HEALTHCARE & GOVERNMENT

• Governor Newsom Signs $308 Billion State of California Budget
• Health-Insurance Providers Begin Publishing Prices for Medical Care
• California Court of Appeal Finds Hospitals Do Not Have a Duty to Disclose ER Level Fees
• CMS Proposes Prospective Payment Rules for Home Health, Home Infusion, and End-Stage Renal Disease

COVID-19 NEWS

• HHS to End Telehealth HIPAA Flexibilities Upon Expiration of Public Health Emergency
• Administration Secures 105 Million Doses of Pfizer's Latest COVID-19 Vaccine for Fall Vaccination Campaign

OTHER HEALTHCARE CRISES

• Biden-Harris Administration Announces Additional Deliveries of Vaccine as Part of Nationwide Strategy for Preventing Monkeypox
• 100 Million People in America Are Saddled With Healthcare Debt

HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY TRENDS

• Health Insurers Have the Data. Will Patients Listen?

CareConnectMD, Inc., a provider of primary care and care coordination services tailored to meet the needs of complex Medicare participants, recently announced the close of a $25 million financing round led by Minneapolis-based TT Capital Partners. CareConnectMD will leverage the investment to deepen its presence in California, Ohio and Texas, and expand into other markets - and to enhance its technology platform to scale and streamline care delivery. (Kim Phan, OC)

The California Legislature recently voted for the 2023 fiscal year budget, which includes $10 million to help fund Choice in Aging's (CiA) innovative Aging in Place Campus in Pleasant Hill. The campus will create a national model for aging independently in the community with wraparound health and social services outside a senior's front door. The campus includes 82 single bedroom apartments for low-income seniors, a new CiA adult day health care facility, and a new Choice in Learning Montessori intergenerational preschool.
ALSO, CiA's Choice in Learning has been named by Parents Press as Contra Costa County's best child care facility, independent preschool, large preschool, and Montessori preschool. (Debbie Toth, Bay Area)

Change Healthcare, in Collaboration with Luma Health, has launched Patient Engagement, a suite of solutions that seamlessly connects touchpoints across the patient journey, increasing access and improving communication between patients and providers. The Patient Engagement suite centers on the patient's success, and the tools work to increase patient volumes and loyalty while reducing denials and other administrative burdens for providers. (Marcia Augsburger, JD, Bay Area)

Celebrating its 20th year of participation in the iconic Rose Parade, the Donate Life community announced the theme for its 2023 Donate Life parade float, "Lifting Each Other Up," heralding the power of organ, eye and tissue donation. A spectacular Chinese street dragon is the centerpiece of the float, which will be supported on poles by living donors, and surrounded by organ, eye and tissue recipients, whose lives have been transformed and have turned the corner to a more prosperous future, thanks to those who said "YES" to organ, eye and tissue donation. OneLegacy's Tom Mone is Chairman of the Donate Life Rose Parade float committee. (Tom Mone, LA)

El Camino Health (ECH) has been named a five ribbon hospital, receiving top honors on Newsweek's 2022 list of Best Maternity Care Hospitals. The distinction recognizes facilities that have provided exceptional care to mothers, newborns and their families, as verified by Statista Inc.
AND, ECH has received the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines Gold Plus Achievement Award, for proven dedication to ensuring all stroke patients have access to best practices and life-saving care. ECH also received the Target: Stroke Honor Roll and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll Awards, which aim to ensure patients who might be at higher risk for complications receive the most up-to-date, evidence-based care. (Cecile Currier, SV)

At the recent National Athletic Trainers Association meeting in Philadelphia, GameRx performed a soft launch of nine new pain relief products, including Ketorub, Iontosone, Pain XIT, Gabazone, Skrgel, Sportcaine, Wasabi Rub, YabaGabaGoo, and US Diclo. These products are custom-formulated topicals of OTC and Rx medications that are widely used as treatment options for athletes across all genres of sports. GameRx also offers a telehealth platform available if needed on a more urgent basis. The GameRx Sports Pharmacy line was developed by Robert Nickell, the first pharmacist of the US Olympic Medical Team for the Athens Games in 2004. (Robert Nickell, Pharm, OC)

HumanGood recently celebrated the opening of Filipino Community Village, a 95-unit residence for low-income seniors, located in South Seattle, WA. The ground floor of the new building will be occupied by a 4,800-square-foot Innovation Learning Center, which will provide youth and adults with access to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) programs, and serve as a vibrant and inclusive community gathering space. Filipino Community Village will join the HumanGood family of 99 affordable housing communities. (Tara McGuinness, Bay Area)

Kaiser Permanente (KP) joined the Biden administration for a White House event on June 30, with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where Bechara Choucair, MD, KP SVP and chief health officer, along with industry colleagues, pledged meaningful action to decarbonize the health care sector and make health care facilities more resilient to the effects of climate change. KP has committed to meet the Biden administration's climate goal of reducing emissions by 50% by 2030 and aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. (Marcos Vasconcelos, Bay Area)

The City of Berkeley recently presented its Mental Health Department and LifeLong Medical Care Street Medicine with its "2022 Mental Health Achievement Award." LifeLong's Berkeley Street Medicine crew have been able to provide a higher level of mental healthcare for people experiencing homelessness. (Mike Stacey, MD, Bay Area)

