. The move also reduced the number of clicks it takes to get from Amazon.com to virtual care for 30+ common conditions, with messaging visits now available for $29 (down from $35) and video visits available for $49 (down from $75).

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• The (Not) Great Debate on Healthcare: STAT published a solid summary of the healthcare issues brought up during last week’s presidential debate, which was brimming with “mistakes, errors, and blatant falsehoods.” Instead of a substantive policy discussion, Trump spent a lot of time misrepresenting how federal programs work and Biden struggled to defend the progress he’s made on key issues. Trump did manage to clarify his stance on abortion (leave it up to the states), while Biden’s brightest moments were highlighting his efforts to lower drug costs.

• More Idle Than Ever: The world is becoming more idle than ever, with a study in Lancet Global Health showing that 31% of adults failed to meet the WHO’s recommended physical activity levels in 2022 (150 min of moderate exercise or 75 min of vigorous exercise). That’s a five percentage point increase over 2010, a trend that definitely isn’t helping the rising prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Inactivity was highest in Asia Pacific countries and more common in women than men (34% vs. 29%), with a dramatic increase seen across all demographics over the age of 60.

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• Oracle Clinical Digital Assistant: Oracle Health finally jumped into the medical scribe race, joining over a dozen ambient AI startups competing to automate manual provider workflows. The late entrant’s Oracle Clinical Digital Assistant is now available to outpatient clinics using the Oracle Health EHR, with the deep integration enabling seamless next-step actions like drafting referrals or prescription orders for approval, or scheduling follow-up labs and appointments.

• Welldoc + Instacart: Digital cardiometabolic health startup Welldoc is partnering with Instacart to enable same-day delivery of nutritious foods. Welldoc users can now easily import grocery lists to Instacart and access a virtual storefront featuring foods that Welldoc recommends for specific conditions. Those users can now also take advantage of Instacart Health Fresh Funds, a stipend program for healthy groceries that can be used in combination with other support like SNAP EBT. 

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