CVS and Walgreens have been spending money like they’re Elon Musk buying Twitter.

The two retail pharmacy giants have made a string of multi-billion dollar acquisitions of primary care providers in the past couple years, including the $5.2 billion VillageMD acquisition in 2021 (Walgreens) and the $10.6 billion plan to buy Oak Street Health (CVS).

VillageMD also bought primary care clinic operator Summit Health-CityMD in January 2023, which Walgreens invested $3.5 billion in, and CVS spent roughly $8 billion to acquire Signify Health, a value-based payment platform, in September 2022.

So what do all these deals have in common? Value-based care.

Both CVS and Walgreens are increasing the number of value-based contracts in their enterprises, as “value-based-care is becoming a dominant model in healthcare,” David Larsen, an analyst at financial services firm BTIG, wrote in a February 2023 report.

The industry’s push toward value-based care. A value-based care reimbursement model takes into account patient outcomes when determining how much to pay providers, rather than providers getting reimbursed for each individual service they provide to patients.

The goal behind the value-based care model ultimately is to lower the overall cost of healthcare. The model relies on providing patients with better health outcomes, and if patients have better outcomes and are healthier, then overall healthcare costs come down.

The healthcare industry has slowly adopted more value-based contracts over the past decade or so, though 40.5% of total healthcare dollars are still paid in a non-value-based system, according to a 2022 survey from the Health Care Payment Learning & Action Network.

Both CVS and Walgreens seem to have doubled down on their focus on value-based care in recent months.

Keep reading here.—MA

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Maia at [email protected]. For completely confidential conversations, ask Maia for her number on Signal.

For decades, gun violence in the US has grabbed headlines and sparked calls for action, as well as political debate. Now, health systems across the country are increasingly turning their attention (and resources) to gun violence prevention as an important public health and health equity issue.

Among them is Kaiser Permanente, a California-based nonprofit health plan and hospital system, which in June 2022 launched a Center for Gun Violence Research and Education.

Kaiser Permanente leaders in January further committed $25 million over five years to the center as part of a partnership with the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (HAVI) to support research, education programs, and evidence-based community initiatives.

David Grossman, VP of social health and equity at Kaiser Permanente, spoke with Healthcare Brew about the center and how its work on gun violence prevention can help combat health disparities.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

When did Kaiser begin focusing on gun violence? And why are these efforts so important?

We actually started getting directly involved in this field starting in 2018, through some investments and research with our research centers at Kaiser Permanente…The message that we’re trying to convey here is that health systems do play an important role…This is front and center for us, and so we need to be front and center for a solution…We see thousands of patients each year for firearm injuries—those are the people who are still alive when they’re brought to us. The fatality rate for [suicide] attempts is around 90%, so many people who die from firearm injury die before they actually reach our facilities.

We also want to recognize that our members have exposure to firearm violence in lots of different ways, both as victims with physical injuries, but also in their communities.

Keep reading here.—SY

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Shannon at [email protected]. For completely confidential conversations, ask Shannon for her number on Signal.

Smartwatch? With all the different health data these devices and other wearable biosensors can track, maybe we should start calling it geniuswatch.

Experts predict that this remote patient-monitoring technology will soon become commonplace in US hospitals—helping alleviate the ongoing nurse shortage and reduce expenses.

“Within three years, I would say at least 80% of hospitals will be using this kind of technology-enabled monitoring for its patients,” said James Mault, founder and CEO of BioIntelliSense, a continuous health monitoring and clinical intelligence company.

A 2022 Deloitte Insights report predicts that nearly 440 million wearable biosensors, both consumer and medical-grade, will ship worldwide in 2024, up from 275 million in 2021. Analysts attribute the uptick to more devices hitting the market and healthcare providers becoming less skeptical of them. Consumer biosensors might look like an Apple Watch, while medical-grade biosensors are more like “smart patches” that stick directly to skin for continuous data monitoring.

BioIntelliSense makes a smart patch called BioButton, which can track resting heart rate, sleep patterns and skin temperature, and identify patients stable enough for early hospital discharge, Mault told Healthcare Brew. The BioButton and similar products can be used both in general care wards, as well as monitoring patients at home, according to Mault.

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the use of remote patient monitoring technology and wearable biosensors, according to a McKinsey report. Patients used smartwatches to track their Covid symptoms, and health facilities like the Mayo Clinic used remote monitoring devices for ambulatory management of its patients.

Even the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recognized the potential for remote patient monitoring. From 2018–2022, CMS has increasingly added more codes to reimburse these devices under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). Hospitals are reimbursed about $180 per patient for the BioButton, according to Mault.

Keep reading here.—KW

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Kristine at [email protected]. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristine for her number on Signal.

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: Erythritol, a zero-calorie sugar replacement, has been linked to a variety of health conditions including stroke, heart attack, and death, according to a study in Nature Medicine. (CNN)

Quote: “It’s like a wave coming for us.”—Luis Ostrosky, an infectious disease expert at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, on antibiotic resistance (the Associated Press)

Read: Patients who use medical marijuana face a patchwork of regulations and barriers across the US. (Politico)

Putting patients first: Clinical documentation is essential, but more paperwork means less time for patient care. Nuance’s latest white paper examines how their AI-powered, voice-enabled DAX solution saves time and enhances the patient-physician experience.* 

Your health, your way: LetsGetChecked’s comprehensive suite of solutions makes it easy for people to take control of their healthcare from home. Here’s what their MDs said about the future of accessible medicine.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Catch up on the top Healthcare Brew stories you may have missed:

• Hospitals ramp up international recruitment
• Drugmakers eye oral alternatives for diabetes and weight loss injectables
• Where digital health investors are hesitant to put their money in 2023