These upcoming ABL Round Tables will be held via ZOOM to ensure Social Distancing for our Members. See your Round Table invitation for participation instructions, and the ABL.org Members Only website for all the Healthcare Round Table invitation specifics.


• 8/11 - ABL-Health SV Zoom Table
• 8/12 - ABL-Health SF Zoom Table
• 8/20 - ABL-Health OAK Zoom Table
• 8/21 - ABL-Health LA Zoom Table
• 9/02 - ABL-Health OC Zoom Table
• Explore Membership in ABL's Executive Round Tables >>>

myKaarma, where ABL-Tech Member Ujj Nath is CEO, is looking for a dynamic leader to be their new VP of Finance. This is a freshly created position, spurred by the growth of the company, which involves oversight into Finance, Accounting, and Legal, while working closely with the CEO and Executive Team to implement cost savings and process efficiency. myKaarma is a Toyota Production System (Lean) shop and uses lean principles to kaizen and improve continuously. Lean experience would be a huge bonus, but if the candidate shows promise, myKaarma holds regular lean classes for their employees and this person would be expected to embrace lean principles of operation.

myKaarma is looking for an ambitious and systematic thinker, while it also values creativity and problem solving immensely. If you feel you know someone who is an "up and comer" or is already there, please refer the person to [email protected]. The detailed job description can be found here.

• Tech Members Speak Out About COVID
• Eckert & Ziegler Increases Stake in Myelo Therapeutics
• The Joy Factory Offers Healthcare-Grade Antimicrobial Case for iPad

COVID NEWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

• Decline in California's COVID Cases May Be a Technical Glitch
• Fauci Optimistic COVID-19 Vaccine Will Be Widely Available
• Debate Begins Over Who's First in Line for COVID-19 Vaccine
• Pennsylvania Uses "Weighted Lottery" to Distribute Remdesivir in Favor of Low-Income Patients; South Carolina Doc Says They Will Also Use a Similar System if Faced with Shortages
• COVID-19 Vaccine Generates Immune Response, Well Tolerated
• Meanwhile, COVID Vaccine Trials Must Weigh Effects on Both Men & Women, Researchers Say
• NIH's RADx Program Awards Support to Mammoth Bioscience & Helix for Covid-19 Tests
• Some COVID Patients Require Lengthy, Very Costly ICU Stays
• JetBlue Deploys UV Cleaning Robot From LA Startup in COVID-19 Fight

HEALTHCARE & GOVERNMENT

• Administration Proposes to Expand Telehealth Benefits Permanently for Medicare Beneficiaries
• CMS Proposes Policies to Provide Seniors with More Choices & Lower Costs for Surgeries
• CMS Updates Medicare Payment Policies for Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities

HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY TRENDS

• 5 Traits of Companies Succeeding During COVID
• Humana Partners with Heal, Invests $100 Million in Doc-On-Demand Service
• Teladoc and Livongo Merge into $37 Billion Remote-Health Company
• Clover Health Expands Coverage to 8 States and Triples Its Footprint
• Healthcare Companies Sema4 and Ro Achieve $1+ Billion Valuations
• CVS Adds Another Big Health Product to Its Point Solutions Management Program
• New Telemedicine Service Rolls Out At-Home Hormone Test to Predict Menopause

Anthem Blue Cross has announced the launch of a comprehensive, member-focused open enrollment option for Voluntary products during a time of limited face-to-face meetings. Dedicated Voluntary virtual support tools are now available to help employers and brokers customize and coordinate enrollment in Voluntary products through new no-contact options as more employees are working remotely. (David Pryor, MD, LA)

Russell Zukin, CEO, shares that his company has recently re-branded itself as April Health, which is now the parent company of Alphascript, a specialty pharmacy licensed to serve patients throughout the U.S., Hoover Pharmacy (previously called Medical Plaza Pharmacy), and Duet Pharmacy - both retail pharmacies serving patients in the Bay Area. (Rus Zukin, SV)

