New Businesses Seek To Meet Consumers’ Demands For Non-Emergency Housecalls
A variety of firms have started up that provide medical care where and when consumers want it. Also, news outlets examine a civil case against a now-bankrupt laboratory and how the health care sector has performed for hedge funds this year.
The Wall Street Journal:
Startups Vie To Build An Uber For Health Care
Heal is one of several startups putting a high-tech spin on old-fashioned house calls—or “in-person visits,” since they can take place anywhere. The services provide a range of nonemergency medical care—from giving flu shots to treating strep throats and stitching lacerations—much like a mobile urgent-care clinic. The companies use slightly different models. Pager, in New York City, dispatches doctors or nurse practitioners via Uber, for $200. Heal, in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Orange County, Calif., promises to “get a doctor to your sofa in under an hour” for $99. (Beck, 8/11)
The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Details Huge Sums Generated by Cardiac Biomarker Lab
A civil complaint filed in federal court in South Carolina lays out just how much money the Justice Department estimates a now-bankrupt cardiac biomarker laboratory generated for its founder, her former associates and the doctors who ordered its blood tests. Tonya Mallory, the founder of Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc., received at least $26 million in salary, bonuses and tax distributions from the company, while BlueWave HealthCare Consultants Inc., the sales-and-marketing contractor headed by two of Ms. Mallory’s former associates, collected $223 million in commissions over a roughly five-year period, the complaint says. (Carreyrou, 8/10)
The Wall Street Journal's MoneyBeat:
Health-Care Deals Prop Up Hedge Funds That Bet On M&A
The health-care sector has been the bright spot in what’s otherwise been a meager 2015 for hedge funds betting on mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies and other corporate events. ... Philippe Ferreira, senior cross-asset strategist at Lyxor Asset Management said health care, where event-driven hedge funds have a “sizable” exposure, contributed about 60% of event-driven hedge funds’ gains this year so far, making it the strongest contributor by a large margin. Mr. Ferreira expected the strong performance of the health-care sector to continue in the coming months, buoyed by record levels of M&A. Global health-care M&A stands at an all-time high of $422.8 billion for the year-to-date, up 42%, and almost exceeds the full-year record of $429.3 billion set in 2014, according to Dealogic. (Eschenbacher, 8/10)