Welcome to Digital Health Briefing, the newsletter providing the latest news, data, and insight on how digital technology is disrupting the healthcare ecosystem, produced by Business Insider Intelligence. Sign up and receive Digital Health Briefing free to your inbox.Have feedback? We'd like to hear from you. Write me at: lbeaver@businessinsider.com ATHENAHEALTH GETS $6.9 BILLION BID IN INCREASINGLY DISRUPTED MARKET: US Hedge Fund Elliott Management is offering $6.
9 billion to take electronic health record (EHR) vendor Athenahealth private, Bloomberg reports. Athenahealth has struggled to scale its business in an increasingly disruptive and competitive market, according to a senior analyst at Elliot Management, and the hedge fund believes going private will give Athenahealth "the best chance to thrive as a disruptor in the healthcare technology market." This isn't the first time Elliot has approached Athenahealth.
The hedge fund acquired a 9% stake in Athenahealth in 2017 and sought to talk deals, which the EHR company rebuffed. This time around, however, Athenahealth is reviewing the proposal. Here's why it could make sense for Athenahealth to leverage the opportunity: Demand for Athenahealth's main software products has slowed. Moreover, the company's struggled to find growth in a market dominated by top EHR vendors like Cerner and Epic, according to Bloomberg. Athenahealth's year-over-year revenue growth has steadily declined from 48% in Q4 2013 to 15% in Q1 2018.
EHR market leaders are solidifying their positions with strategic partnerships that will increase the gap between the rest of the market. Epic, which controls 33% of the US EHR market, integrated AI-company Nuance's virtual assistant into its offering. And Cerner, which accounts for 28% of the US EHR market, partnered with Salesforce to offer cloud solutions for population health. These value adds make the firms increasingly appealing to customers looking for more than just an EHR vendor.
Athenahealth's struggles are indicative of a broader shift in the health IT market. As health systems begin to internalize data and analytics, EHR companies specializing in just a few core services will likely be pushed out of the market. Healthcare providers are demanding increasingly complex health IT solutions, and the successful players will be those that invest in ancillary services and partnerships that provide a full suite of solutions. Business Insider Intelligence TELADOC TAPS UNDER-SERVED MENTAL HEALTH PATIENTS WITH NEW TELEHEALTH SERVICE: Teladoc announced the US implementation of its virtual care platform geared toward patients in under-resourced areas who suffer with mental health issues.
The Behavioral Health Navigator pairs patients with mental health specialists and dengan benar a personalized care team. The platform yielded a 32% reduction in depression symptoms in patients during its Canadian launch last year. Mental health affects 1 in 5 US adults, and Teladoc reports that more than half of Americans with a serious mental health illness haven't received treatment in the last year, often due to lack of access to specialty care.
Specialists tend to gravitate to metropolitan areas that offer the largest patient pool, best research opportunities, and largest health systems, reports mHealthIntelligence. But, this leaves behind a vacuum of specialist care in rural areas, and a massive untapped market.
DIGITAL HEALTH BRIEFING: Athenahealth gets $7B bid — Teladoc taps mental health space for growth — US health system rolls out routine genomic testing
by Kassie Killough (2018-07-19)
Welcome to Digital Health Briefing, the newsletter providing the latest news, data, and insight on how digital technology is disrupting the healthcare ecosystem, produced by Business Insider Intelligence. Sign up and receive Digital Health Briefing free to your inbox. Have feedback? We'd like to hear from you. Write me at: lbeaver@businessinsider.com ATHENAHEALTH GETS $6.9 BILLION BID IN INCREASINGLY DISRUPTED MARKET: US Hedge Fund Elliott Management is offering $6.9 billion to take electronic health record (EHR) vendor Athenahealth private, Bloomberg reports. Athenahealth has struggled to scale its business in an increasingly disruptive and competitive market, according to a senior analyst at Elliot Management, and the hedge fund believes going private will give Athenahealth "the best chance to thrive as a disruptor in the healthcare technology market." This isn't the first time Elliot has approached Athenahealth.
The hedge fund acquired a 9% stake in Athenahealth in 2017 and sought to talk deals, which the EHR company rebuffed. This time around, however, Athenahealth is reviewing the proposal. Here's why it could make sense for Athenahealth to leverage the opportunity: Demand for Athenahealth's main software products has slowed. Moreover, the company's struggled to find growth in a market dominated by top EHR vendors like Cerner and Epic, according to Bloomberg. Athenahealth's year-over-year revenue growth has steadily declined from 48% in Q4 2013 to 15% in Q1 2018.
EHR market leaders are solidifying their positions with strategic partnerships that will increase the gap between the rest of the market. Epic, which controls 33% of the US EHR market, integrated AI-company Nuance's virtual assistant into its offering. And Cerner, which accounts for 28% of the US EHR market, partnered with Salesforce to offer cloud solutions for population health. These value adds make the firms increasingly appealing to customers looking for more than just an EHR vendor.
Athenahealth's struggles are indicative of a broader shift in the health IT market. As health systems begin to internalize data and analytics, EHR companies specializing in just a few core services will likely be pushed out of the market. Healthcare providers are demanding increasingly complex health IT solutions, and the successful players will be those that invest in ancillary services and partnerships that provide a full suite of solutions. Business Insider Intelligence TELADOC TAPS UNDER-SERVED MENTAL HEALTH PATIENTS WITH NEW TELEHEALTH SERVICE: Teladoc announced the US implementation of its virtual care platform geared toward patients in under-resourced areas who suffer with mental health issues.
The Behavioral Health Navigator pairs patients with mental health specialists and dengan benar a personalized care team. The platform yielded a 32% reduction in depression symptoms in patients during its Canadian launch last year. Mental health affects 1 in 5 US adults, and Teladoc reports that more than half of Americans with a serious mental health illness haven't received treatment in the last year, often due to lack of access to specialty care.
Specialists tend to gravitate to metropolitan areas that offer the largest patient pool, best research opportunities, and largest health systems, reports mHealthIntelligence. But, this leaves behind a vacuum of specialist care in rural areas, and a massive untapped market.