To ensure the safety of our Members, these upcoming invitation-only events will be held via ZOOM. See your Round Table invitation for participation instructions, and the ABL.org Members Only website for all the Healthcare Round Table invitation specifics. (If you haven't already received an invitation to a ZOOM Table you would like to attend, please email [email protected] for details.)


• 1/06 - ABL-Health OC Zoom Table
• 1/12 - ABL-Health SV Zoom Table
• 1/13 - ABL-Health SF Zoom Table
• 1/15 - ABL-Health LA Zoom Table
• 1/21 - ABL-Health OAK Zoom Table
• Explore Membership in ABL's Executive Round Tables >>>

• ABL-Health OC Members Recommend DIY Treatments to Speed Recovery from COVID
• ABL Member Naresh Menon Shares: Free PPE Offered to LA County Small Businesses
• Alvaka Networks Shares the Amount of a Typical Ransomware Demand
• Axene Health Partners Suggests the Good That Will Come Out of COVID
• Choice in Aging CEO Spotlighted in News Video on COVID-19 Vaccine
• Covisus Wins 2020 AIDC Award for Its Revolutionary Tech
• El Camino Health & Bloom Energy Deploy Shield T3 to Curb COVID-19
• GeBBS Ranked in Top 10 of Largest Revenue Cycle Management Companies
• Kaiser Permanente Tops National Survey on Customer Satisfaction
• Kencor Discusses Importance of User Interface & Experience Design in Healthcare
• King & Spalding Wins Accolades & Provides Healthcare Law Info
• KMD Architects Gives Progress Report on Pacific NW National Laboratory
• LigoLab Details "The Journey to One Million COVID-19 Tests"
• Mazzetti Encourages Healthcare Climate Leadership
• MedWand Wins "Best of What's New" from Popular Science
• Mission Hospice Presents Event to "Redefine Hope at the End of Life"
• Nelson Hardiman Explains New California Employment Laws
• OneLegacy Participates in TV Special & Featured in LA Times
• PreludeDx Shares Insights on its Test from Cleveland Clinic Physician
• Satellite Healthcare's Rick Barnett to Retire
• Savi Group Explains How Covid Vaccine Billing & Coding Will Work
• VivaLNK Expands Medical Data Platform; Sees Rapid Growth in RPM
• Wipfli Earns Registered Provider Organization Authorization

During Wednesday's ABL Orange County Healthcare Round Table, several Members commented on the climbing numbers of patients testing positive for COVID - including at least two ABL Members. Among them was Jennifer Ty, CEO of Excell Home Care, DNP, APRN, NP-C, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, WCC, OMS, LNC (and a 2020 "Innovator in Healthcare" awardee). After leading Excell's COVID testing program for months, she quickly recognized the symptoms - fever, severe muscle aches, headache, congestion, loss of taste and smell - when she began to feel them herself. Rather than go to bed to recover, she got to work concocting - and taking - a "COVID Recovery Cocktail" of Medrol Dosepak*, Z-Pak*, Zinc (220 mg), Vitamin C (1000 mg), Vitamin D, Tumeric with Ginger, Pepcid (to counter hyperacidity related to the medications), steam inhalation of salt dissolved in hot water morning and night, and walking in the sun for up to 4 miles a day. Plus, she drank lots of water and hot tea. Within a week she started to feel better, and tested negative. Now, Excell is recommending this treatment regimen to their nurses and each patient they test, who tests positive. (*Medrol Dosepak and Z-Pak are prescription drugs)

Later, ABL OC Member Kim Darling, CEO of Competitive Health, sent the results of a study that concluded, "Sunlight exposure increased COVID-19 recovery rates: A study in the central pandemic area of Indonesia." And, George Carpenter referenced a report on a study published in Nature (and sponsored by Colgate), that concluded "mouthwash formulas with cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) neutralise the virus that causes COVID-19 by 99.9%" after 30 seconds of gargling with Colgate's Plax, Total and Zero mouthwashes. [According to Amazon, mouthwashes by Crest, Listerine, CloSys, and Equate also contain CPC.]

