Well here we are in early August, which means extended vacations up north and back to school down south! For the FinMed Partners team, August means nose to the grindstone - this month always seems extra busy as clients are getting ready for fall Board meetings and 2025 planning. That doesn’t mean we’re too busy to talk to any of you, so please feel free to drop us a line here or go ahead and schedule right on our calendar.
With subscription models more and more common in today’s economy, we take a quick look in this issue at how this approach might apply to healthcare. Also a reminder that we compiled a list of all unique Epic MyChart instances, easily accessed here (a list of independent ortho groups using Epic, below). And this week's CEO Chat is with Adonis Co-Founder & CEO Akash Magoon. Off we go!
DEAL NEWS - UPDATE
R1 RCM special committee approves acquisition offer
TowerBrook Capital Partners and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice have finalized their bid for R1 RCM (NASDAQ: RCM). The two firms are offering $14.30 for the portion of R1 not already owned by TowerBrook, and will take the company private assuming New Mountain Capital - R1's largest shareholder - has agreed to the deal.
PYMNTS carried an interview with an executive of Solidcore earlier this year, highlighting a growing interest in subscriptions among consumers across all wellness categories (including nutrition, exercise, strength training, wearables, etc.) Wellness - especially when considering health clubs/ gyms, yoga studios and other more traditional fitness activities - has long had a subscription model. But this got us wondering - what is the potential for subscription-based services and products in the rest of healthcare?
To date, most discussion of subscriptions in healthcare center on a couple of areas. Direct primary care/ concierge care, telehealth/ virtual care, and pharmaceuticals (including diabetes care) have attracted the most attention. Some people have suggested that Amazon - with its Prime membership model and ongoing interest in a consumer healthcare solution - is a perfect candidate to build a subscription model.
That seems to finally be happening after Amazon's purchase of One Medical, as it is now selling a $9/ month One Medical upgrade for Prime members to get access to same/ next day appointments. With a One Medical membership, members can also talk to providers 24/7, book in-office appointments through the app, and securely message a provider. It remains to be seen how successfully Amazon's latest healthcare experiment will turn out to be, since it has tried and exited healthcare offerings in the past.
Most of the early ideas for subscriptions in healthcare centered on drugs. Categories with recurring spending, e.g., supplies for diabetes CGM, the products available at HIMS, and value-based care models applied to payer/ government purchases of anti-viral Hepatitis C drugs.
Perhaps the health plans of the future will combine a subscription for basic services that most people would like easy access to, plus true insurance to cover accidents and illnesses that require high acuity care settings, longer term treatment, and sometimes more expensive drug therapy and devices. We seem far away from that today, but as so many other goods and services we buy shift to an ongoing subscription model, maybe healthcare will get there sooner than we think??
PATIENT FINANCING
CFPB continues to scrutinize "medical payment products"
In July 2023, the CFPB issued a Request for Information regarding so-called Medical Payment Products (see our compendium of responses here). In June of this year - after a period of relative quiet from the CFPB on this topic and the constitutionality of the CFPB affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court - the CFPB returned to concerns about complaints regarding patient financing offered by healthcare providers.
In a June 18 post, the CFPB outlined the issues it sees with these products. The CFPB wants to make sure that patients aren't pushed into taking on debt they can't afford, and that healthcare providers aren't incentivized to offer these products.
PYMNTS weighed in, expressing its own concern that some patients may not be able to get the care they need without access to this type of financing. According to PYMNTS editors, "The result may be that at least for some consumers who have shown interest in payment plans and especially cards, getting and paying for necessary care may be out of reach."
After co-founding and serving as CTO of employee benefits company Nayya, Akash Magoon (and his brother Aman, who was employee #1 and served as VP of Product) left Nayya to found a new company focused on revenue cycle automation. Adonis, started in 2022, offers "AI-powered alerts and recommendations, actionable insights, billing automation, and more". The company closed on a $31 million Series B round in June. Click here to read Akash's summary of Adonis' business and view of the year ahead.
EHR LANDSCAPE
Epic MyChart instances by type, state and provider name
FinMed Partners recently took a look at exactly which provider organizations (and other entities) are using Epic. We took the time to capture the publicly available listing of MyChart logins and categorize these by type and segment (see chart below for example of independent ortho groups using Epic, and click here for our insights from the earlier newsletter).
From time to time we're going to start bringing relevant webinars to your attention. While not directly focused on healthcare, credit card rewards programs are of interest to all merchants - especially smaller medical practices with less bargaining power - due to the higher interchange fees associated with these card types. So you might be interested in joining NYPAY and Fintech Connector for a discussion on the evolving landscape of credit card rewards and loyalty programs on August 20th at 6:00pm ET. Industry experts will analyze the factors contributing to the possible decline of these programs and provide an in-depth look at current challenges. The session will cover:
Deal Tracker. Regularly updated list of healthcare payments related transactions since November 2023.
Conference List. Rolling twelve month look ahead at conferences and other events covering healthcare payments, revenue cycle, fintech and related areas.
CEO Chat. Thoughts from healthcare payments CEOs on the problem their company was founded to solve, their right to win, and plans for the next 12 months.
Newsletter Archive. News, trends, and insights from the healthcare payments industry compiled in our bi-weekly newsletter.
All of these resources and the Epic MyChart dataset can also be accessed at the FinMed Partners Insights page.
MEET US IN MUSIC CITY!
We'll be in Nashville in early October - please write to us at info@finmedpartners.com to arrange time to meet while we're in town!
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FinMed Partners is a management consulting and advisory business focusing at the intersection of payments/ fintech and healthcare. Our founders have developed deep expertise from decades of experience with health IT companies, healthcare providers and many players within the payments ecosystem. Investors, boards and executive teams work with us to maximize business value through strategic input and tactical execution.
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