What You Should Know: - Ryse Health, a new startup that provides tech-enabled office-based and virtual care to patients with type 2 diabetes raises $3.4M in seed funding led by W Health Ventures, and other investors include LifeBridge Health, CareFirst, and veterans of Cigna, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Blue Shield of California. - Founded by Erin Kane, MD (co-founder and chief medical officer) and Richard Gurley, MBA (co-founder and chief executive officer), Ryse Health’s technology
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Brightside Health Raises $50M for Personalized Anxiety & Depression Care
What You Should Know: - Today, Brightside Health announced it raised a $50M Series B, led by ACME Capital and Mousse Partners, bringing its total funding to $75M to date. - The funding will help Brightside expand access to high-quality mental healthcare to more people across the country, enhance the platform, forge new partnerships, and grow as a team, from about 57 now to an expected 175 later this year. Brightside Health, a telemedicine platform that offers fast access to
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Fresenius Health Partners, InterWell Health, and Cricket Health Announce $2.4B Merger
What You Should Know: - Cricket Health is announcing today that it will merge with Fresenius Health Partners (the value-based care arm of Fresenius), and InterWell Health, to form the nation’s premier, value-based kidney care provider with a totally new model of addressing kidney disease. The new company will operate under the InterWell Health brand and is valued at $2.4B. - Together, Fresenius Health Partners, InterWell Health, and Cricket Health will drive innovation and industry
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Flume Health Secures $30M for Health Plan Administration Platform
What You Should Know: - Flume Health, an NYC-based Health-Plan-as-a-Service platform announced today a $30M round of Series A funding led by Optum Ventures with participation from Cigna Ventures is participating, bringing its total raise to date at $40M. - Flume gives all U.S. health insurers the option to build personalized healthcare plans–what Stripe or Plaid did for digital banking is what Flume is doing for digital health. Launch Next Generation Health Plans in
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RecoveryOne, Cigna Offers Virtual Physical Therapy for Medicare Advantage Customers
What You Should Know: - RecoveryOne, a digital health innovator dedicated to improving health outcomes for recovery from musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries of all types and reducing costs, announced an expansion of its partnership with Cigna to offer its virtual physical therapy and broad MSK solution for Medicare Advantage (MA) customers as an in-network benefit. - This new benefit builds on the partnership between Cigna and RecoveryOne announced
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Cigna & Fresenius Extend VBC Program to Help More People with Kidney Failure
What You Should Know: - Today, Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA) and Cigna announced an expansion of their value-based care(VBC) program to improve health outcomes and lower the cost of care for those living with kidney failure, or end stage renal disease (ESRD), through at least 2023. - First launched in 2017 as part of Cigna Collaborative Care, the VBC program will now include additional incentives to support more kidney disease specialists
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Cigna International Taps Teladoc Health to Expand Telehealth Capabilities in India
What You Should Know: - Cigna International today announced a collaboration with Teladoc Health to support populations in India during the current humanitarian crisis through telehealth solutions. - In a coordinated approach, Cigna International Markets and Teladoc Health activated local and global telehealth capabilities in less than 24 hours and brought much needed care to many people who desperately need help from the global community. - Together, both companies delivered an agile
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Cigna Becomes First Plan to Reimburse for Behavioral Health Coaching Via Ginger
What You Should Know: - Cigna just announced that they’re the first national plan to reimburse for behavioral health coaching, a new covered benefit available now to 14M members through Ginger. Essentially, Cigna customers with employer-sponsored or individual and family (IFP) insurance plans (14M of their 16M members) can access Ginger’s behavioral health coaching, therapy, and psychiatry services as an in-network benefit. - During the pandemic, Cigna saw a significant
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Q1 2021 Health IT/Digital Health PC/VE, M&A, IPOs/ SPACs Activity
The first quarter of 2021 has been one of investor optimism as the vaccine rollout continues ahead of expectations and economic activity begins to accelerate in response. Within the Health IT industry, the already strong investment and M&A trends seen in 2020 have only accelerated. Over the course of the quarter, we observed $7 billion in private equity and venture capital investment across 158 companies. By comparison, Q1 of 2020 saw $3.2 billion and 127 investments. Health IT
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Marpai Health Acquires Continental Benefits to Launch First Smart Health Plan System
What You Should Know: - Today Marpai Health announced that it will acquire third-party administrator Continental Benefits. Marpai brings deep learning to self-insured health plans, which will allow for the processing of comprehensive data to increase quality care, reduce costs, simplify the healthcare experience, and empower plan members to live healthier lives. The transaction is expected to close in April 2021. - Continental Benefits, owned by Damien Lamendola, is a
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