Happy Thursday Hospitalogists,
I …think…there’s some other major news happening right about now, but I’m sure you guys would rather be reading Hospitalogy anyway right?
By the way, I wanted to give a shout out to my dad for taking on a new role as CEO at Myocardial Solutions! Connect with him on LinkedIn here, and learn more about how the Myocardial Solutions platform is revolutionizing diagnostic imaging and cardiac care on their website here. He can’t stop talking about it with me on the golf course.
Thanks so much to NeuroFlow and Verifiable for sponsoring today’s send!
SPONSORED BY NEUROFLOW
Did you know 75% of women with perinatal mental health conditions never receive the help they need during pregnancy? On top of that, perinatal mental health conditions are the leading cause of maternal mortality in the U.S.
I have to wonder, what can be done to change these troubling statistics?
NeuroFlow’s upcoming webinar will be covering this topic in detail on June 18th at 2pm ET.
You’ll learn how leading healthcare organizations like Presbyterian and Prudential are proactively identifying and filling gaps in maternal mental health care.
You’ll also hear from experts including Dr. Kristin Tugman, Megan Moore, and Julia Kastner about implementing regular screenings and tailored resources throughout pregnancy.
Secure your spot in this important conversation—details below.
1. Blake’s Breakdown:
Going a bit deeper on an interesting topic, theme, or resource
Most large nonprofit health systems have ‘reported’ their Q1 financial and operating updates for bondholders, investors, and stakeholders, so I thought it’d be worthwhile to do a comparative analysis. How’d the largest for-profit and nonprofit health systems do?
Let’s take a peek at their operating margin (AKA, total operating revenues minus total operating expenses).
The main takeaway below is simple: most large health systems performed better in Q1 2024 when compared to the first quarter of 2023.
Join the thousands of healthcare professionals who read Hospitalogy
Subscribe to get expert analysis on healthcare M&A, strategy, finance, and markets.
No spam. Unsubscribe any time.
And if you’ve followed Hospitalogy writings over the past year, it’s pretty easy to see why: utilization is up, the labor market has stabilized, and dense health system consolidators are staying ahead of the game.
The below graphic is Hospitalogy original analysis (also one of my favorite charts in recent memory I’ve made), and it’s sorted by operating margin % profitability. Any green bar means the system performed better in 2024. Any red bar signifies worse performance than a year ago – troubling.
Several players – including Tenet, Baylor, Mayo, AdventHealth, Providence, and Ascension – saw significant improvement in operating margins between the two periods. Baylor sitting at 8.7% in Q1 is particularly unreal performance. The Dallas-based nonprofit is benefiting from strong Texas markets and strong strategic decision-making within.
(Side note – a full analysis of Q1 2024 health system financial performance will get sent to Board Room community members in the coming weeks, along with sourced links to all financial and operating data in excel. You can join my community here!)

Outside of 5 systems, the majority (75%) of large regional and academic players saw operating margin expansion in the first quarter of 2024.
This data closely aligns and resembles Kaufman Hall’s Hospital Flash Reports for the first quarter as well:

The remainder of 2024 sets up well for healthcare services, though the waters are muddy beyond this year given an uptick in payor-provider disputes
2. What’s Trending:
Social discourse and conversations from around healthcare
Scott Hickle’s Supersize me re-up in honor of their new startup Throne has me in my feels about Super Size Me given the recent news.
I’m super engaged / interested in why Scott is doing it and what Throne is building – a smart toilet for the masses tracking bowel movements and other key metabolic functions on a daily basis.
Here’s the announcement Tweet. Follow his journey here!

