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Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

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Monday, May 7 2018

Full Issue

A Veritable Who's-Who Of High-Profile Investors Lost Big In Theranos Debacle

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose family invested $100 million in the blood-testing start-up, is just one of the well-known investors that took a chance on what was touted as a Silicon Valley fairy tale.

A who鈥檚 who of government, business and international finance lost a total of more than $600 million they had invested in scandal-plagued聽Theranos聽Inc., according to previously sealed documents made public in a lawsuit. High on the list is Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose family invested $100 million in the Silicon Valley blood-testing company, the documents show. Mrs. DeVos had previously disclosed that her family was a聽Theranos聽investor in a government filing, but the size of the investment wasn鈥檛 known. (Carreyrou, 5/3)

The company became a Silicon Valley fairy tale, with investors awarding the privately held company a valuation of around $9 billion. But the story began to unravel in October 2015 after The Wall Street Journal, owned by Mr. Murdoch鈥檚 News Corp., began questioning whether the tests worked. Theranos became the subject of federal investigations into its testing and claims of proprietary technology, which were called 鈥渘anotainers.鈥 Much of the time the company had to resort to using conventional blood testing methods, unable to get federal approval for any test but one for Herpes. Theranos and its founder also became embroiled in a series of lawsuits, involving investors as well as one of its key partners, Walgreens, a large drugstore chain, where it offered its tests. The company reached a settlement with Walgreens last August. (Abelson and Thomas, 5/4)

In other health industry news聽鈥

TriHealth asked its vice president of finance to shadow executives at an affiliated health system. Sending a senior executive off-site to expand his perspective was part of the Cincinnati-based health system's leadership institute, which aims to develop the skills of some 1,000 administrative and physician executives and prepare them for new roles. While many executives move around within their organization's network, the approach aimed to expose the employee鈥攚ho had spent much of his career at TriHealth鈥攖o another corporate culture and operations. (Kacik, 5/5)

Hospital giant Partners HealthCare, looking to fortify its position in the rapidly changing health care market, is in potential merger negotiations with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, one of the state鈥檚 largest medical insurers. ... Any deal is likely to face scrutiny in a state where policy makers and consumer groups are focused on controlling medical costs. (Dayal McCluskey, 5/4)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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