A recent San Francisco Business Times article - Taking biotech partnering to the next level to advance patient care - spotlights the Bayer CoLaborator, part of a global network of incubator labs for emerging life sciences companies, and part of Bayer's Open Innovation Center - North America West in San Francisco's Mission Bay. The larger of Bayer's two U.S.-based incubators, the CoLaborator at Mission has housed 18 companies, seven of which have entered into partnerships with Bayer. In fact, 90% percent have alliances with pharma, biotech, or academic partners. Also featured is Bayer's Cell Culture Technology Center, under construction in Berkeley, which will support late-stage clinical trials and launch emerging therapies with an emphasis in oncology, cardiology, and specialty care therapeutics. (Rama Penta, SV)

Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency, features Biospectal as a success story in fostering innovation through Swiss technology - in this video profile, which highlights the unique opportunity Biospectal is pursuing in partnership with the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology, to use software-only, cuffless blood pressure monitoring and management in smartphones to scale hypertension management globally. Also, Biospectal was recently honored to be one of only seven Swiss companies to make a presentation at the Swiss Medtech Jury Hearing in late July. (Eliott Jones, SV)

In this video, Linda Trowbridge, CEO of Center for Elders Independence (CEI), talks about how CEI continues to serve elders while responding as a healthcare and social services provider during the COVID-19 pandemic. CEI's services, including day center and clinic, continue to be provided based on patient need, while home care services are increasing and expanding into new ways to provide social services virtually. (Linda Trowbridge, OAK)

Every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month, at 11:30 a.m., Choice in Aging hosts a Facebook Live series, titled "Dishing with Debbie," in which CEO Debbie Toth talks, sometimes with a guest, about relevant topics. Recent topics include: COVID-19 Aging and Racial Inequity Intersectionality; COVID Spikes & What Contra Costa County is Doing; and Your Advocacy - An Inside Look at What it Accomplishes in Our Capitol. (Debbie Toth, OAK)

Covered California has announced a record-low insurance premium rate change for the second consecutive year. The preliminary average rate change for California's individual market is 0.6% for the upcoming 2021 plan year, which is the lowest mark since the launch of the Affordable Care Act and follows a rate change of only 0.8% in 2020. Also, CoveredCA has extended the current special-enrollment deadline until the end of August, for consumers to sign up for healthcare coverage. Overall, 298,600 people have signed up for coverage since Jan. 31 (when CoveredCA ended its open-enrollment period) through July 25, which is nearly twice as many as seen during the same time period last year. (Kathy Keeshen, JD, SF)

Elemeno Health was selected from 1,600+ submissions as an official Base of the Future - Challenge Showcase Selection at the recent AFWERX innovation program from the U.S. Air Force. This year's event, held online, brought together industry, individuals, academia, investors, military, and government team members to present innovative solutions for Air Force areas of interest and facilitate an environment of connection and collaboration. (Arup Roy-Burman, MD, OAK)

HumanGood has received a $50,000 grant from the Ben B. Cheney Foundation to support its Healthy Living Program at Harbor View Manor, an affordable housing community for low-income seniors in Tacoma, WA. Payable over two years beginning in 2021, grant funds will help support the cost of a licensed therapist/case manager from Comprehensive Life Resources, as well as provide staff training to strengthen crisis intervention skills in support of residents who experience an event that produces emotional, mental, physical, or behavioral stress. (Tara McGuinness, OAK)

Kaiser Permanente hospitals are among the best in the nation for delivering high-quality care, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2020-21 Best Hospitals rankings. 32 KP hospitals are "high performing" for one or more measures, including treatment for congestive heart failure and COPD, and knee/hip replacement surgeries. High performers are based on evaluation of 4,500+ medical centers and designate the top 10% of hospitals nationwide.