ABL Member Naresh Menon of ChromoLogic and Covisus passed along this information about PPE Unite, which is distributing a one-time 30-day supply of PPE at no cost - face masks, hand sanitizer, and/or face shields, to eligible small businesses in the County of Los Angeles. Naresh says "It's legit;" his company got a month's supply at no cost.

California Governor Newsom has relaxed the state's nurse-to-patient ratio law, which gives hospitals the option to increase the number of patients per nurse - 170 hospitals have done so. ICU nurses can now care for three patients instead of two; ER and telemetry nurses can care for six patients instead of four; and medical-surgical nurses can care for seven patients instead of five. Some nurses are worried the current nurse-to-patient ratios will become permanent (https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/california-hospitals-grapple-with-covid-19-surge-6-things-to-know.html)

Paramedics in Southern California are being told to conserve oxygen and not to bring patients to the hospital who have little chance of survival as Los Angeles County grapples with a new wave of COVID-19 patients that is expected to get worse in the coming days. The LAC Emergency Medical Services Agency issued a directive Monday that ambulance crews should administer supplemental oxygen only to patients whose oxygen saturation levels fall below 90%. In a separate memo from the county's EMS Agency, paramedic crews have been told not to transfer patients who experience cardiac arrest unless spontaneous circulation can be restored on the scene. (https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/01/05/953444637/l-a-paramedics-told-not-to-transport-some-patients-with-low-chance-of-survival)

As of January 4, the Orange County Business Journal reported that the number of COVID-19 patients requiring ICU hospitalization jumped 34% in the past two weeks, according to data from the Orange County Health Care Agency. There were 2,097 total hospitalized patients, up 25% from the 1,682 hospitalized two weeks ago. The County continues to have 0% ICU capacity on an adjusted basis, which takes into account the ratio of COVID to non-COVID patients, and 7.5% on an unadjusted basis. (https://www.ocbj.com/news/2021/jan/04/covid-19-oc-business-updates/)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that healthcare providers who violate vaccine priority guidelines will be penalized, including the revocation of their professional license. New York has also developed sanctions for deceptive vaccine distribution or administration: healthcare providers who commit COVID-19 vaccine fraud face a fine of up to $1 million and revocation of state licenses. (https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues/skip-line-for-covid-19-vaccine-and-lose-your-license-california-governor-warns-healthcare-providers.html)

The number of people currently in the labor force who are out sick, known as absenteeism, has doubled in the pandemic, and may stay that way until COVID-19 vaccines are widely distributed, according to Bloomberg. Almost 1.8 million workers were absent in November because of illness, nearly level with the record of 2 million from April, according to Labor Department data. The latest Household Pulse Survey, a separate survey conducted by the Census Bureau, estimates that more than 11 million people weren't working because of COVID-19. Employee absenteeism is slowing the economic recovery in the U.S. and leading to supply chain disruptions. Manufacturing is especially affected by temporarily absent workers. (https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/workforce/record-number-of-us-workers-are-calling-in-sick.html)

On December 29, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a CMS final rule promulgated in November 2019 that requires hospitals to disclose various forms of pricing information related to the items and services they provide. In particular, the rule requires hospitals to disclose charge rates including gross charges from chargemasters; payer-specific negotiated charges; standardized discounted cash prices offered to self-pay patients before any individualized discounts; and the maximum and minimum third-party negotiated charges for a given item or service. The American Hospital Association, joined by other associations and individual hospitals, challenged the rule but the district court awarded summary judgment to the government. AHA appealed, and the D.C. Court of Appeals has now upheld the rule that went into effect January 1, 2021. (https://kslawemail.com/128/7467/pages/article-1.asp?sid=7b765c1d-2f5b-4a01-aa31-558308c5fe2a)

