Rite Aid Corporation appoints Heyward Donigan as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a member of the Board, effective immediately. John Standley will step down from his role as chief executive officer. Prior to joining Rite Aid, Donigan served as the president and chief executive officer of Sapphire Digital (formerly Vitals), which designs and develops omnichannel platforms that help consumers choose their best-fit healthcare providers.
Since 2015, Donigan lead Sapphire Digital's strategy and
Read More
Cigna Leads $23M Series D in Specialized AI Company, GNS Healthcare
Today, Cigna Ventures (CV), the corporate venture fund of global health service company Cigna, announced that it’s leading a $23M Series D round of funding in GNS Healthcare (GNS), a highly specialized AI company that turns millions of data streams into personalized insights that precisely match the appropriate clinical care/treatment intervention to the right patient at the right time.Cigna joins other leading carriers and health plans and GNS investors, including Cambia Health Solutions, Echo
Read More
4 Areas in Consumer-Driven Healthcare Ripe for Innovation
Steven Auerbach, CEO of Alegeus
Consumer-driven healthcare (CDH) has become pervasive over the last decade as a powerful tool to help address the cost crisis in the American healthcare system. The success of CDH in reversing the cost trend – together with the recent rise in health savings account (HSA) adoption – confirms that CDH will continue to thrive into the future.
Despite its success, CDH, as we know it today, is far from perfect. Employers struggle to effectively design a CDH program
Read More
DispatchHealth Nabs $33M to Expand On-Demand Healthcare Model to High Acuity Patients
DispatchHealth (formerly known as True North Health Navigation), a Denver, CO-based provider of on-demand healthcare delivery to a patient’s home has raised $33 million in growth capital funding led by Echo Health Ventures, a strategic collaboration of Cambia Health Solutions and Mosaic Health Solutions. The funding also included participation from existing investors Alta Partners, Questa Capital and additional strategic investors.Founded in 2013 by two mobile health executives, DispatchHealth’s
Read More
Why 2018 May Have Been A High-Water Mark for Digital Health Funding
Michael A Greely, Co-Founder & General Partner at Flare Capital Partners
Notwithstanding the quite significant stock market turmoil for publicly traded healthcare companies in recent months, the level of private investment activity continued to be quite strong this past quarter. According to Rock Health, 1Q19 registered just under $1.0 billion of investments made in 61 healthcare technology companies, which while below the trailing two year quarterly average of $1.4 billion, still
Read More
Amazon Alexa Is Now HIPAA-Eligible, What’s Next for Healthcare?
Nathan Treloar, President & COO at Orbita, Inc.
Big News, But Just The Beginning
These days, big news stories in healthcare are just as likely to come from large technology companies as from major healthcare institutions. Case in point: In early 2018, Amazon created a huge stir in the industry early by announcing a venture with JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway that promised to go after the “hungry
Read More
Livongo Adds HIPAA-Compliant Amazon Alexa Healthcare Skill for Diabetes
Livongo, the leading Applied Health Signals company, today announced the Livongo for Diabetes program will now leverage Amazon Alexa's voice service to offer its Members the ability to ask any of their Alexa-enabled devices to provide their blood glucose readings and health tips via the new Livongo skill. The integration marks Livongo as the first consumer digital health company to collaborate with Amazon Alexa on a new HIPAA-compliant healthcare skill, which builds on Livongo's efforts to make
Read More
Cigna Launches $250M Healthcare Innovation Fund Focused on Early and Growth Stage Startups
Today, global health service company Cigna announced the launch of Cigna Ventures, a corporate venture fund to invest in emerging companies driving transformation and innovation in health care. Cigna Ventures is launching with $250M in capital to invest in both early and growth stage startups dedicated to unlocking growth opportunities in healthcare across three strategic areas:- Insights and Analytics: Risk Assessment, Network Optimization, and Patient Care Plan- Digital Health and Retail:
Read More
Cigna Launches “Answers by Cigna” on Amazon Alexa
Today, Cigna announced it will be the first global health service company to offer a skill aimed at personalizing and simplifying health benefits information with the launch of “Answers by Cigna,” a skill for Amazon Alexa. “Answers by Cigna” is designed to educate and engage people about health care by providing instant and easy-to-understand answers to more than 150 commonly-asked health care questions.Nearly half of Americans are utilizing voice enabled devices and has the potential to change
Read More
Health Insurer Cigna to Acquire Express Scripts for $67 Billion: 5 Things to Know
Cigna Corporation has acquired Express Scripts Holding Company in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $67 billion, including Cigna's assumption of approximately $15 billion in Express Scripts debt. The acquisition is expected to be completed by December 31, 2018.“Cigna’s acquisition of Express Scripts brings together two complementary customer-centric services companies, well-positioned to drive greater quality and affordability for customers,” said David M. Cordani, President
Read More