JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF Health

Matthew Holt classifies the triple merger between Cricket Health, Fresenius Health Partners and InterWell Health as a “merger takeover” — proposing that Fresenius orchestrated the deal to “acquire” rising kidney care startup Cricket Health. Well, Bobby Sepucha, CEO of Cricket Health (who will also be CEO of the newly merged entity), is “disputing” the health tech nerd’s “kill” call, and we find out why.

Listen to Bobby explain that Fresenius is ditching its value-based care arm, Fresenius Health Partners, and a joint venture with InterWell Health’s 600 nephrologists, which sounds like a shrewd move to better Positioning their core dialysis business towards the future of value-based care leading directly to specialty medicine.

As Bobby puts it, “When you’re providing a healthier patient to a kidney failure patient, you don’t rule out the need for dialysis.” Instead, he says, you can help in the process for other treatments like transplant or home dialysis as well as Patient quality outcome offering options that meet the provider’s clinical responsibilities in a value-based arrangement.

Another gain is that Fresenius moved upstream. Despite 600,000 dialysis patients each year, the US population of 36 million with end-stage kidney disease remains “severely out of control.” They represent $170 billion in healthcare costs. If InterWell works the way it should—the first value-based care design model for end-stage renal disease management—the potential to impact patient populations is what this merger is all about. Tune in and tell us what you think!