Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Health Care Industry Is Warming To Concept Of Keeping Patients Healthy Instead Of Just Treating Them While Sick
The Associated Press: Health Care Industry Branches Into Fresh Meals, Rides To Gym
That hot lunch delivered to your door? Your health insurer might pick up the tab. The cleaning crew that fixed up your apartment while you recovered from a stroke? The hospital staff helped set that up. Health care is shifting in a fundamental way for millions of Americans. Some insurers are paying for rides to fitness centers and checking in with customers to help ward off loneliness. Hospital networks are hiring more workers to visit people at home and learn about their lives, not just their illnesses. (7/23)
Kaiser Health News: Profiles For Sale: How Bits Of Captured Data Paint A Valuable Picture Of Your Health
Here’s a fun activity. Let’s look at my credit card statement from last month. Among other things, I paid for a pair of athletic leggings, four movie tickets, and two beers and a plate of nachos at a nearby restaurant. (Maybe I should not have put the latter two on my credit card — see below.) So, would you hire me? Would you offer me a high-interest loan? Can you tell if I’m sick? What if I told you my pants size or how many hours a week I watch Netflix? (Bluth, 7/24)
And in other health industry news —
Bloomberg: Hospitals Rally With Investors Pinning Hopes On Private Equity Buyers
The potential of private capital coming in and rescuing hospitals is driving a rally in shares. The Bloomberg Intelligence Hospitals index jumped as much as 8.1 percent, the most since August 11, after Apollo Global Management LLC shelled out $5.6 billion to buy rural hospital chain LifePoint Health Inc., including its debt and minority interest. While hospital stocks have staged a comeback this year, they’re still down 40 percent since their peak in mid-2015. (Darie, 7/23)
Bloomberg: As Health-Care IPO Boom Continues, Wall Street Tells Investors To Buy
Health-care companies are going public at a startling rate and analysts are as bullish as ever as they kick off initiations of five companies today. The companies range from one developing so-called “off the shelf” immunotherapies to a commercial-stage medical device maker with a non-invasive treatment for depression. Even as two of the five companies have slid from their initial valuations, only one company has so far earned anything less than a buy from the analysts who underwrote the deals. (Flanagan, 7/23)
Modern Healthcare: LifePoint Assets Could Go Into REIT Following Merger
LifePoint Health's plan to merge with RCCH HealthCare Partners was a rising tide that lifted the boats of other for-profit hospital chains on Monday, serving as a reminder of private equity's interest in hospitals. For-profit rural hospital operators LifePoint and RCCH, both based in Brentwood, Tenn., would have combined $8 billion in revenue, 84 hospitals, physician practices, outpatient centers and post-acute providers in 30 states. The two companies signed a definitive agreement to merge and plan to close the deal, which would entail LifePoint transforming from a public company into a private one, within several months. (Bannow, 7/23)
