JPM 2024 Day 4: That’s a wrap

Thousands of professionals from the provider, insurance and digital health sectors have arrived in San Francisco for the 2024 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. The 42nd annual conference brings together executives and investors from more than 400 health systems and companies to discuss the industry’s most pressing issues.

Follow coverage from Modern Healthcare reporters here and catch up on any days you missed.

- Day 1

- Day 2

- Day 3

3:30 p.m. - That’s a wrap for JPM 2024

They came, they sat and listened, they ran between event venues, they ate and networked, and now the event that brought executives from more than 400 healthcare companies is over.

Modern Healthcare reporters were there to take it all in and report on the sessions of most interest to our readers. Catch up on who said what for Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 and check back tomorrow for our wrap-up of the important themes that emerged from this year’s event.
 

2:50 p.m. - Accolade expects to turn profitable in next fiscal year

Employee benefits and navigation company Accolade sees opportunities to leverage artificial intelligence and data when offering specific benefit programs to clients.

The company, which went public in 2020, said it has diversified its customer base significantly in recent years. Executives said using physicians virtually, which can help end users navigate complex conditions, helps differentiate the company from competitors.

“What makes us unique in our category is the idea that we embed physicians into our care teams,” said Accolade CEO Rajeev Singh. “We can in turn drive downstream utilization of things like primary care, expert medical opinion, our trusted partners or even in-network utilization.”

Chief Financial Officer Steve Barnes said he expects the company to turn profitable during its next fiscal year, which begins in March.

“We’ve been on a consistent drive toward profitability,” Barnes said. “Next year, fiscal ’25, we expect to be around $500 million in revenue and profitable.”

—Brock E.W. Turner

1:50 p.m. - Clover Health to pocket savings in 2024 after rework, CEO says

Clover Health has enough cash to survive 2024 after a strategic fee-for-service Medicare exit and revamped operations, CEO Andrew Toy said during a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Thursday.

The Medicare Advantage insurtech spent last year reining in medical expenses, refining care management programs and outsourcing insurance operations. The company also exited the Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity Access and Community Health (ACO REACH) model, despite previous work highlighting its participation, after losing $51.7 million in the model in 2022 and coming in as the worst-performing participant.

“We’re no longer focused on original Medicare. There may be a time we return to that but it’s not right now,” Toy said.

The insurer plans to pocket savings from these initiatives this year, Toy said. Clover Health also aims to improve Medicare Advantage star ratings after its scores dropped from 3.5 to three out of five for the 2024 plan year. The loss of bonuses from the program will hurt the carrier’s finances in 2025, he said.

“I’m not making this excuse available to us, but I will say PPOs do worse on star ratings than HMOs and we’re very concentrated on PPOs. The other thing is, the more diverse the population is from a socioeconomic and ethnic standpoint the harder it is to do well on star ratings, and we’re a very diverse plan," Toy said.

Additionally, the insurer will refine its Clover Assistant physician enablement tool and Clover Home Care delivery model this year, he said. The company reported enrolling 3,500 members with chronic conditions in its home-based primary care program and generating average savings of $500 per member per month.

Clover Health aims to eventually sell these services to external payers and providers “once we’re on the other side of profitability,” Toy said.

—Nona Tepper

12 p.m. - Talkspace to focus on Medicare in 2024

Mental telehealth provider Talkspace will put a lot of focus on serving the Medicare population in 2024, CEO Dr. Jon Cohen said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Thursday.

Talkspace, which has built up its network of insurers to cover more than 130 million people since its founding in 2012, is looking to be the first mental telehealth provider to be in-network with Medicare across the country, Cohen said. He said the 65-and-older population has experienced increasing mental health needs since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We will be a Medicare provider for both standard Medicare and Medicare Advantage,” Cohen said. “We will roll it out in all 50 states by the end of 2024.”

Talkspace, which also serves employer and direct-pay customers, is in a favorable financial position, Cohen said. He expects the company to be profitable in the first quarter of this year, which would be for first time in its history.

Over the past year, Talkspace has successfully shifted its focus from the direct-to-consumer to the enterprise market. In the first nine months of 2023, revenue in the enterprise segment rose almost 80% year-over-year while consumer revenue fell more than 40%.

—Gabriel Perna

9 a.m. - Welcome to the final day of JPM!

Welcome to the fourth and final day of JPM! Several insurers and digital health companies will conduct their presentations on day four of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.

Digital health companies such as Talkspace and Accolade, along with insurtech Clover Health, will also present at the conference on Thursday.

The first three days signaled a willingness from some CEOs to look for deals, which could signal a strong year for mergers, acquisitions and partnerships.

For those who missed day three of JPM, here’s our complete coverage. Some highlights include data analytics company Veradigm’s plans to move forward after an executive shakeup last month, Oscar Health’s big jump in membership and GoodRx taking a jab at competitors like Amazon and Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs.

Read more on what's to come at JPM 2024.