Isabel Rouse

Just two years ago, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) was being hailed as the next big thing in healthcare at conferences like HLTH and J.P. Morgan Health. Their big plans to combine primary care, in-home care, and pharmacy services were going to "revolutionize healthcare." As Roz Brewer, CEO of WBA, confidently stated at HLTH 2022: “Healthcare is local, and most times healthcare happens outside of the current health system. We have the ability to take our relationship between the pharmacist and the consumer, combine that with the primary care that VillageMD delivers, and the in-home care that CareCentrix offers… and we can patch together a continuum of care and deliver healthcare services through a brand that everyone knows and trusts.” Brewer highlighted investments in VillageMD, CareCentrix, and Shields Health Solutions as key to building this “continuum of care,” leveraging nearly 9,000 stores to bring healthcare services to people's doorsteps. John Driscoll, EVP and President of U.S. Healthcare, added: “We will continue to invest in, expand and leverage partnerships with entrepreneurs throughout the healthcare system because we know that with our 86,000 healthcare providers along with our partners, we can provide a more accessible and better-connected experience for patients.” Fast forward and it's a completely different story. Walgreens is shutting down stores and scaling back its healthcare ventures. The latest financial results for Walgreens Boots Alliance show significant losses and unmet expectations. The Wall Street Journal and other outlets have detailed the decline. And it's not just Walgreens. Big players like CVS and Walmart have also pumped huge sums into primary care and digital health, only to watch these investments fall short and cut their losses. The truth is, we can't expect corporations like CVS, Walmart, or Walgreens to solve our healthcare woes. Why? If a healthcare solution doesn’t align perfectly with their financial model, it’s doomed from the start. Healthcare is fundamentally local, and these giant corporations simply aren’t. They lack the ability to tailor their services to the unique needs of different communities. What's missing from these grand strategies? Understanding that healthcare models need to be customized for specific populations. Few organizations have effectively used data and analytics to address unique needs, and the crucial provider-patient relationship is overlooked in large-scale corporate plans. Moral of the story? HLTH may not be worth the investment if you're looking for good predictors of success. And... a more localized, patient-focused approach is necessary to truly transform healthcare. *Credit to Jeffrey Hogan for highlighting the HLTH connection. Brian KlepperAl Lewis 🇺🇦Alex JungLee LewisShawn Gremminger John TozziAnn M. Richardson, MBA

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An interesting new service for accelerating time to market for digital health products and embedding them properly in pathways. Palantir's recent CEO statement is also very revealing. While focused on their defence work, it can be equally read as a rather blunt critique on where much (but not all!) of the digital health industry is at right now: "A premium was placed on developing software products whose principal purpose was to sell themselves. And a perception of value became more important than value itself....... Those companies, however, are now being swept to the side. They attempted to seize the cultural and moral high ground at the expense of anything resembling a commitment to outcomes. And society, not to mention customers, have grown disinterested in their theater." Ouch. https://lnkd.in/e8iVd9wV

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Size-Inclusive Care is an important care model at CHP Berkshires! Check out this Q&A with our Size-Inclusive Care coordinator, and learn more about what this care approach might mean for you. CHP patients can also join our Intuitive Eating Online Support group!

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A great survey. "Rock solid". Weighing in: Consumer perspectives o weight care by Rock Health. If you are interested in digital health innovation, digital obesity care, GLP-1 drugs, and consumer preferences you should read this survey. Companies mentioned: Noom WeightWatchers Hello Alpha Found Calibrate Form Health Omada Health Recommended to #consumers #patients #entrepreneurs #familydoctors #obesityexperts #nutritionists #exerciseexperts #insurance #employers #payers #obesity #weightloss #weightmanagement #weightcare #technology #innovation #digitaltherapeutics #nutrition #GLP1 #Ozempic #Wegovy #Mounjaro #Zepbound

