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This Surgeon Isn't Falling Out of Love With Intuitive Surgical Or Its Robots

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 08:00:00 EDT

PITTSBURGH (TheStreet) -- Let me offer you -- the good readers of TheStreet -- some notice. I make money the old fashion way. I cut people open. I work full time as a busy academic urologic oncologist. So why am I here? To rant about why the recent panic over Intuitive Surgical and the safety of its da Vinci surgical robot is likely smoke and mirrors. I will also tell you why I'm bullish on the future of surgical robotics.

In the past few weeks, various media reports and disclosures have hammered Intuitive Surgical. An FDA investigation into the da Vinci robots was disclosed. A negative article regarding outcomes of robotic surgeries for hysterectomies was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Last, a statement raising concerns about the cost, marketing and outcomes of robot surgery was issued by the American College of Gynecologists.

In my view, none of this doom and gloom has changed the optimistic view of robotic surgery or Intuitive Surgical's role in the growing field. Intuitive Surgical bulls should be buying. Bears can short the stock. Do whatever it is you do, my financial peeps, because you never beat the indices any way. ...

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Herbalife Skips a Knockout Blow

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:04:41 EST

Updated to include Bill Ackman comments and late afternoon share prices.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- After weeks of anticipation, Herbalife defended itself against claims made by hedge funder Bill Ackman that the direct seller of nutritional supplements is a pyramid scheme.

Herbalife fired back with data that put the figures and analysis behind Ackman's billion-dollar-plus short trade in question. ...

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Time For Common Sense Gun Control Has Arrived

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 06:30:00 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- This isn't a column about healthcare. This is a column about common sense.

On Friday, a gunman walked into an elementary school in suburban Newtown, Conn. and killed 26 people, including 20 children. To describe this as a tragedy is an unimaginable understatement, and my heart goes out to the victims and their families. For everyone in America, this is yet another wake up call -- the most strident yet -- that the time for strict gun control has arrived.

Before we go any further, I want to address the legion of pro-gun conservatives that reflexively start shrieking about the Second Amendment whenever the topic of gun control arises. This isn't 1791. There is absolutely zero chance that Americans will band together in a privately armed militia to protect the Republic against attack, and the risk-benefit ratio of gun ownership for "self-protection" seems woefully imbalanced. Calm down and let's find a middle ground that keeps our children safer. ...

Cigna CEO Sees Growth in Health Care Exchanges

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:59:50 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet -- What follows is the transcript of an interview of David Cordani, the chief executive officer of Cigna, by TheStreet's Debra Borchardt. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

TheStreet: Cigna is celebrating 30 years of being a listed company and a lot of changes have taken place over that span. Of course, most recently we had the healthcare mandate taking effect. Recently, it was announced the company is going to have some layoffs. Is this the result of the mandate that you can't spend as much on administration or is this more right sizing?

David Cordani: It's a little bit of right sizing, but it's more getting the right skills in place. Over the last three years, we've grown our company by about 50% from a revenue standpoint and about 17% for employees. And looking at 2013, we had the opportunity to right size some of our businesses in Europe, in Turkey, as well as back here in the United States. But we're additionally hiring people and investing on a go-forward basis. So we're continuing to grow, and grow very successfully. ...

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Making Affordable Care Act Patients Profitable

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 10:34:38 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Lindsey Bell: John, the healthcare environment has been tough especially with reimbursement rules that are ever-changing and cost pressures. What are you seeing right now as it relates to those issues, and who is being impacted the most?

John Bardis, CEO, MedAssets: ...

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Nanosphere: A Low-Risk, High-Growth Diagnostic Stock

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 07:13:02 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Many biotech investors believe mistakenly that the only way to make money is to invest in high risk-high reward stocks. Unfortunately, the biotech landscape is littered with failed clinical studies, management promises never kept, and of course, investor hopes destroyed.

Instead, I like to look for companies where the risk is lower. That might mean sacrificing some upside but, overall, the chances for investing successfully are higher.

Here's an example: I purchased Nanosphere after a key FDA approval removed risk from the story. Even after the positive news, most of the potential reward in the stock remains, as long as Nanosphere can execute and convert the FDA approval into meaningful revenue. ...

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Romney, as President, Would Upend Billion-Dollar Insurance Deals

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 09:30:39 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Mitt Romney's campaign pledge to repeal Obamacare would be unhealthy for Aetna.

The health-insurance company said Monday it is paying $5.7 billion to acquire Coventry.

Obamacare, which would make 16 million to 20 million new Americans eligible to enroll in Medicaid, is the growth Aetna is chasing through its deal with Coventry. ...

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Aetna's Coventry Deal Signals 'Obamacare' Consolidation

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 11:41:47 EDT

Updated to include analyst comments and added data throughout.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Obamacare has another major merger, after health care giant Aetna buying Coventry Health Care $42.08 per share, in a deal that values Coventry at $5.7 billion.

The deal, which comes at a near 20% premium to Coventry's Friday closing share price and was announced Monday, is the second major health care sector merger since President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act was narrowly upheld by the Supreme Court in late June. ...

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Goldman Suit Reveals Robust Health Care Deals: Street Whispers

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:45:24 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Although Aetna's newly unveiled $5.7 billion deal for Coventry Health Care is dominating headlines, WellPoint's $4.9 billion July acquisition of Amerigroup and a subsequent lawsuit involving Goldman Sachs may give investors a better sense of the sector's deal heath.

