• 10/05 - Orange County IN-PERSON Table - Discussion Topic: "From Brains to Bladders: Accelerating Adoption of Medical Technology" - Featured Member Presenters: Yap Chew, President of Pangea Laboratory, and Mark Heinemeyer, CEO of PRODEO


• 10/11 - Silicon Valley IN-PERSON Table - Discussion Topic: "Making Hybrid Work - as the New Normal" - Featured Member Presenter: Eliott Jones, CEO of Biospectal SA


• 10/20 - Bay Area ZOOM Table - Discussion Topic: "Keeping PACE with Grace" - Featured Member Presenter: Grace Li, CEO of On Lok


• 10/21 - Los Angeles IN-PERSON Table - Discussion Topic: "California's Expanded Focus on Mental Health" - Featured Member Presenters: Harry Nelson, Managing Partner of Nelson Hardiman, and Cynthia Sampson, COO of Life Adjustment Team


• Explore Membership in ABL's Executive Round Tables >>>

• Alegre Home Care Spotlighted in Podcast
• Angle Health Teams with Benefix
• Biospectal Among TOP 100 Swiss Startups + Featured in New Book
• Change Healthcare Addresses Tech Fixes to Ease Labor Shortage Issues
• Choice in Aging Participates in CA for ALL Ages & Abilities - Day of Action
• Cigna Launches Full Spectrum Products for Patients with Complex Conditions
• Elemeno CEO Interviewed on Podcast & Company Partners with Emergency Nurses Association
• FOMAT Medical Research a Finalist for Site Patient Recruitment Innovation Award
• GrandCare Health Wins Award at Homecare Homebase User Conference
• Illumination Foundation Featured in Managed Healthcare Executive
• Kaiser Permanente Tops NCQA Health Plan Ratings
• LifeLong Medical Center Proposes New Health Center in East Oakland
• LigoLab Reports on Shortage of Medical Lab Technologists
• Mazzetti Looks Ahead to Acceptance of Fuel Cells & Healthcare Microgrids
• MedWand Stars on "The Bleeding Edge of Digital Health" Podcast
• Mission Hospice to Present Fall Gala on October 22
• Nelson Hardiman Provides Info on California's "Massive Healthcare Expansion"
• Parentis Explains Why Fall Prevention for Seniors is So Important & Announces Golfing Event
• PreludeDx ID's DCIS Patients with Unexpectedly High Residual Risk after Surgery and Radiation
• Satellite Healthcare & Partners Open First Dialysis Center in Hawaii Focused on Higher-Risk Patients
• Select Data CEO Interviewed on the Next Phase of Home Healthcare AI
• Wipfli to Present Webinars on Healthcare Cybersecurity; Preparing for OASIS-E; & Strategic Planning

• GIDEON Utilized for Study on Climate Change's Effects on Diseases

An article recently published in Nature - Climate change is making hundreds of diseases much worse - details a study which found that climate change has exacerbated more than 200 infectious diseases and dozens of non-transmissible conditions, such as poisonous-snake bites. Researchers examined 77,000+ research papers, reports and books, including the Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Network (GIDEON).
ALSO, watch a recent GIDEON webinar on-demand: A Tale as Old as Time: the Start of the Anti-Vax Movement & Vaccine Hesitancy. (Uri Blackman, ABL-Tech SGV)

The Biden-Harris Administration has announced that people with Medicare will see lower premiums for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans in 2023. Additionally, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, people with Medicare prescription drug coverage will have improved and more affordable benefits, including a $35 cost-sharing limit on a month's supply of each covered insulin product, as well as adult vaccines that are recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at no additional cost. (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/09/29/biden-harris-administration-announces-lower-premiums-for-medicare-advantage-and-prescription-drug-plans-in-2023.html)
AND, Medicare Part B Premiums to Decrease for First Time in Over a Decade: The Administration also announced that Medicare Part B premiums will decrease in 2023, marking the first time this cost has been lowered in more than a decade. CMS announced that Medicare Part B premiums would be lowered by three percent, or $5.20, going from $170.10 a month to $164.90. The program's annual deductible will also fall by $7, from $233 to $226. (https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3662965-medicare-part-b-premiums-to-decrease-for-the-first-time-in-over-a-decade/)

HHS, through the Health Resources and Services Administration, recently awarded $266+ million in American Rescue Plan funding to grow the community and public health workforce. HRSA is awarding $225.5M to 83 grantees as part of the Community Health Worker Training Program, which is a new multiyear program that will support training and apprenticeship to support an estimated 13,000 new community health workers. HRSA is also awarding $40.7M to 29 grantees through the Public Health Scholarship Program, which will incentivize individuals to pursue training and careers in public health. (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/09/30/new-american-rescue-plan-funding-hhs-expands-and-strengthens-community-and-public-health-workforce.html)

A controversial bill [Assembly Bill 150] aimed at fixing aspects of California's broken nursing home licensing system was recently signed by California Gov. Newsom, who faced dueling pressure from advocates who typically are aligned. The bill will close a loophole that allows nursing home operators to run a facility without first receiving a license, something advocates refer to as "squatting." It also will require the Department of Public Health to look at an applicant's track record over several years before granting a license. (https://calmatters.org/health/2022/09/nursing-home-licensing-bill/)

