Photo of Eric Klein

Eric Klein is is a partner in the Century City office and Leader of the Healthcare Team.

Will your business have to go through the new Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) reporting regime for material healthcare transactions? What would such a filing involve, and how long would it take to complete the process? Those questions will be among key discussion items addressed in Sheppard Mullin’s upcoming webinar on February 7, 2024, co-sponsored with America’s Physician Groups and Moss Adams LLP. As we have highlighted in our blog series[1] on SB 184 and OHCA throughout the past year, OHCA’s recently finalized cost and market impact review (CMIR) regulations set forth the framework for OHCA’s authority to receive advance notice of and review a large scope of healthcare transactions in the coming months, reflecting a dramatic change to California’s healthcare regulatory landscape moving forward. Please tune in to this important webinar where our knowledgeable presenters will present an overview of the key components and practical considerations surrounding this new law, including:Continue Reading Webinar: New OHCA Rules Requiring Notice and Review of Material Healthcare Transaction

Looking out at the San Francisco skyline from the top floor of the Westin St. Francis on Day 3 of the 42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, the iconic Transamerica pyramid is not too far away. But my mind, being chock-full of value-based care presentations, quickly imagines the building as the shining pyramid of patient segmentation and risk stratification, envisioning the proper way to sort patients for effective intervention and total cost of care reduction. John Kao, CEO of Alignment Healthcare, shared today that only 12% percent of their Medicare Advantage membership accounts for approximately 74% percent of their institutional cost (hospital and facility costs), while conversely their “healthy” membership of 74% accounted for only 5% of their institutional costs. These days, institutional costs and pharmaceutical costs are almost equal, according to the Advisory Board, and together far outweigh professional physician and other provider costs. Therefore, keeping patients out of the hospital and post-acute facilities as medically possible and appropriate and effectively managing medications should result in a large reduction in the total cost of care, right? So, what’s not happening that should be?Continue Reading Day 3 Notes from the 42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

Sustainability of our healthcare system was an interesting topic at Day 2 of the 42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Paul Markovich, CEO of Blue Shield of California, expressed the concern that “[T]he status quo is an existential threat to our healthcare system.” Markovich is worried that the healthcare system is losing the public’s trust – which will make it harder to effectively fix our system – while also not delivering the quality of care and accessibility needed by our population. For example, Christopher Riopelle, CEO of Strive Health, shared today that 42% of U.S. patients whose kidneys fail never have seen a nephologist prior to that catastrophic event, and 90% of kidney disease patients are undiagnosed. For a disease that has a total spend of approximately $420 billion, how is our system missing these patients?Continue Reading Day 2 Notes from the 42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

At the first day of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, “[T]he answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42.” Recognize that famous line? No, it’s not something from ChatGPT, it’s Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy of Healthcare.” Well, not healthcare…for that you have to be here in San Francisco for the 42nd edition of this conference. It was indeed an intriguing day, for even without major announcements, there were very clear signs and portents of our coming year in the healthcare industry.Continue Reading Day 1 Notes from the 42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

At HLTH 2023, we saw a focus on certain themes, including the shift in investments and M&A activity, hospital and health system innovation and transformation, the implementation of AI, and healthcare management. Below are our top 10 takeaways from what we heard, and did not hear, at HLTH 2023.Continue Reading Sheppard Mullin’s Top 10 Takeaways from HLTH 2023

The digital health market, as represented by the HLTH showroom floor, is packed with companies focused on care coordination and care management for various health and wellness specialties, diseases, and chronic conditions, as well as organizations focused on increasing consumer access to various types of healthcare. Despite the growth of data analytics and interoperability, the constellation of companies and points of access are decentralized and disconnected. While the abundance of choice and options enhancing accessibility for healthcare consumers are positive indicators of progress in this space, the lack of holistic care coordination across this fragmented landscape affects patient outcomes, causes patient confusion and decision fatigue, and leads to potential care and resource duplication and waste.Continue Reading At HLTH 2023: The Digital Health Symphony, A Care Coordination Orchestra with No Maestro

At the heart of our healthcare system lies two core, yet competing, philosophies: (1) clinical decisions must not be driven by profit, and (2) dollars drive behavior and, by harnessing this revenue, clinical outcomes can be vastly improved while the costs to the system of unnecessary care can be dramatically reduced. Here at HLTH, venture capital firm General Catalyst announced it is seeking to change that paradigm with the launch of its Health Assurance Transformation Corporation (HATCo), seeking to transform healthcare with global risk arrangements while leveraging data and technology. Continue Reading At HLTH 2023: General Catalyst’s HATCo Introduces a Radically Ambitious and Transformative Model for Healthcare

One of the topics I followed with keen interest this week at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is how our healthcare industry today is addressing the mental health needs of Americans. Like much of the rest of healthcare, it is a mix of exciting innovation, contradictions, siloed approaches and the entrepreneurial Wild West. Pull up your favorite couch or chair, and let’s dive in and take a look together.Continue Reading Day 4 Notes from the 41st Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference