Health Tech News Roundup | Feb 20-25

Payers, large employers are pushing to integrate behavioral health services into member plans. AbleTo is one such example. Annum Health is another. These startups can boost worker performance if they can successfully identify workers suffering from behavioral health conditions. More

The Harvard Business Review looks at which jobs men in America will and won't take. More

Elderly Americans are increasingly turning to marijuana rather than prescription drugs. More

American Well, one of the most well capitalized health tech companies, and Samsung are partnering to expand their healthcare marketplace. More

IBM's Gini Rometty declared that "cognitive advances" will be the transformative force in healthcare at HIMSS 2017. More

The US government is co-hosting a blockchain hackathon. More

Rural hospital closures are creating a healthcare access void, but the freestanding emergency care model is helping to solve the problem. More

Solving the practical realities of implementation of digital health technologies. More

Can employers take a bigger role in controlling drug costs? More

Policy

Republicans believe deductibles incentivize consumers to reduce spending on unnecessary care, while Democrats believe deductibles can results in lower medication adherence and more ER visits. There is truth to both statements, which is why some have proposed smarter deductibles, which would lower cost sharing for high value services while increasing cost sharing for low value services. For example, there is no reason that eye exams should cost the same for people with diabetes as those without. More These are the benefits that GOP might cut in a revised ACA. 

There has been a massive outpouring into GOP town halls across the country of citizens concerned with losing health coverage under an ACA repeal. More

Data shows the GOP proposal for healthcare would redirect money from poor to the rich. More

Funding News

Pacifica Labs raises seed round for cognitive behavioral health startup. 

Healthcare companies in the Midwest raised $1.7B last year, demonstrating that healthcare companies can be more geography agnostic than other industries. More

Doctor.com raises $5M Series A round led by Spring Mountain Capital.