In Digital Pathology: The Future is Here, LigoLab Information System describes how the pandemic opened the door to digital pathology and how modern LIS systems provide the foundation for this new and evolving laboratory ecosystem.
AND, The LigoLab LIS & RCM Laboratory Operating Platform Now Features Web-Based Remote Ordering and Reporting announces that this newly added feature, dubbed LigoLab Web Connect, enables physicians and other lab clients to easily place orders, retrieve lab reports, and track the status of a case in real-time from anywhere and from any device with a simple internet connection.
ALSO, LigoLab is recently featured in articles on Influencive and MedCityNews. (Suren Avunjian, LA)

UC San Francisco has received approval for its plans to build a state-of-the-art hospital at UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights to meet the region's growing demand for specialty care and California's rigorous hospital seismic requirements, and Mazzetti announced that in collaboration with HDR and Herzog & de Meuron, they are working with Arup as lead MEP engineers, as part of a multi-firm team, designing the hospital of the future. It will incorporate the latest innovations in technology, like advanced diagnostics and robotics, lighting design and sustainability services for the project. (Walt Vernon, JD, Bay Area)

MedWand recently had the honor of participating with the FUTURES exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC to support a special one-day event - Living Longer Festival: Health + Wellness 2050. During the special pop-up, FUTURES and MedWand unveiled the "The Doctor is In (Space)!" where guests of all ages lined up to visit a healthcare provider in the year 2050 with a futuristic distanced healthcare visit, where medical professionals could monitor key health data from anywhere, anytime, allowing for distanced diagnoses and immediate care (even in outer space). ABL was well represented at the event: in addition to MedWand CEO Bob Rose, ABL Member Marcia Augsburger participated on a panel of experts discussing "Living Longer in the Future," moderated by Mimi Grant, with Bob Kelley interacting with the live and telecast audience. (Bob Rose, OC)

Harry Nelson and Nelson Hardiman have published How Telemedicine Changes the Abortion Conversation, while Harry was interviewed on ABC News in San Diego, discussing if doctors can prescribe abortion pills across state lines.
AND, Harry was featured on Cheddar TV News talking about telemedicine's impact on abortion access and options for women in restrictive states. Harry was also interviewed on Spectrum about the impact of transportation costs on emergency medical services workers. (Harry Nelson, JD, LA)

Parentis Foundation, the non-profit affiliate of Parentis Health, a healthcare company offering continuum of care for seniors, has planned its first annual Pickleball Tournament for July 16, at the Tennis and Pickleball Club at Newport Beach. The tournament will raise funds for the Foundation's intergenerational literacy program - which empowers and inspires both seniors and children by nurturing relationships across generations. (Tarek El Nabli, OC)

PRODEO and the PRODEO Institute contributed to a recent article - The economic and societal effects of COVID-19 on our brains. "We are in the infancy stages of understanding COVID-19's short- and long-term effects on the brain," says PRODEO's Harris Eyre, MD. "While COVID-19 is mainly a respiratory illness, long-COVID-19 is increasingly being revealed as a neuropsychiatric disorder. In other words, long-COVID-19 is all about the brain."
ALSO, Capital Finance International published an article to which PRODEO contributed - Brain Capital: An Emerging Investment Opportunity. (Mark Heinemeyer, OC)

Providence Digital Innovation Group (DIG) has published Utilizing Innovation to Impact Healthcare's Workforce Crisis and is also making a video of a recent discussion on the topic available on-demand. Providence DIG delves into enabling self-service, automating non-clinical tasks, digital clinical support, new digital-first disruptive models of care, and workforce wellness. (Marcee Chmait, LA)

Royal Ambulance has been named one of the Top 50 Most Inspiring Workplaces in North America, sitting alongside past and present winners such as Twitter, Blue Shield California, Microsoft, Visa, and Adobe. The team at Inspiring Workplaces focuses on highlighting culture, leadership, employee wellbeing, team communication, inclusivity, and empowerment. (Steve Grau, SV)

In The Future of Artificial Intelligence & Healthcare, SAVI Group explores the potential of increasing early diagnoses with AI, increased efficiency, and greater access to care.
AND, in Embracing Healthcare Analytics to Improve Patient Care, SAVI shares multiple data points that providers can use to improve their operations and patient care quality levels, including data on procedural tasks and giving patients insights into their health and well-being. Data can be stored, shared, and analyzed by using EHRs, patient portals, RPM devices, and more. It can also be used for predictive modeling, making it possible to take preventive measures and track health outcome improvements. (Sumit Mahendru, OC)

On July 13, Select Data will present Augmented Coding & QA - Reduce Staff Turnover While Improving Quality of Care, a panel discussion on the issues confronting home health and the next generation of tools coming to help. CEO Ed Buckley will participate as a panelist; discussions will include what has changed that requires a new approach, the right tools to improve employee satisfaction and quality, and how artificial intelligence can help. (Ed Buckley, OC)

Wipfli has launched EMRConnect, a new solution for healthcare clients using Sage Intacct, which allows the seamless flow of information from EMRs to the Sage Intacct cloud financial management system and bolsters Wipfli's ability to help healthcare organizations streamline operations and consolidate operational, clinical and financial reporting and analysis, while helping to ensure accurate billing and reimbursement.
MEANWHILE, for the 11th year in a row, Wipfli has been named to the Bob Scott's Top 100 VARs list, chosen from organizations specializing in the sale and implementation of ERP and accounting software.
AND, on July 19th, Wipfli will offer a webinar - Recruiting and retaining with unique employee benefits; plus on July 11-15, in Las Vegas, the Stronger to Serve 2022 Wipfli National Training Conference will be particularly useful for nonprofit and FQHC leaders. (Jeff Johnson, John Dao & Steve Rousso, Bay Area)