“I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind.” This is probably not what President Trump said to the Dell family to get them to pledge $6.25 billion to create “Trump Accounts” for children. It is, however, what Dean of Students Ed Rooney says to express his determination about catching Ferris in the act of playing hooky from school. The film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off tracks Rooney’s enthusiastic determination to change the outcome of Ferris’ fun day off, which will help us understand this week’s big health policy news. You can read more about being determined to change health care outcomes in the One Thoughtful Paragraph.
This news highlights companies trying to achieve different outcomes in health care or across the health care system:
- Function Health, a preventive medicine company focused on holistic wellness and laboratory testing, launched a Medical Intelligence Lab (MI Lab) after raising $298 million in Series B funding. The MI Lab applies an AI model to a combination of lab testing, imaging, wearable technology data, and medical records to make personalized health insights accessible through an AI chatbot and provide steps to reach specific goals. More here.
- Angle Health, a health benefits AI platform for small- to medium-sized businesses, raised $134 million in an oversubscribed Series B round to expand operations and meet increasing demand for flexible employer health plans.
- Technology-enabled health plan Curative announced a $150 million series B funding round, bringing its valuation to $1.275 billion, to continue to disrupt health insurance markets with its $0 out-of-pocket cost model that incentivizes primary care.
When Ferris Bueller skips school in the film, there is a scene where the teacher is taking attendance: “Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?” In light of Ferris’ absence, a student helpfully responds: “Um, he’s sick. My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with a girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it’s pretty serious.” This sort of acute health condition reportedly suffered by Ferris Bueller may be avoided if CMMI and FDA accomplish what they are determined to do with two new pilot programs. This week, the CMS Innovation Center (CMMI) announced the Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions (ACCESS) Model, a new payment model designed to pay for technology-enabled treatments and care management for chronic diseases like diabetes, chronic musculoskeletal pain, and depression. The goal is to give clinicians and patients better access and reliable reimbursement for technology-enabled digital health platforms that can keep patients healthier. To help CMMI with this goal, the FDA announced its own complementary pilot program called the “Technology-Enabled Meaningful Patient Outcomes (TEMPO) for Digital Health Devices Pilot” – which will give digital health devices (that are not already FDA-approved) regulatory flexibilities to participate in the ACCESS model. Those digital health platforms – enrolled as Medicare Part B providers or suppliers – will only be paid based on how their solutions improve patient outcomes. One wonders how this outcomes-based, technology-focused payment model might work. Anyone working with value-based care arrangements knows that identifying metrics that track whether patients are staying healthy can be challenging. Still, we should all be supportive of financial incentives that encourage clinicians and technology companies to keep people from passing out in ice cream parlors. It is a good thing to do. It is like when Ferris is trying to convince his sick best friend (Cameron) to join him for a day of fun in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Cameron insists: I’m dying. Ferris replies: You’re not dying, you just can’t think of anything good to do.
Need help catching up on the end-of-year digital health policy activity? Don’t miss our final quarterly webinar of the year on December 9th at 2pm ET.
We’re also excited to have Senior Advisor Brett Meeks, Vice President of Government Affairs for Health Technology and AI at Jeffrey J. Kimbell & Associates, joining us for the session.
Register now – and invite your friends and colleagues. It’s free!
