Weekly Health Tech Reads | 4/6/25

Other top headlines from the week

• Dr. Oz was confirmed as the new leader of CMS in a vote that followed partisan lines.

• Many healthcare companies are grappling with the impact of the new tariff policies this week, with this Healthcare Dive reporting providing a good overview of how various organizations are being impacted by the changes. While pharmaceuticals are excluded from the tariff list (for now at least), medical devices and supplies were not, causing supply chain concerns across the industry. Hospitals and medical practices are arguing this will be a huge financial hit when they are already struggling, with Providence’s CEO noting that the tariffs could cost the health system between $10 million and $25 million per year.

• CMS released its initial final rule for 2026 Medicare Advantage on Friday. One of the headlines was that CMS is not implementing a Biden proposal for Medicare to cover GLP-1s for weight loss, a move that the CBO projects could save Medicare roughly $35 billion over the next nine years. Modern Healthcare provided a nice summary of other key aspects of the final rule, which included CMS postponing decisions around MA marketing, AI and prior auths, and more.

• Anchor Medical, a primary care provider in Rhode Island, provided notice to its 25,000 patients that it is closing its doors in the coming months. The notice noted the challenges of recruiting new physicians as costs continue to rise. The Department of Health appears to be seeking buyers for the medical group, with a spokesperson for the Rhode Island governor calling this the “best solution”. The article notes that transaction conversations are in very early stages.

• Hims shares were up in the early part of the week before the entire stock market tanked after it announced patients can access Eli Lilly’s Zepbound via the Hims platform for $1,899 per month. This prompted Eli Lilly to note that it has no relationship with Hims, and that monthly prescriptions for Zepbound via LillyDirect start at $349 per month. I have zero clue how to bridge the apparent $1,550 monthly difference between those two numbers. It seems so absurdly high that some context must be missing in that.

• Meanwhile knownwell, an obesity medicine clinic, actually partnered with Eli Lilly via its LillyDirect platform to provide patients with access to GLP-1s.

• Hinge Health is considering delaying its IPO plans given the poor market performance recently, according to Business Insider. After filing its S-1 last month, Hinge had planned on going public in the next month or two, but the poor performance across the broader market has it rethinking that timeline. Given the major indices are all now down 10%+ over the last month, I’d be more surprised if Hinge didn’t delay its IPO at this point. Klarna, Chime, and Stubhub have all already announced they’re delaying their IPOs due to the recently imposed tariffs. The silver lining in all of this is that the emphasis on profitability over the last few years leaves a business like Hinge in a position where it doesn’t necessarily need to go public, given it reported in the S-1 that it is sitting on over $460 million of cash and short term investments and it was net income positive in Q3 and Q4 of 2024.

• Alto Pharmacy has agreed to be acquired by the parent entity of LetsGetChecked for a valuation reportedly between $1 billion and $1.5 billion, per Bloomberg. LetsGetChecked also merged with Truepill late last year in a transaction that was reportedly worth $525 million, with $25 million in cash and the remainder in stock.

• The Supreme Court is hearing its first abortion-related case under the new administration, Medina vs Planned Parenthood South Carolina. The case is an argument over whether South Carolina can stop paying Planned Parenthood for any Medicaid services because it provides abortions. This Vox perspective on the case indicates pretty clearly that the law appears to be in favor of Planned Parenthood, particularly given a 2023 SCOTUS ruling in Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County v. Talevski, although it seems the conservative court is split on which direction it will head as conservatives push for a broader defunding of Planned Parenthood.

• Providence Health Plan partnered with Collective Health to launch a new TPA for self-insured employers, called Providence Health Plan Powered by Collective Health.

• Cityblock expanded in North Carolina, opening its sixth clinic in the state. Cityblock now serves 40,000 Medicaid and dual eligible members in North Carolina. Cityblock is partnered with BCBS NC, Alliance Health, and UnitedHealthcare in the state.

• Endpoints reported that Zus Health currently has ~60 customers and has contracted for ~$10 million of ARR as it works towards a longitudinal health record for patients.

• New polling from Gallup finds that 11% of Americans are classified as “Cost Desperate,” meaning they’ve been able to access or afford needed healthcare. This is the highest its been since at least 2021, with Hispanic and Black populations driving the increase.

Startup funding announcements

• Thatch, an ICHRA platform, raised $40 million. It has now raised a total of $84.5 million in equity funding, with this round coming at a 3x higher valuation than its previous Series A round of $38 million. Just doing the math using typical dilution percentages around Series A and B rounds, that would seem to imply Thatch is valued somewhere around $400 million after this round. The Techcrunch article noted Thatch has partnered with Quickbooks and ADP to help their customers set up ICHRA accounts, and it currently has thousands of customers with revenue up 8x year over year.

• Venteur, an ICHRA platform, raised $20 million. The press release noted that Venteur is now helping 30,000+ employees as it saw 21x growth in 2024.

• Daymark Health, a care coordination model for cancer patients, raised $11.5 million.

• Deacon Health, a specialty care navigation platform, raised $7 million. It appears to be a relaunch of Episode Solutions, having acquired the assets of Episode Solutions after it defaulted on a loan.

Other worthwhile reads

Employer-Provider Direct Contracting: Practice And Policy by Sidney Haitoff, Joseph Puthumana, Addison Dama, Yang Wang, and Ge Bai
This is a good read in Health Affairs on the potential for direct contracting between employers and providers. Read more

Key insights into 2025 Medicare Advantage D-SNP landscape by Nick Johnson, Annie Hallum, Nick Gipe, and Logan Blank
A helpful report from folks at Milliman on the state of the dual eligible special needs plan (D-SNP) landscape, highlighting among other things the role that various regulatory decisions will have on the market moving forward. Read more

Immigration Crackdowns Disrupt the Caregiving Industry. Families Pay the Price. by Vanessa Sánchez and Daniel Chang
This KFF article looks at the impact that tougher immigration policies will have on the caregiving market, noting that 40% of home health aides are foreign-born. Read more

The Great SPAC Experiment: How Digital Health Bet Big and Lost Bigger by Halle Tecco
Tecco recaps the challenges the healthcare SPAC market has experienced over the past few years. With the benefit of hindsight, the learnings here seem fairly obvious — essentially that the rigor of the IPO process might be a good thing for companies entering the public markets. Reading between the lines of the post, it also underscores how the FOMO-y nature of hot investment opportunities can lead to these sorts of negative outcomes. Read more

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