The scoop on a key Optum team shutting down

Hey Dispensed readers! I wanted to cross-post an especially noteworthy edition of the Endpoints News Health Tech newsletter. We send these out twice a week (plus some bonus breaking-news alerts!), so be sure to subscribe here.

In this edition:

• Shelby Livingston makes her newsletter debut, sharing thoughts on what the FTC noncompete rule will ultimately mean for the industry.
• Ngai Yeung has an important scoop on Optum Virtual Care shutting down.

Read on!

~ Lydia

Hey, it’s Shelby Livingston, the newest member of the Health Tech team. We’re a bit skeptical that the FTC’s noncompete rule will have a dramatic effect on the healthcare industry, at least any time soon.?

A big percentage (45%!) of doctors are subject to noncompetes, which the FTC argues stifle innovation and keep wages down.?

But the ban is already starting to face an onslaught of legal challenges. The day after the FTC issued the final rule, a lawsuit filed in Texas argued that the agency has no authority to institute the ban. Sources told me that to survive, it’ll have to stand up to constitutional challenges.?

“There are a lot of folks that don’t think it can,” Jesse Coleman, co-chair of the healthcare practice at law firm Seyfarth, told me.

Plus, there’s the issue that the FTC doesn’t have jurisdiction over nonprofits, aka most health systems.?

The FTC said it would take its own look at whether an organization fits the nonprofit definition. Kate Rigby, a partner at law firm Epstein Becker Green, said that means if the rule survives — and she doesn’t think it will — we could end up with it being applied in a very patchwork way across the country.

Banning noncompetes could give doctors and other healthcare workers a lot more freedom, but we’re not getting our hopes up.?

- Shelby

Exclusive: Optum is shutting down its virtual care business

UnitedHealth Group’s Optum is shutting down Optum Virtual Care, its pandemic-era bet on telehealth. Ngai Yeung has the scoop here.?

Walgreens will build out specialty pharmacy business, leaning into drug and therapy services

Walgreens said Thursday it’s getting into cell and gene therapy pharmacy services and bringing its specialty pharmacy under a new name as it navigates the future of its business.

Cancer testing company Freenome to lay off 100 employees

Freenome, a maker of blood-based cancer tests, will lay off about 20% of its workforce, a spokesperson for the company told Endpoints News.

Want more? Check out the rest of the newsletter here.