Virta is available this month to all Blue Shield of California members enrolled in preferred provider organization plans for individual and family, fully insured, self funded and Medicare Advantage. The payer has been working with Virta since 2019 when the digital health company joined Blue Shield of California’s Wellvolution, a platform of digital lifestyle apps.
Omada got funds from two new investors - Fidelity Management & Research Company and aMoon as well as existing ones. Verily's Onduo is bringing its virtual diabetes management platform to an integrated care delivery and health plan that has 6 million members in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, and New York.
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
"We realized that that the old way of doing things - which was identifying a single point solution and putting that out to members - wasn't going to work," said Bryce Williams, Blue Shield of California's vice president of lifestyle medicine.
Prior to founding health benefits platform Jiff (which was acquired by Castlight in 2017), Newell worked for years in the remote care monitoring and chronic disease management space.
In 2018 alone, ten companies have inked mega-deals of more than $100 million including Livongo, 23andMe and American Well.
Virta added new investors with the Series B round, including Founders Fund and Playground Global.
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Virta Health's approach is designed to help patients lower their hemoglobin A1c levels and reduce or eliminate prescription medications. The goal is to reverse the effects of Type 2 diabetes, and cure it.