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📰 NEW NEWS: Stroke Rates Are Rising, Especially Among the Young 📰 The key study takeaways HealthDay News shared included:   •  ⬆ Stroke rates are rising among Americans overall, but younger people – ahem, Gen Z’s + Millennials - have charted the sharpest increases over the past decade. Notably, U.S. News & World Report also called out how Ohio and Tennessee saw the most significant increases in stroke prevalence over the study period!   •  ⬆ Rising rates of obesity and high blood pressure are probably contributing to the trend.   •  🍓 Lifestyle factors (like diet, drinking, physical activity and nicotine use) are key in reducing your odds for a stroke.    What can employers do? Heart disease and stroke are the most expensive 💸 (and preventable!) medical conditions for businesses in the U.S. Employers can take a proactive role in promoting employee heart and brain health by offering workplace health programs that focus on preventing heart disease and stroke.    #NationalStrokeAwarenessMonth #AmericanStrokeMonth #strokeawareness #strokeprevention #hearthealth #genz #millennial

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#AHIPDigital peeps in Nashville: Looking forward to seeing you at 2:30 today in Room 101 A. We're covering culture, and how to change it to be customer centric. We'll talk about all sorts of things from why NPS is not the right metric to what steps to take to create long-term, real culture change at an organization. Because as we all know, #EXDrivesCX. Period.

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Recently joined Fierce Healthcare’s Podnosis podcast to discuss how BrightEdge - American Cancer Society is driving system-level cancer transformation through impact investing. Thank you to Anastassia Gliadkovskaya for the great conversation!   In this episode, I share how we enable early-stage companies to bring forward new therapeutics, diagnostics and tech while by screening for mission and bringing additionality through American Cancer Society expertise in research, patient support and advocacy. We dive into how we evaluate emerging companies and measure their impact in addressing some of the biggest challenges in cancer care, including inequities in outcomes and underfunded research.   Listen to the episode here: https://lnkd.in/eCjcxieF   I'm also honored to announce that I'll be moderating a panel at the upcoming Fierce Healthcare Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Forum. Looking forward to continuing the conversation on health equity and innovation! Learn more and register for free here: https://lnkd.in/esR4SBaX   #ImpactInvesting #CancerResearch #HealthEquity #VentureCapital”

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@BioWorld by @Clarivate LS&H has launched a new special series, ‘Healing the Health Divide,’ which highlights critical gaps in women's health research, funding and innovation. Despite making up half the global population, women’s health remains underserved, with decades of exclusion from clinical trials and underinvestment in non-reproductive health challenges. This seven-part series aims to spark important conversations and drive action toward equity in healthcare for women worldwide. Learn more, here:  #WomensHealth #HealthEquity #GlobalHealth #Clarivate #BioWorld #ThinkForward

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Yesterday, Paragon Health Institute released a report, #Medicaid Financing Reform: Stopping Discrimination Against the Most Vulnerable and Reducing Bias Favoring Wealthy States. Our proposal would end a terrible feature of American health policy that favors able-bodied, working-age adults and discriminates against kids, pregnant moms, seniors, and the disabled. READ OUR FULL REPORT: https://lnkd.in/gB2w-yAG #Obamacare added a new Medicaid eligibility category—able-bodied, working-age adults—and provided a much higher federal reimbursement percentage for these enrollees than traditional Medicaid enrollees. This has led many problems: 1) a diversion of resources away from traditional Medicaid enrollees that has reduced their access to health care services; 2) a near quadrupling of Medicaid’s improper payments; and 3) a surge of spending that has significantly contributed to large and growing federal deficits. In fact, the per-enrollee cost of the Medicaid expansion is more than 50% above expectations. Paragon's proposal would end the discrimination against low-income children, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities by equalizing the percentage that the federal government reimburses state Medicaid expenditures for them and for ACA expansion enrollees. Starting in 2026, our proposal would begin phasing down the 90% FMAP for expansion enrollees until it would reach parity in 2034 with each state’s FMAP for traditional enrollees. We permit states to keep Medicaid expansion and reduce eligibility to only households below the poverty level. Households earning more would be eligible for tax credits for exchange plans. This policy would better protect services for traditional Medicaid enrollees, better align state incentives to get value from their expenditures, and significantly increase enrollment in the exchanges relative to Medicaid. This policy would lead about 4.5 million people to replace Medicaid with an exchange plan. Importantly for these enrollees, both states and the federal government would save money. The states would save their 10% share of Medicaid expenses. The federal government would save money because the average spending per Medicaid expansion recipient is about 20% higher than the average premium tax credit for the lowest-income exchange enrollees. The paper contains numerous figures and tables that demonstrate both the current problem as well as the estimates of our proposal on states and the federal government. In addition to ending the discrimination against the most vulnerable and protecting the program for them, we expect that CBO would estimate more than $500 billion in deficit reduction over the next decade from our proposal.