Edward G. Heidig, HHS Director of Region 9, recently wrote: "The Trump Administration, through the Health Resources and Services Administration is announcing it has completed review of Phase 3 applications from the Provider Relief Fund program and will distribute $24.5 billion to 70,000+ providers. Up from the $20 billion originally planned, the addition of another $4.5B in funding is being used to satisfy close to 90% of each applicant's reported lost revenues and net change in expenses caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the first half of 2020." Read More at https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/12/16/hhs-increases-begins-distributing-over-24-billion-in-phase-3-covid-19-provider-relief-funding.html

CMS finalized regulatory changes to modernize Medicaid prescription drug purchasing and propel payment innovation by providing states, private payers, and manufacturers more flexibility to enter into value-based purchasing arrangements for prescription drugs. With the new flexibilities under this final rule, manufacturers will be more willing to negotiate with payers, including Medicaid, with drug pricing being driven by the value of their drug to the individual patient. This is significant, especially in the era of new genetic-based treatments which may initially be expensive, yet in the long run offer significant value to the patient and payer. Payers will be able to negotiate prices with manufacturers for these genetic-based treatments based upon outcomes and evidence-based measures such as reduced hospitalizations, lab visits, and physician office visits, ensuring that if such measures fail to support the value of a drug, the payer is not held accountable for the full price. (https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-issues-final-rule-empower-states-manufacturers-and-private-payers-create-new-payment-methods)

A recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece said that it "will take months to digest everything in the Covid relief bill rammed through Congress and signed by President Trump [on Dec. 27]. Both parties are hailing an end to "surprise" medical billing, though ... you can expect this political response to surprise billing to cause more surprise complications." Also, "a 2019 analysis in JAMA Internal Medicine found that 39% of more than 13 million visits to an in-network emergency room between 2010 and 2016 ended in an out-of-network bill, frequently for services like radiology." (https://www.wsj.com/articles/surprise-a-health-lobby-cage-match-11609371346?mod=opinion_lead_pos4)

On December 30, the HHS Office of General Counsel issued an Advisory Opinion finding the 340B Federal Drug Pricing Program requires drug manufacturers to extend 340B pricing to covered outpatient drugs dispensed through contract pharmacies. Recently, certain drug manufacturers have declined to distribute covered outpatient drugs through contract pharmacies at 340B pricing. The OGC concluded that this practice is impermissible and that drug manufacturers must offer covered drugs at no more than the 340B ceiling price, even if covered entities use contract pharmacies for distribution. (https://kslawemail.com/128/7467/pages/article-3.asp?sid=7b765c1d-2f5b-4a01-aa31-558308c5fe2a)

Through November - the most recent data available at deadline - 2020 set a record for data breaches. There were 576 incidents reported to HHS. As with everything else during the pandemic, even breaches continued their shift to digital, with network services being targeted 40% of the time. (https://www.modernhealthcare.com/technology/data-points-bad-year-cybersecurity-too) Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal recently published an opinion piece - The Cyber Threat Is Real and Growing.

Haven, the joint venture formed by three of America's most powerful companies to lower costs and improve outcomes in healthcare, is disbanding after three years, CNBC reported. The move to shutter Haven may be a sign of how difficult it is to radically improve American health care, a complicated and entrenched system of doctors, insurers, drugmakers and middlemen that cost the country, according to CMS, a projected $4.01 Trillion in 2020. (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/04/haven-the-amazon-berkshire-jpmorgan-venture-to-disrupt-healthcare-is-disbanding-after-3-years.html)

Oscar recently raised another $140 million in financing, meaning that the New York-based health insurance upstart raised the equivalent of $1 million a day for all of 2020. It's likely going to be one of the last times the company taps private markets before an eventual public offering. (https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/17/health-insurer-oscar-adds-another-140-million-in-whats-likely-a-pre-ipo-round/)

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