Shunned by in­sur­ers, dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics star­tups look for oth­er ways to get paid

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The promise of us­ing apps to treat dis­eases took a big hit in 2023 af­ter its poster child went bust.

Pear Ther­a­peu­tics, the first start­up to get FDA clear­ance for a pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic, filed for bank­rupt­cy in April and sold off its soft­ware bare­ly over a year af­ter it went pub­lic in a SPAC deal worth $1.6 bil­lion. The decade-old com­pa­ny had strug­gled to get in­sur­ers to cov­er its treat­ments.

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