South Park recently did an incredible takedown of navigating the American healthcare system. So it’s a bit crude of course, but well worth the watch for a laugh: “The medical director’s job is to just say no.” Link to Youtube here.
3. Community Update
The latest from inside my community of healthcare thinkers
After launching the community HUB this week, I’m hard at work on some health system analysis. Over the past month, we’ve launched the new HUB for members, onboarded several fantastic, thoughtful individuals, and I’ve shared exclusive content on a number of trends including ambient documentation, original analysis on hospital financial information, and more.
Dollars and Deals
Finance and M&A updates
- Centivo acquires a primary care startup, despite others fleeing the space.
- Eli Lilly pumps $5.3B more into a site for making metabolic meds Zepbound and Mounjaro.
- Cano Health wins creditor support to cut debt and exit bankruptcy.
- Walgreens Boots Alliance sells shares of Cencora for $400 million.
- P3 Health Partners Inc. announces approximately $42.2 million private placement.
- Samaritan Health Services announces Forward Together, an initiative for improving community health.
- Merritt Healthcare Advisors serves as exclusive advisor to BASSS Surgery Center in majority sale to United Surgical Partners International.
- Apex Physics Partners (APP) deepens its national footprint with a new partnership in Ohio.
- McGuireWoods shares key takeaways from the 2024 Healthcare Private Equity and Finance Conference.
- McKinsey releases the Global Private Markets Review 2024, focusing on private markets in a slower era.
- BrightSpring Health Services announces recently closed acquisitions in multiple markets.
- CLS Health announces a merger with Cardiac Rhythm Center.
- Quarterly Healthcare Transactions Review unveils the latest industry mergers and acquisitions for Q1 2024.
- Addus HomeCare announces a definitive agreement to divest operations in New York.
Venture Spotlight
Notable Startups and Fundings
- Allez Health announces a $60 million capital raise.
- Boulder Care lifts $35M for virtual addiction treatment.
- Atropos Health raises $33M for its real-world data platform.
- Expressable secures $26M for its virtual speech therapy platform.
- StrokeDx raises an oversubscribed $5 Million Seed Prime round to advance next-generation stroke technology.
- Superpower raises $4M Pre-Seed to launch its preventative healthcare platform.
- TadHealth announces a $1.6M round of funding to expand mental health services in schools.
- Beamtree inks a $2M AI deal to enhance private Saudi hospital’s clinical data.
- Thyme Care closes a strategic investment from Echo Health Ventures and CVS Health Ventures to scale its value-based cancer care model. These firms were part of its previously announced Series B.
- Google’s Med-Gemini is highlighted in an article that discusses its surpassing of industry standards in healthcare AI models, notably surpassing GPT-4.
Startup of the Week: Binto
Welcome to the Hospitalogy Startup Spotlight! Thanks to those of you who have submitted your startup so far. As these trickle in, I want to present health tech startups in a transparent way, so we can better understand the ecosystem and what your startup does. Submit your startup here.
What problem in healthcare are you trying to solve? Overwhelming and lack of access in fertility care
As simply as possible: What does your startup do? How are you solving the problem? We provide personalized supplements curated to fit each individuals needs based on where they are alongside access to licensed providers to help answer questions and guide them through their health journey.
How do you make money? Primary DTC products
How much revenue are you generating? $2M
What makes your solution / offering / platform different from competitors? Not just a product (we have people you can access with it trained in women’s health/reproduction) and we personalize into daily kits while specializing in women’s health
If you’ve raised money, what was your latest funding round $ and valuation?
Are there any interesting resources, articles, or research to learn more about the space your startup operates in? This area is only going to grow with continuing evidence that fertility is decreasing both nation-wide and globally. Reproductive rights continue to be forefront in the minds of people daily impacting their daily decisions.
SPONSORED BY VERIFIABLE
Struggling with lengthy credentialing processes?
Verifiable is here to change that.
With the industry taking an average of 120-160 days to credential new providers and physician practices spending $2.7 billion annually on updating provider directories, the need for efficiency is loud and clear.
Verifiable streamlines this cumbersome process with its efficient automation platform and offers expert consulting on NCQA compliance.
This powerful combination helps provider organizations enroll with health plans much quicker, reducing wait times and operational costs.
Let Verifiable expedite your credentialing process—because faster credentialing means faster care delivery.
Thanks for reading! Subscribe to Hospitalogy, my newsletter breaking down healthcare finance, M&A, and strategy twice weekly. Join 32,000+ executives and investors from leading healthcare organizations by subscribing here!
