Mutton Busting

July 20, 2018

Common at rodeo “halftime” shows, mutton busting is where a sheep is held still, either in a small chute or by an adult handler while a child is placed on top in a riding position. Once the child is seated atop the sheep, the sheep is released and usually starts to run in an attempt to get the child off. The vast majority of children participating in the event fall off in fewer than 8 seconds. Age, height and weight restrictions on participants generally prevent injuries to the sheep – and presumably the children’s parents sign lengthy waivers.  As always, thank you, Wikipedia.

While we don’t have a rich history of mutton busting here at Nephron, newsflow in healthcare services HAS more recently given us ample opportunities to hold on for dear life or just give up and fall off.  Percher offered the “prologue” to an analysis of the mechanisms via which the Trump administration  could  reform or remove the safe harbor for  pharmaceutical  rebates (and its resultant effects on the supply chain).  UNH led us off this week and team Raskin responded with three well-read notes from first takes through post-call follow ups.  Maybe more pointedly, we wanted to highlight a more in-depth piece on the Medicaid MLTSS opportunity.  More specifically that one of the most important trends in Medicaid Managed Care surrounds the movement of LTSS into managed care and we don’t think investors are paying enough attention to this  trend.

And while our events don’t require participants to wear chaps, we’ve managed to differentiate ourselves in other ways like pulling together thought leaders and innovators currently changing the healthcare services landscape.  Following up on last week’s Transformative Effects of Retail Health Symposium, the team  put together an excellent summary of takeaways including notable quotes.  A good example was Nick Desai from Heal.com who, while illustrating the changes in healthcare delivery systems, purported that his children will never learn to drive because cars will be autonomous. In the face of some doubt, he replied “I never learned to ride a horse.”  info@nephronresearch.com for more.