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As we know, social determinants such as poverty, transportation, and access to community resources play a critical role in shaping #healthoutcomes — 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦. 🚘 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞, 𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬. 📉 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐫𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝. By addressing financial barriers, providing affordable medication options, and building stronger community resources, we can ensure patients receive the support necessary to improve their overall well-being. Understanding these social factors is 𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 to creating lasting, positive outcomes for the communities we serve. 🔹 𝘈𝘵 Archo Advocacy, 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤, 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵-𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴. #BridgeTheGap #PatientAdvocacy #RuralHealth #HealthcareInnovation #HealthEquity #SDOH #PatientOutcomes #PublicHealth

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Embracing #ValueBasedCare is an important step towards addressing the health effects of #ClimateChange. Joe Castiglione of Blue Shield of California highlighted the significance #ValueBasedCare from a payer perspective during Wednesday's webinar on climate change and value-based care. #RECORDINGCOMINGSOON! https://bit.ly/3WoeMEC

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Are we thrilled about the major new funding from The White House earmarked for women's health research? Yes, of course. But Midi CEO Joanna Strober joined forces with female founders Ellen Rudolph and Priya Abani to point out that women's health is in crisis. We need more than what the White House has promised to make real progress and help all women thrive. Women are widely underserved by healthcare, particularly in areas such as heart disease, autoimmune disease, and menopause. Read on to learn more about why digital health innovators are key to filling these and other care gaps, and how government institutions, venture capitalists, employers, payors, and health systems can support them.

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𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝟏𝟔𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 1. 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 Newmi Care 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 $𝟏.𝟓 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝   Newmi Care, a women’s health-focused outpatient care platform, has raised $1.5 million in a Seed round led by Sprout Venture Partners. The funding will support clinic expansion in North and West India, technology enhancements, and team growth. Since May 2022, Newmi has served 60,000+ women across 400 cities, addressing various health concerns. The company operates 10 clinics in Delhi NCR and offers women centric OPD insurance products. 2. Symphera s.r.o. 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 €𝟐.𝟓 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐲   Munich-based medtech startup Symphera has raised €2.4 m in seed funding led by HTGF | High-Tech Gründerfonds. The funding will support product development and preclinical tests for its revolutionary laparoscopic device, which automates tool-switching to simplify surgical workflows and improve patient outcomes. Founded in 2023, Symphera aims to enhance operating room efficiency and has garnered strong support from investors and surgical experts. 3. Onsurity 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬 $𝟒𝟓 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐁 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 Creaegis   Employee healthcare platform Onsurity raised $45 million in a Series B round led by Creaegis, with participation from IFC - International Finance Corporation, Quona Capital, and Nexus Venture Partners. The funding will support new digital products, enhance tech capabilities, and expand coverage to over 50,000 companies by 2026. Onsurity currently serves 8,000 companies, impacting 1.5 million lives across India. 4. 𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 Centricity WealthTech 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 $𝟐𝟎 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝   Wealthtech startup Centricity WealthTech raised $20 million in a seed round led by Lightspeed, with participation from 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐕𝐂, 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞, and others. The valuation jumped to $125 million from $20 million in 2022. Funds will scale its platforms, expand private banking, and invest in tech. Indian wealthtech startups have raised over $200 million since last year. 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 Corporate Valuations 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 #newhighlight #newsupdates #Startups #Investment #Growth #Fintech #Funding #StartupFunding #Investmen #funds #EquityFunding #Valuation #StartupNews #StartupInvestment #VentureFunding #ValuationServices #acquisition #BusinessValuation

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HLTH continues to be a great networking event - for startups, health systems, investors and industry giants... between meetings and the exhibit floor. I do wonder how much people are getting out of the speakers/content here (or at any of the big meetings anymore). I usually am happy if I can hear 1 great nugget that changes how I think or design... This article gives some thought to the big trends.. and a few summaries from leaders who attended.

