Weekly Health Tech Reads 8/9/26

Hinge continued its tear as a public company in its Q2 earnings this week, evidenced by its ~112% stock increase since its IPO last year. It currently sports a ~$6.5 billion market cap, putting all the consternation around its IPO valuation in the rearview mirror. It has clearly nailed the employer go-to-market motion and is reaping the benefits of that at the moment. The major focus of this call was Hinge’s acquisition of Cylinder, a virtual wraparound model for GI care formerly known as Vivante Health. Hinge acquired Cylinder for $105 million in cash, representing a ~4.7x revenue multiple on Cylinder's expected $20 million to $25 million in revenue this year. Listening to the earnings call, it’s not hard to see the appeal Hinge sees in selling Cylinder into employers. Hinge appears to have a very good handle on how it can grow revenue both via cross-selling opportunities and by applying its know-how to increase employee yield for Cylinder. Couple that with the presumed revenue multiple expansion Hinge will see on Cylinder revenue — as Hinge currently trades at 2026 revenue multiple ~6.9x — and it seems like there’s a pretty clear near-term path to success here.

All of that said, I made the case on Slack this week why I don’t love this decision strategically for Hinge, as it seems to push Hinge down a path of trying to build a digital health platform for employers and away from being a best-in-class MSK provider, a route I’d much prefer it take strategically. PHTI’s report on the GI market earlier this year highlights this, pointing to a relative lack of clinical data supporting wrap-around solutions like Cylinder. If Hinge is selling a best-in-class clinical model, it doesn’t feel like Cylinder would have been the decision here. Instead, this move feels predicated on a short term employer go-to-market opportunity. This is reminiscent of the challenges we’ve seen employer-focused digital health models, like Livongo, run into previously — i.e. winning on go-to-market strategy works, until it doesn’t. And once it doesn’t, it’s unclear what durable asset remains, if any.

At Hinge’s investor day earlier this summer, Hinge articulated a growth strategy centered on expanding its virtual and in-person capabilities as an MSK platform into adjacent markets such as Medicare and Medicaid. Here’s the slide articulating that play:

I find it odd to see this move so quickly after that investor day, as it seems to deprioritize that strategy in favor of expanding into other verticals with employers. Personally, I would have much rather seen Hinge continue to focus on building out best-in-class MSK capabilities and perhaps expand into GI or other conditions by acquiring other best-in-class clinical models, not wraparound solutions. While that seems like a higher-degree-of-difficulty move in the short term, it also seems like one that would have more durable strategic value in the long term, positioning Hinge as an aggregator of a next-gen national virtual-first health system.

Certainly, Hinge leadership has demonstrated an exceptional ability to manage the public markets over the past year, and I’ll be watching how this plan comes together. But if I were in those corp dev meetings, I’d have been pushing hard to go in another direction for M&A, i.e., going deeper in the MSK market.

CVS shares fell after earnings, even after beating Q2 expectations, as it signaled cautionary headwinds for 2027 in the 340B business and membership declines in Caremark. CVS announced an interesting partnership with Eli Lilly, offering cash-pay GLP-1s at MinuteClinics.

Doximity’s AI strategy appears to be gaining momentum, as it compared itself multiple times to Anthropic overtaking OpenAI, leaving it to the imagination which company might be playing the role of OpenAI in this specific race. AI Search is still in its early days, but Doximity is clearly excited by the interest, both from providers using the tool and from pharma executives looking to spend ad dollars.

Oscar Health raised its FY 2026 outlook on solid performance in the core ACA business. The ICHRA narrative still feels very theoretical — Oscar does a nice job detailing the conceptual appeal, but it also still feels very early as a market. It will be interesting to hear how Oscar articulates its growth strategy at its upcoming Investor Day in September.

Clover follows a similar narrative to Oscar; its core insurance business is performing well, as evidenced by increased 2026 guidance across all metrics. Clover discussed the Stars tailwind and cohort maturation as two key points that will drive profitability ahead. It expects to grow in 2027 while also expanding profitability. At the same time, it provided no commercial update on Counterpart, aside from noting that it is making investments in go-to-market capabilities, which seems telling.

agilon posted a solid quarter, although its stock went on a roller coaster this week before ending up roughly flat for the week. After massive losses in 2025, it has swung back to a profit this year, posting $14 million in net income in Q2, compared with a $104 million net loss last year. agilon raised guidance for the year, as it noted it is both seeing a moderation in medical cost trend and also is getting back to operational execution basics.

Omada beat estimates and raised its full-year outlook on strong momentum, while founding CEO Sean Duffy announced a move to the executive chairman role.

Privia delivered another very Privia-like quarter, with solid execution in its core business. Value-based care continues to grow slowly in emphasis here. Its stock dropped ~20% after earnings, seemingly partially due to CMS shared savings payment timing, before mostly recovering to end the week.

Health Catalyst stock again plummeted 25% on Friday as it adjusted guidance downwards following the sale of VitalWare, its RCM platform, which nearly halved HCAT’s EBITDA guidance for the year.

Pearl Health, 8/12 @ 3:30pm ET

Ennoble Care, 8/13 @ 2pm ET