In yesterday's Endpoints News Health Tech newsletter, I spent some time reflecting on nearly a decade of covering retailers' health ambitions: reports.endpts.com/107e23d7/0f640…

CVS Health is getting pummeled by the very strategy it once staked its future on - selling Medicare plans through Aetna. Its stock dropped 17% this morning after reporting higher medical costs.

endpts.com/cvs-is-getting…

Here's what you need to know about this morning's hearings, from Shelby Livingston w/Lia DeGroot

!!! We finally got clarity on how many doctors UnitedHealth actually employs. CEO Andrew Witty just told Senate Finance Committee that United employs fewer than 10,000 doctors. That's way less than the 90k that gets thrown around frequently.

It's been a tough ~month in retail health:
- Walgreens reported a $5.8B charge related to VillageMD
endpts.com/walgreens-repo…
- In April, Optum Virtual Care told staff it's closing (Ngai Yeung scooped)
endpts.com/optum-is-shutt…
- Now Walmart's closing clinics: endpts.com/walmart-exits-…

By early 2021, it was clear that Walmart's latest health clinic push was faltering, as Blake Dodge and Shelby Livingston reported. An ambitious plan to spend billions to build out 4,000 clinics was massively scaled back businessinsider.com/walmart-slowin…

For context, this was Walmart's 3rd effort to build out health clinics, stretching back to 2007. Sean Slovenski laid out the initial ambitions for this latest effort in fall 2019: businessinsider.com/sean-slovenski…

Walmart is getting out of the live/virtual care biz. Not a shock (they never really figured out a committed strategy here) and the move follows Optum's exit from virtual care and Walgreens pullback from clinics.

More coming from Shelby Livingston

endpts.com/walmart-exits-…

Closing out the week with Shelby Livingston first Endpoints News byline!

Digs into some Humira biosimilar news from Cigna on the heels of a CVS decision that majorly boosted biosimilar usage starting earlier this month endpts.com/cignas-evernor…

Today's Endpoints News Health Tech newsletter just hit inboxes!

Inside:
- Ngai Yeung's scoop on Optum Virtual Care shutting down (icymi)
- Shelby Livingston digs into the FTC noncompete's rule
+ I dig into Walgreens' specialty pharmacy play

reports.endpts.com/107e23d7/9f843…

scoop: Optum is shutting down its virtual care business, raising questions about how UnitedHealth Group is thinking about its virtual strategy. Some employees were told that their last date will be in July.

endpts.com/optum-is-shutt…

.Shelby Livingston hired by Endpoints News: talkingbiznews.com/media-news/end…

📢 A very warm Endpoints welcome to Shelby Livingston -- we're thrilled she's going to be joining our #healthtech team!

I can't tell you how excited I am to be working with Shelby Livingston again!

Be sure to subscribe to our twice-weekly Health Tech newsletter to catch all of Shelby's scoops, analysis and insight into the healthcare industry: endpts.com/subscribe/

So so excited for Zachary Tracer + STAT !!!

Consumer genetics companies are keeping Ngai Yeung busy this week!
- (icymi): Ancestry cut 6% of its staff
- CEO Anne Wojcicki filed a plan to take 23andMe private

endpts.com/ancestry-cut-6…

endpts.com/23andmes-ceo-f…

scoop: Ancestry, which Blackstone bought in 2020 for $4.7 billion, cut around 6% of its workers as it struggles to grow subscriber revenue. It’s the genealogy giant’s fourth round of layoffs in four years as consumer interest in the space wanes.

endpts.com/ancestry-cut-6…

Scoop: Genealogy giant Ancestry laid off staff in March, Ngai Yeung reports.

It's the fourth round of layoffs for the company since 2020, Ngai found.

Read more about the latest round + a previously unreported round of 2023 layoffs on Endpoints News endpts.com/ancestry-cut-6…