Also, KP has announced a series of actions - including $60 million in joint investments and $40 million in grant funding - to address systemic racism and lack of economic opportunities that have persisted for far too long and prevented communities of color from achieving total health. And, KP has earned a top-ranking score of 100% on the Disability Equality Index and named a Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion for the fourth consecutive year. (Marcos Vasconcelos, OAK)

Marcia Augsburger, Partner at King & Spalding, is quoted in a recent Report on Medicare Compliance article - With Telehealth on OIG Work Plan, Beware Pitfalls; CMS Proposes HHA Telehealth Past PHE. Excerpts include: Although CMS "did more in two weeks to increase reimbursement for telehealth than it did in 29 years" because of the pandemic, this proposal for a permanent change may result in a big reimbursement cut to home health agencies, Marcia Augsburger said. "Redoing the plan of care to incorporate telehealth visits may give physicians some additional reimbursement - $50-$112 per month depending on various factors - and if those physicians add telehealth visits to the plan of care, the home health agency that must perform those services will not receive additional reimbursement for them because these agencies are paid a fixed sum per patient based on the number of in-person visits," she said.

Marcia hopes CMS is bolder in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule regulation, although in the past CMS has said its hands are somewhat tied by the statutory originating site requirement, which only Congress can remove for good. (Marcia Augsburger, JD, SF; Travis Jackson, JD)

Global Construction Review's recent article - Skanska deploys worker-proximity tracing system at Los Angeles hospital project - describes how Skanska USA is using an electronic tagging system to keep workers 6 feet apart at the $188 million Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center building project, a KMD Architects project. The system also logs the amount of time people were closer than 6 feet apart, meaning it can be a retroactive contact-tracing system should a worker test positive for Covid-19. The hospital project team is the first in LA to deploy this technology on an active jobsite, and "as a result, rather than closing down an entire project or quarantining a large portion of workers due to a single positive Covid-19 case, the Proximity Tracker identifies a small subsect of the 150-person onsite team to potentially be affected." (Rob Matthew, SF)

LigoLab recently surveyed laboratory decision-makers from across the country, asking them to rate their current lab report and distribution plans. Complete survey results are available here. Excerpts include: 48.1% are "Satisfied but room for improvement" with their current plan; and 77.8% consider "Personalization and saved preferences" the most valuable of lab report features. LigoLab also asked how much does your lab annually spend on report customization, and the results ranged from $15k to nothing for those labs that have highly configurable systems that allow users to create and manage all the components themselves. (Suren Avunjian, LA)

On August 10-11, Mazzetti-founded Sextant Foundation will hold an online workshop - Reimagining Racial Justice in Healthcare - that will explore how we might ensure that healthcare design and practice is attentive to the race-related challenges faced by clinicians, community health professionals, and their communities in order to promote racial justice in healthcare outcomes. The workshops provide a platform for participants to convene in small groups, practice human-centered design and reimagine healthcare facilities, as well as a community to move those ideas forward. (Walt Vernon, JD, SF)

Harry Nelson, Partner in Nelson Hardiman (NH), was recently interviewed on KTLA5 news about the process and status of fast-tracking FDA-approved vaccines for COVID-19. Meanwhile, NH published these recent Client Alerts:
> Realistic Planning Timeline for Return to Normality: When will vaccines and drugs get here?;
> FDA and OCR Issue Guidance to Help Providers Harness the Potential of Recovered COVID-19 Patients; and
> FDA Extends Enforcement Discretion Policy for Certain Regenerative Medicine Products. (Harry Nelson, JD, LA)

OneLegacy recently announced that it is on pace for a 15% increase in organ donations over last year's record-setting numbers, despite the upheaval that COVID-19 continues to cause to the nation's healthcare system. In 2019, OneLegacy recovered a record number of 557 organ donors that resulted in the transplant of 1,619 organs. Overall, OneLegacy's track record and growth in lifesaving organ donation has resulted in its deceased donor transplant rate currently being higher than any country in the world outside the U.S. These numbers are achieved despite OneLegacy serving a young and healthy community (greater Southern California region) whose donor potential, as measured by community death rates, is only 75% of the U.S. average. (Tom Mone, LA)

