Hiring? Sign up (for free!) for the HTN Talent Collective!

400+ nerds have already applied to the Talent Collective in the past two weeks and we’ve been blown away by the quality of everyone. Backgrounds come from a broad swath of the healthcare ecosystem, including:

• Big incumbents (Epic, Mayo, Optum) to smaller new models (Aledade, Cityblock, Headspace) to big disruptors (Amazon, Salesforce, Lyft)
• Decades of experience (longtime clinicians, former C-suite execs) to fresh perspectives (early career / recent MBA grads)
• A wide variety of functional backgrounds (i.e. product, strategy, care delivery, clinical operations, growth, and more)

In order to maximize exposure for those individuals, we’re opening up the Collective, for free, to any company that is interested in hiring nerds from the HTN orbit.

​If you’re hiring, sign up here to see the candidates in the Collective. The first “drop” of candidates will go out via email on 7/11 to companies that are subscribed.​
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News
​Walgreens shares dipped on Q3 earnings miss driven by healthcare business losses​

Summary: Walgreens' stock fell roughly ~11% on its Q3 2023 earnings announcement after it had to adjust EPS guidance downwards by ~10% for the year. Walgreens cited lower than expected COVID-related FFS volume in CityMD locations and losses associated with VillageMD clinic buildouts as key drivers of the miss. It also noted on the earnings call that the healthcare business is running about $300 million behind expectations.

Walgreens listed five "swift" actions they're undertaking to drive the healthcare business to profitability: 1. realigned CityMD costs; 2. an accelerated VillageMD patient panel build; 3. aggressive integration of prior Summit Health acquisitions; 4. upgraded VillageMD management; and 5. an increased and accelerated synergy target for VillageMD/Summit Health.

Our Reaction:

• The honeymoon phase appears to be over for Walgreens' healthcare strategy as it is being confronted with a major profitability challenge in its healthcare business. It seems clear that Walgreens will be focused on expanding within existing VillageMD markets and growing patient panels in existing clinics in an effort to avoid "J-curve" related losses associated with opening new clinics and markets. What is less clear from the earnings call is exactly how Walgreens plans to execute on this.
• Reading between the lines in the earnings transcript, it appears that Walgreens leadership has been unpleasantly surprised by the lack of integration of CityMD into Summit and is attempting to move quickly to rectify the issues CityMD is facing now that volumes have slowed down.
• Walgreens is smartly positioning this as a transition year for the healthcare business. It's going to be interesting to watch Walgreen's next set of moves here if it is unable to make meaningful progress moving the healthcare business quickly toward profitability.

​HTN Slack Convo​
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News
​Bright sells its MA lives to Molina for ~$600 million​

Summary: Less than three years after acquiring Brand New Day and Central Health Plan for a reported $533.8 million, it is selling off those plans to Molina for an anticipated $600 million. The purchase price will be adjusted at closing if Bright's MA membership declines below 105,000, with a minimum price of $300 million. Bright, which had a market cap just under $100 million at market close on Friday, will use the proceeds from the sale to pay down its debt and shift its focus entirely to its primary care business, NeueHealth. Molina's CEO articulated the rationale for the move as follows:
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“These additions fit perfectly with our strategy of serving high-acuity, low-income members and represent a textbook execution of our growth playbook. We acquire viable assets at attractive valuations, then deploy our proven team of operators to deliver improved financial results,” said Joe Zubretsky, President and Chief Executive Officer of Molina. “We are pleased to continue our meaningful growth in California as the latest realization of our national growth strategy.”

Our Reaction:

• Bright's journey as an insurance business is mercifully coming to an end with this transaction after a tumultuous few years on the public markets. Hopefully the Molina acquisition will provide a more stable operating environment for Central Health Plan and Brand New Day employees to focus on serving Californians.
• Don't look now, but is there light at the end of the tunnel for the NeueHealth business? Assuming that Bright is able to navigate this deal to closing and move on from the insurance business entirely, it's not hard to imagine a private equity group looking to take Neue private for the right price. At this point, seems like that would happen some time in 2024.

​HTN Slack Convo​
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​STAT highlighted that 44% of Americans would spend up to $100 per month paying for GLP-1s for weight loss. As noted in Slack, this means that 56% of Americans would spend more than $100 per month. For anyone looking for a solid data point to counter the "people won't pay out of pocket for healthcare" narrative, seems like you've got one here.

Optum won the bid for Amedisys, adding another key player in the home health market. Optum will acquire Amedisys for $3.7 billion in cash, beating out Option Care Health's offer.
​Link / Slack​

Kraft Heinz is suing its TPA Aetna for breach of fiduciary duty.
The complaint, which was filed in Texas District Courts, provides a glimpse into the back-and-forth between an employer trying to get its data and the TPA.
​Link / Slack​

BCBS Arizona has launched a new provider subsidiary, Prosano Health Solutions. Prosano has launched one advanced primary care clinic with three more in the works for 2024.
​Link / Slack​

Bob Kocher and Robert Wachter shared their perspective on why Academic Medical Centers struggle with implementing value-based care. It centers around a handful of core competencies needed to succeed in VBC that haven't historically been necessary in the FFS model of AMCs.
​Link​

Oscar's Co-founder Mario Schlosser shared a series of tweets describing how Oscar is using LLMs. It's a great look into various tangible use cases Oscar is prioritizing.
​Link / Slack​

Author Health raised $115 million for its platform for serious mental illness. Humana will be Author's first customer, with its initial launch in South Florida via Humana's CenterWell Senior Primary Care clinics.
​Link​

Spotify's co-founder raised $65 million for Neko Health, a body scanning device. The scan costs €250, takes 10 minutes, and includes an in-person consult to explain the results.
​Link

Cleveland Clinic opened a new hospital where all 57 patient rooms have telehealth connectivity to Cleveland Clinic providers at other locations.
​Link​

Radiology Partners is seeking to raise $2 billion of equity to pay off its debt obligations that are coming due. This follows a credit rating downgrade from S&P earlier in the month.
​Link​

A NEJM podcast provides a look into the challenges that primary care physicians are facing.
​Link​

Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield partnered with Wellinks, a virtual COPD management solution.
​Link / Slack (h/t Kevin Wang)

The Urban Institute took a look at Medicare Advantage Quality Bonus Program.
​Link​

7Wire Ventures explores the digital health opportunity in home healthcare with a market map of startups in the space.
​Link / Slack​

Alfie Health, a virtual obesity management clinic, raised $2.1 million.
​Link / Slack​

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