A lawsuit filed by the Louisiana Municipal Police Employees Retirement System (LMPERS) alleges that Goldman Sachs was financially motivated to sell Amerigroup quickly, favoring an expedient deal with WellPoint on July 9 over more lucrative bids that could have fetched shareholders a greater price than the final $92 a share deal, which came at a 43% premium to the trading price.

LMPERS is asking that Delaware court block the deal and re-open Amerigroup's sale process because it alleges Goldman Sachs made it hard for competing bidders to WellPoint to enter deal negotiations. The suit highlights that Goldman Sachs stood to gain up to $233 million from a warrant contract it bought if Amerigroup were sold prior to August 13. ...

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HCA Gives Shareholders Chest Pain: Street Whispers

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 07:46:17 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Investors in HCA have more reasons to flee the stock besides Monday's New York Times report that cardiologists at the private-equity-backed hospital chain may have performed hundreds of unnecessary heart procedures.

After its $4 billion initial public offering, the largest in the U.S. in 2011, HCA is still being run as if it were a private equity investment with much of the spoils going to insiders at the peril of ordinary investors.

The stunning reports of improper medical decisions raised serious questions about the company, causing the shares to gyrate. In second-quarter earnings released Monday, HCA disclosed that the U.S. attorney's office in Miami is looking into cardiology practices at 10 of its hospitals. ...

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Health Care: Obamacare M&A Trumps Weak Earnings Outlook

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 11:08:55 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- As health care sector earnings season begins, a key focus will be on industry consolidation after the Supreme Court's confirmation of the Affordable Care Act. Disappointing near-term revenue and profit trends could take a back seat to optimism about Obamacare leading to mergers and acquisitions.

The nation's top court upheld Obamacare in June, and on July 9 managed care giant WellPoint said it would buy Amerigroup, a managed care specialist focusing on Medicaid and Medicare plans, for $4.9 billion. That deal sparked speculation other sector giants, including Humana, Cigna, Aetna and UnitedHealth, would also look to make acquisitions.

In the least, with a weak earnings outlook for health care providers as they brace for the impact of Obamacare, M&A is expected to be one of two key topics of discussion for CEOs, alongside post-health care reform policy loss ratio estimates. ...

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DaVita Settles Lawsuit for $55 Million

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:50:05 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- DaVita Inc. announced Tuesday it has settled a lawsuit over its use of an anemia medication for $55 million.

Filed 10 years ago in a federal court in Texas, the lawsuit was based on one person's claim that the dialysis service provider overused Epogen, an anemia drug.

In a news release about the settlement, The Denver-based company said it and its physicians did nothing wrong and "stand by" their anemia management practices. ...

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Medicaid HMOs Soar on Obamacare Victory

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:43:33 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Medicaid HMOs were soaring Thursday on the Supreme Court's decision to uphold Obamacare as some 16 million to 20 million new Americans could become eligible to enroll in the government program in 2014.

Shares of Amerigroup were at $66.33, up $3.93 or 6.3%, Molina was at $22.92, up $1.66, or 7.8%, and Centene traded at $31.51, up $1.57, or 5.3%.

...

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ObamaCare Upheld: Health Care Stock Winners and Losers

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 11:38:02 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Despite increasingly dire predictions from virtually all sources, the Supreme Court of the United States today voted 5-to-4 to support President Obama's healthcare reform law, known formally as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Surprisingly to many conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the majority. This is almost exactly in-line with my predictions from few weeks ago and finally removes the uncertainty that has hovered over healthcare for the past few years.

The decision was just announced so these are my first impressions, but I think the ACA ruling is a clear positive for nearly all subsectors of healthcare. Investors, both professional and retail, at last know what the landscape for healthcare will look like over the next decade. The removal of uncertainty, a killer for investor confidence, is critical.

Importantly, the Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate; this provision requires that everyone have health insurance or pay a penalty, which the Court found constitutional under Congressional powers to tax. (Ironically, the Administration had been defending the mandate largely based on the Commerce Clause, which gives the Federal government the ability to regulate interstate commerce.) In upholding Title I of the ACA (which includes the mandate), several related provisions -- such as guaranteed issue, which forbids denial of coverage, and community rating, which limits the premium differential between the healthiest and sickest individuals -- remain law. The profitability limits on managed care companies, known as medical loss ratio (MLR) minimums, also stays put. I think managed care can manage (pun attack!) these changes. ...

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Obamacare Ruling Won't Change Health Care Dealmaking

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:46:53 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold President Obama's Affordable Care Act will have a major and lasting impact on the health care sector. However, the earth-shaking confirmation leaves the need for health care company mergers relatively unchanged.

As investors react to the Supreme Court's decision, they may be wise to spend their time understanding how consistent M&A trends are already consolidating the health care sector, with many deals expected in coming quarters and years. Already, some companies have used recent mergers to position themselves for key earnings opportunities.

"There is a very basic level of consolidation that is taking place," says Marc Cabrera, the head of the healthcare investment banking practice at Morgan Joseph TriArtisan, of widespread healthcare sector M&A efforts. He highlights a consistent drum of mergers among physician practices, hospitals and pharmacy benefits managers as indicative of the needs for companies in the healthcare sector to grow their scale, regardless of the Supreme Court's decision. ...

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