Pulse Healthcare Marketing client Bone Index Ltd., a healthcare diagnostics company with hand-held osteoporosis diagnostics technology, recently announced that it will launch the world's first science-based, personalized fracture prevention program, Bindex Total Bone Health in the U.S. The key objective of the program is to prevent the most significant risk factor of osteoporotic bone fracture - the first fracture. (Robin Raff, SF)

Santa Cruz Surgery Center has partnered with ARCpointLabs to readily offer COVID-19 testing to the Center's non-symptomatic employees and physicians to ensure they remain healthy to care for the community. The Surgery Center's doors have remained open throughout this pandemic. (Lisa Cooper, SV)

Satellite Healthcare has been named to the Parity.org Best Companies for Women to Advance List 2020, which recognizes organizations that have implemented a mix of exemplary benefits, policies, and programs that ensure women have significant opportunities to advance their careers. Companies on the list were rated in areas of recruitment, benefits, executive preparation, measurement, and representation. Satellite shares that, currently, 75% of executives reporting to its CEO are women; 63% of its VPs are women; and 33% of its Board of Directors are women. (Jim Glafkides, SV)

In How COVID-19 is Fueling a Healthcare Revolution, Savi Group discusses how, during the pandemic, telemedicine is advancing by "leaps and bounds," and senior care is shifting from nursing homes to in-home care - plus home-based care programs also hold great potential to help people of all ages who are recovering from an illness or rehabilitating. Further, the pandemic "shows us the weaknesses of depending on employer-based healthcare options when a national health crisis rocks the country. Millions of people are sadly unemployed and losing access to medical care at a time when it is more important than ever. This situation is forcing people to look at alternatives to employer-based care and raising the voices of those calling for universal health insurance." (Sumit Mahendru, OC)

Select Data is a Finalist in the HIMSS NursePitch online competition on August 11. One of six Finalists, Select Data will showcase their new "model drive" NLP tool, called SmartCare. In collaboration with the American Nurses Association, HIMSS' NursePitch is a Pre-Seed and Series A nursing competition, geared for those who want to showcase their nurse-led innovation in front of a live, virtual audience. Finalists will exhibit their products to a team of highly respected judges who represent health innovation, business, provider, and venture capital companies. (Ed Buckley, LA & Ted Schulte, OC)

In the recent New York Times article - The old job of custodians was tidying up. The new one is protecting against a killer through disinfection. - the CEO of Servicon shares her thoughts about the overlooked value-add concept of cleaning services in America. Currently, the cleaning industry is under pressure to protect the nation from COVID-19, but heretofore many companies have approached such services as a labor cost to be contracted out to the lowest bid, sometimes resulting in inferior services. It's now vital that cleaning industry leaders speak out to help elevate the industry and protect lives. (Stacey Wong, LA)

The recent WearTechDesign Editor's Blog - A growth sector - for those with skin in the game - spotlights VivaLNK as an example of a company that's developing electronic skin products. The article says: "An early use of wearable sensors was in China during the SARS pandemic at the turn of the 21st century. Today companies like California-based VivaLNK and Massachussets-based MC10 are providing wearable sensors to help combat Covid-19. VivaLNK's wearable sensors are used for temperature, pulse, respiratory, ECG and accelerometer readers. The lightweight (7.5g) and reuseable/ rechargeable sensors are water-resistant and FDA/CE marked. The US company says it has supplied its wearable sensors to China, the Americas, Europe and the RoW." (Jiang Li, Ph.D., SV)

Wipfli LLP has made on-demand replays of several of its recent 30-minute "Healthcare Connections Q&A" sessions available, including How can hospitals and FQHC's develop models and affiliation strategies, which was co-led by Steve Rousso, who discussed how to begin the process of FQHCs and hospitals working together; and strategies to successfully emerge from the COVID-19 environment.

Also available is Senior Living Centers - Trends under COVID-19 and Strategies for Success, which discussed impacts on census and the future outlook; operational and financial planning; and strategies to successfully emerge from the COVID-19 environment. Meanwhile, for the tenth time, Wipfli has been named to Accounting Today's 2020 VAR 100 list. (Jeff Johnson, OAK; Steve Rousso)