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Wow! Retail health is failing in a big way. If this can't work to improve access, and the traditional model already lacks efficient access, then for healthcare consumers???? "Something's Gotta Give." #healthcare #primarycare #business #retailhealth

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Post-Election Recap: What Trump's Return Means for Health Care - first takes by our advocacy leader Steven Newmark Global Healthy Living Foundation #GHLF #HealthAdvocacy #HealthAdvocates #Podcast #HealthcareAdvocacy #PatientAdvocacy #Patient #Trump

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In part two of this two-part Breaking Down Health Care conversation, John Hennessy, MBA, and Michael Kolodziej, MD, dig into the other main stakeholders in health care costs: pharmaceutical manufacturers and providers. They discuss how these entities contribute to the current high costs of care in the US and how they can help control those costs for patients. "Nobody's innocent. Everybody's playing a role in this. And if we want access, we need to approach cost... At the end of the day, we want patients to get good care. And we don't want people to go bankrupt getting good care. So, we need to think about change. And we need to be open to the idea that everybody needs to give a little to get to the end, which is, I won't call it nirvana, I'll just call it a better health care system," said Dr Kolodziej. Watch the full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/eDBgpsnP #JournalOfClinicalPathways #CancerCare #CostOfCare #ValueBasedCare #HealthCare #Insurance #CBex

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With the U.S. election less than two months away, Julie Barnes, founder and CEO of Maverick Health Policy, is kicking off a series of Healthcare is Hard episodes that will explore the implications of the shifting power structure in Washington. During the next few podcast episodes – both before and after votes are cast – Keith J. Figlioli’s guests will help analyze how these changes will impact health policy and healthcare investing in public and private markets A few of the topics Keith and Julie discussed in the first episode include: - The alphabet soup of healthcare policy. One of the things that surprises Julie’s clients the most is the myriad of federal agencies that play a role overseeing healthcare – from HHS and CMS, to the FDA, CDC, NIH, FTC, NIST and many others beyond the big, well known organizations. With Healthcare accounting for nearly one quarter of the federal budget, there is a massive public sector infrastructure behind it, which is a big reason why healthcare policy takes so much effort to navigate. Julie offers advice for organizations looking to better understand healthcare policy, and for the people driving it. For example, she says the wonks, lawyers and lobbyists all talk funny. She admits to being part of this group, and says they need to reduce the lingo for the sake of those not so intimately involved. - AI changing everything. When discussing the modernization of the healthcare system, Julie talks about artificial intelligence (AI) being the main focus right now. She believes it has the potential to dramatically change everything because of the far-reaching impact it could have on areas ranging from workforce shortages to clinical decision support, user experiences for providers and patients, and more. She says healthcare AI policy can’t be written fast enough because of the speed with which the technology is developing, but there are many problems to navigate. One is that the public sector lacks experts who fundamentally understand this new technology, which will create challenges with ensuring that regulations are thoughtful enough to create a level of trust around AI without grinding innovation to a halt. - White House hysteria. While the country is fixated and divided on an historical race for the Presidency and the impacts of the outcome, Julie is quick to point out that changes in healthcare policy will not be fast, and will not be sweeping. There are broad brush policy changes you can expect based on party philosophies, like Democrats being more skeptical about the influence of private money than Republicans. But major legislative changes require bipartisan effort, no matter who controls the White House, Senate, and/or House. But one major area where Julie thinks many people are underestimating the potential for change is the impact of the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the Chevron Doctrine. She talks about how this will open the floodgates on a wave of litigation. Find the link in the comments!

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