Dispensed: How the US is confronting the novel coronavirus, Oscar and Clover's 2019 financial results, and the big business of direct-to-consumer healthcare
Hello,
Welcome to Dispensed, Business Insider's weekly healthcare newsletter, where it feels like the past week has lasted exactly a month.
Dear readers, I hope you're all staying healthy and are hanging in there with the influx of information about the novel coronavirus as it spreads in the US.
I'll get into all the updates we learned this week on the virus and elsewhere in the industry but first: Are you new to the newsletter? You can sign up here.
Do you ever get back from a short vacation and realize you've missed what seems like a year of news? That was me, reading through all the updates on the novel coronavirus last Friday.
Here's a look at what we've learned since then.
How the US is tackling the coronavirus outbreak
At the time I'm writing this, the US had reported more than 240 cases of coronavirus and 14 deaths.
Companies are telling employees to work from home, hospital workers are getting asked not to travel, major conferences - including HIMSS! - are getting canceled. It's been remarkable to see how the outbreak has touched practically every desk in the newsroom and every part of daily life.
Personally, I'm following the conversation around coverage for coronavirus. This week, we saw Washington, California and New York require insurance plans to waive costs associated with patients getting tested for the virus.
I'm also tracking the supply issues the US could be facing. The novel coronavirus outbreak could lead to shortages of key medications like antibiotics, depending on how China fares.
Meanwhile, Andrew Dunn made a trip up to Boston this week to meet with Moderna.
First: you can expect a potential coronavirus vaccine to be priced about where other respiratory-infection vaccines are priced, CEO Stephane Bancel told Andrew. For context: Prevnar 13, a vaccine to prevent pneumonia, costs $800 for four injections.
And out today: Andrew got an inside look at how Moderna's developing its potential coronavirus vaccine.
There, he was greeted with a foot-tap instead of a handshake and traveled an hour outside Boston to Norwood, Massachusetts where most of the work on the vaccine is underway.
Read Andrew's story here:
'Crazy hours, short nights': The inside story of how a buzzy biotech upstart developed a potential coronavirus vaccine in record time
We're getting our first look at how health insurance startups fared in 2019
When I wasn't writing about coronavirus, I was going deep on health insurer earnings for 2019.
We're still waiting on a filing or two for Devoted and Bright Health, but in the meantime, I've rounded up the results for Alignment Healthcare, Oscar Health, and Clover Health.
If you've been following my reporting for the past year or so, you've seen me pull together the quarterly financial filings from the private health insurers. I cover a lot of startups with high valuations, and it's always so difficult to get a good sense of a company's financials when they're private and don't have to disclose.
Health insurers are different. They're regulated by state insurance departments, which means they have to share what they're taking in as premiums, what they're spending on medical claims, how many members they have, and of course, if they're making money or losing money.
Read on to see how they fared in 2019:
- We got a look at Oscar Health's latest enrollment numbers, and they show why 2020 is shaping up to be a big year for the unprofitable health insurance startup
- Financial filings show losses are deepening at Clover Health as the health insurance startup takes on more members
- Alignment Healthcare just added another $135 million to its war chest as it plots growth in the red-hot Medicare Advantage market
New to BI Prime? Use my link here to get 20% off your BI Prime subscription.
Signs of growth in the direct-to-consumer health space
It's almost impossible to think about anything else this week, but I'll leave you with a scoop I had.
Ro, the parent company behind Roman, is getting into allergy treatments and is shifting its approach to setting up "digital health clinics" for men and women. That is, associating men's health with Roman and women's health with Rory, akin to rival Hims and Hers' brands.
(Relatedly: the company said Friday it's now offering a free coronavirus assessment + free telehealth visits.)
As CNBC reported later in the week, it's looking more and more like a model that could be a competitor to Amazon's PillPack than a place to simply get a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication.
Read the full story here:
With that, I'll leave you with a bit of levity.
My colleague Mary Meisenzahl writes that there's a robot wandering around NYC informing people about the coronavirus and testing them for symptoms. It's already been banned from one park, and honestly some days when I think of the intersection of healthcare and technology, this is completely what I'd imagine happening.
Read on for some excellent robot pictures.
And I'd love to hear more about how you're holding up in the wake of the outbreak. Are you in one of the coronavirus hotspots? Are you already tired of working from home while practicing social isolation? Are you a healthcare worker worried about how the response to the outbreak in the US is going so far?
I want to hear from you: find me at lramsey@businessinsider.com.
And as always, you can reach the whole healthcare team at healthcare@businessinsider.com.
Have a great weekend, and don't forget to wash your hands!
- Lydia
Featured Digital Health Articles:
- Telehealth Industry: Benefits, Services & Examples
- Value-Based Care Model: Pay-for-Performance Healthcare
- Senior Care & Assisted Living Market Trends
- Smart Medical Devices: Wearable Tech in Healthcare
- AI in Healthcare
- Remote Patient Monitoring Industry: Devices & Market Trends