In what amounts to a public acknowledgement that anxiety disorders have run rampant during the pandemic, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is recommending for the first time that all American adults under the age of 65 be screened for the condition. The task force stopped short of recommending screening for seniors aged 65+, but that's because symptoms of anxiety and symptoms of aging can often overlap, so it was less clear whether treatment for anxiety was needed at those ages. (https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-09-20/task-force-recommends-anxiety-screening-for-all-adults-under-65)

The Biden administration has announced $300+ million in new mental health funding, via awards and grants, with much of the money coming from the bipartisan anti-gun violence law passed this summer by Congress. The Department of Education and HHS, through HRSA, is rolling out the roughly $314 million for health professionals in schools and in emergency departments. HHS is also awarding nearly $27 million for a pediatric mental health access program for emergency department providers. (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-admin-announces-300m-mental-health-funding-part/story?id=90870513)

Emotional exhaustion among U.S. healthcare workers worsened over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and threatens to compromise patient care, according to a Sept. 21 analysis from JAMA Network Open. Key findings from the report include: Estimated rates of emotional exhaustion rose from 31.8% to 40.4%, a proportional increase of 26.9% during the study period. (https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/workforce/us-healthcare-workers-more-emotionally-exhausted-amid-pandemic-study-says.html)

Premiums for many Affordable Care Act health-insurance plans are set to rise sharply next year, a sign of how rising labor costs and other expenses are starting to ripple through the healthcare economy. Consumers, who generally can begin signing up for plans on Nov. 1, probably won't feel much impact because of enhanced federal subsidies, but small employers are likely to face the brunt of higher rates because they don't get similar government help, according to health-insurance specialists. Insurers on the ACA marketplaces are proposing median monthly premium increases of 10%, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation review of proposals made by 72 insurers in 13 states. Some insurers are seeking rate increases as high as 20%. State regulators don't always approve the full increases sought by insurers. (https://www.wsj.com/articles/affordable-care-act-health-plan-premiums-set-to-rise-11662671934?mod=hp_lead_pos7)

Health insurance companies that are big players in Medicare Advantage, including Humana, Cigna, CVS Health's Aetna unit, Elevance Health and UnitedHealth Group, are launching popular plans in several new states and hundreds of new counties for 2023. All of this market growth is a sharp contrast from a few years ago when Medicare Advantage was unavailable in large swaths of the country. But the program is one of the few areas of healthcare and U.S. policy in general that has bipartisan support in Congress. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2022/10/01/big-health-insurers-will-expand-medicare-advantage-to-hundreds-of-new-counties-for-2023/?sh=4b22b15870b7)

The number of people testing positive for monkeypox has plunged in California, with the seven-day average of new cases down about 95% since the peak of the outbreak in early August. Though health experts caution that the virus threat hasn't disappeared, progress in fending it off so far constitutes a major public health success. (https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Monkeypox-cases-California-17474165.php)
MEANWHILE, Early Analysis Suggests MPX Vaccine is Reducing Risk of Infection in U.S.: A very preliminary analysis of data from 32 states appears to suggest that the monkeypox vaccine being used in the U.S. is reducing the risk of infection among vaccinated people, Rochelle Walensky, CDC director said recently. The analysis showed that people who were eligible to be vaccinated against monkeypox because of their personal level of risk but who had not received the vaccine were 14 times more likely to contract monkeypox than those who were vaccinated, when the analysis looked at data from two weeks after receipt of a single dose. (https://www.statnews.com/2022/09/28/early-analysis-suggests-monkeypox-vaccine-is-reducing-risk-of-infection-in-u-s/)

HHS, through CMS, announced that people with Medicare, Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program coverage, private insurance coverage, or no health coverage can get COVID-19 vaccines, including the updated Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines, at no cost, for as long as the federal government continues purchasing and distributing these COVID-19 vaccines. The FDA has authorized the updated vaccines that target the original COVID-19 viral strain and two Omicron variants (BA.4/BA.5) that are currently the most prevalent in the U.S. (https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/news-alert/updated-covid-19-vaccines-providing-protection-against-omicron-variant-available-no-cost)

Amgen Inc.'s lung-cancer pill Lumakras beat out a common chemotherapy in a late-stage study, helping patients survive without their tumors getting worse, though it failed to prove that it reduced overall deaths, the company said. Lumakras is the first approved drug in an emerging class of treatments that target a genetic mutation called KRAS that is among the most common found in cancers. Researchers struggled for years to design drugs capable of attacking the mutation, which earned a reputation as "undruggable." The FDA conditionally approved Lumakras last year based on encouraging early-stage study data but required Amgen to conduct a confirmatory study, which the company reported recently. (https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-cancer-drug-beats-chemotherapy-in-study-11662996694?mod=hp_lead_pos11)

A growing body of research in recent years has suggested that many health behaviors - from obesity to exercise and weight loss, from smoking to quitting smoking - are fundamentally contagious phenomena. The findings, which haven't gone uncontested, suggest exposure to norms and ideas through your social network could be a powerful predictor of your health, your weight and even the stock prices of companies linked to those things. (https://www.wsj.com/articles/both-sickness-and-health-it-turns-out-are-contagious-11662715801?mod=wsjhp_columnists_pos1)

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