Hope you all had a great first week of March.I’ve been enjoying the longer hours of sunshine and some of the 60-degree days here in Denver.
To start this week, I wanted to let you know we’re hiring for two new roles on the healthcare team! We’re looking to add another digital health reporter and another healthcare editor. You’d be working with me, editor Zach Tracer, and the rest of the fabulous team we have here at Insider. Interested in learning more? Let’s talk!
(What I got out of reading this post is that I shouldn’t write off the J&J shot just yet.) I’m still looking forward to one day getting a shot – any shot.
In all, despite coronavirus cases plateauing at a lower level over the last week, there’s still reason to be optimistic about this summer, Andrew, Hilary, Aria Bendix, and Patricia Kelly Yeo report.
Oscar’s debut was a departure from 2020’s string of digital health initial public offerings, in which companies like Amwell, Oak. Street Health, and GoodRx all popped.
I’ll be curious to see what awaits Alignment Healthcare, a Medicare Advantage startup with more members than Clover Health. Clover, a rival in the Medicare Advantage health insurance market, went public via SPAC in January. It’s been in the hot seat after a short-seller report, and is currently trading down off where it debuted.
And we got one of our first digital health unicorns of 2021 after DispatchHealth raised $200 million at a $1.7 billion valuation.
Megan Hernbroth and Blake Dodge got a copy of the (super short) presentation Dispatch used to raise the latest round for its vision of doing hospital-level care at home.
Thoughts on reaching a year of lockdowns, tips on news we missed back in March 2020 when every story idea that wasn’t coronavirus-related got tabled? Questions about the jobs we have open?
Oscar Health fell as much as 9% in its IPO trading debut on Wednesday, giving it a valuation of about $9 billion.
Oscar had priced its IPO at $39 per share, selling 37 million shares $1 higher than its previously targeted offering range of $36-$38. Oscar had originally planned to sell 31 million shares at a price between $32-$34 in its initial IPO filings. The firm raised $1.4 billion in proceeds from the offering.
Shares of Oscar traded down $3.51 to $35.48 in its opening trade.
The company utilizes a technology platform to offer individual, family, and Medicare Advantage health insurance plans for more than 500,000 members. The platform offers several telemedicine services and more transparent billing information.
Oscar trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “OSCR.”
The decline in Oscar shares comes amid broader weakness in the stock market, as investor excitement towards an economic reopening and a sharp rise in interest rates has helped fuel a rally in cyclical stocks at the expense of higher-growth stocks in the technology and healthcare sectors.
Oscar is based in New York and was founded in 2012 by co-founder Joshua Kushner, the brother of former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House advisor Jared Kushner, along with CEO Mario Schlosser and Kevin Nazemi.
Some early investors in Oscar include Alphabet, Fidelity, and Khosla Ventures, among others. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Allen & Co. helped bring Oscar Health public.
Oscar Health is set to make its stock-market debut on Wednesday after pricing its initial public offering on Tuesday night. The company is selling more than 37 million shares at $39 apiece, raising $1.4 billion. That values Oscar at $9.7 billion ahead of trading.
