October is open enrollment season across the U.S. when the annual window opens for millions of Americans to change health plans. To make this process less confusing, Collective Health is bringing employer health insurance into the 21s century and shifting the focus from profits to people. Today, the enterprise health insurance software and services leader Collective Health has raised $81 million in Series C funding led by Google Ventures and returning investors NEA and Founders Fund along with
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3 Population Health Management Myths & Realities for Providers
Population health management requires a huge amount of effort and work, operating at scale, to drive results: calling patients to get them in for care, pre-registering and pre-certifying them before their appointments, ensuring optimal scheduling and referral patterns among physicians, and so on. Therefore, executives and administrators should seek partners that integrate services with technology—in short, partners able to deliver not just reports but measurable results. Working with these
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After Raising $10M, Datu Health Shuts Down HQ, 42 Layoffs
After announcing a $10 million in Series B equity funding, Boulder,CO-based behavioral health data company Datu Health has shuttered its headquarters resulting in 42 layoffs, Denver Post reports. They layoffs result from company consolidated its software engineering functions under its umbrella of its investment partner St. Joseph Health.
According to Datu Health’s spokeswoman, Pam Zients, four of the Boulder employees will remain with Datu, which has operations in St. Louis and California.
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Infographic: Decoding Big Data in Healthcare
We all want personalized healthcare options, however, in order to achieve this, we must let big data in to decipher and breakdown our individual wants and needs. Besides being an industry buzzword, what successes can big data translate into for healthcare workers and consumers?
The following infograpic created by Evariant, a company that helps leading hospital networks make sense of big data illustrates the following trends and benefits when big data is properly managed
· Improved profits
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Lyra Health Pulls in $35M to Transform Mental Health
After recently launching in June led by former Facebook and Genentech CFO David Ebersman, mental health-based startup Lyra Health has raised a $35 million in Series A funding led by Greylock Partners and existing investor Venrock. The investment round also includes funding from existing investor Castlight Health, and new investors Providence Health & Services, Breyer Capital and Origin Capital Management. The company will utilize the funding to make its technology available to a select group
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Vicks Unveils Wireless Smartphone Thermometer with Connected Health App
Cold and flu relief provider Vicks is finally entering the connected health space with the launch of its new Bluetooth-enabled digital Vicks® SmartTemp™ wireless smartphone thermometer now available at pharmacy and baby retailers nationwide this September for $24.99. The Vicks SmartTemp makes tracking multiple kids' temperatures easier than ever before this cold and flu season with a companion App available for Android or Apple devices. Tracking and communicating symptoms and temperature history
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Verisk Analytics to Sell Its Healthcare Business, Could Sell for $1B
Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK), a data analytics provider serving customers in insurance, energy, healthcare, financial services, government, and risk management has hired Morgan Stanley to sell Verisk Health, its healthcare division, according to three industry bankers, The Deal reports. Bankers estimate that Verisk Health sale could pull in between $900 million to $1.08 billion. The sales process is reportedly in the early stages and bankers have noted that the company's breadth of offerings
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CareFirst BCBS to Award $3M in Telehealth Grants
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) plans to award up to $3 million in telehealth grants over the next three years to programs aimed at increasing patients' access to quality health care services through the use of telemedicine in Maryland, Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.
In an effort to remove barriers to care and address existing health outcome disparities in its service area, CareFirst has issued a request for proposals from qualified nonprofit 501(c)3 organizations, or
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In-Person Visit vs. Telehealth Visit? Time Is Money
A recent study released by Harvard Medical School (HMS) published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that the average total visit time for typical in-person medical visits was 121 minutes. This total time spent includes 37 minutes in travel time and 84 minutes in the clinic waiting and filing in paperwork.
Of the 84 minutes, only 20 minutes were spent face-to-face with a doctor. HMS estimates that the average opportunity cost per visit was $43 (not including cost
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ONC Unveils Final Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap
On Tuesday, the ONC issued the final Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap version 1.0 that outlines a clear path to catalyze the collaboration of stakeholders who are going to build and use the health IT infrastructure. The initial draft was released in January 2015 and received over 250 comments including input 25 federal partners, 90 individuals from 38 states from across the nation and the ONC Federal Advisory Committees (FACAs), which were incorporated into the finalized roadmap. The
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