• 3/14 - Silicon Valley ZOOM Table - "Meet HealthTap: the Provider Network Behind Amazon Clinic" - Featuring Geoff Rutledge, MD, PhD, Co-Founder & CMO of HealthTap


• 3/16 - Bay Area ZOOM Table - "Finding a Cure for the Scourge of America" - Featuring Gene Barduson, Founder/CEO, Addiction Research Institute


• 3/17 - Los Angeles ZOOM Table - "Here's $58M. Now, what are you going to do with it?" - Featuring Andy Leeka, President of Angle Health


• 4/05 - Orange County IN-PERSON* FIELD TRIP, TOUR & Round Table - "Disrupting the Cycle of Homeless in O.C. and Beyond" - Featuring Pooja Bhalla, DNP, Co-CEO, Illumination Foundation [*with Zoom option]


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

• Alegre Home Care Discusses How to Support Seniors Who Are Struggling with Addiction
• Angle Health Extolled by Pruven Capital
• Choice in Aging Interviews Senior Industry Leaders
• Cigna Evolves Brands to Reflect Growing Portfolio & Chris DeRosa Assumes New Role
• Donor Network West CEO Spotlighted in Industry Journal + Writes Article on Updates to Waiting Times for Black Kidney Candidates
• Eitan Medical Opens New Manufacturing Facility Bolstered by Semi-Automated Production Lines
• El Camino Health Named to Newsweek's "World's Best Hospitals 2023" List
• Elemeno Health Partners with URMC Golisano Children's Hospital
• Hospice East Bay CEO Interviewed on TV Following President Jimmy Carter's Entry Into Hospice
• HumanGood Launches "Welcome Home" Initiative & Receives Grant
• Illumination Foundation CEOs Spotlighted in UC Irvine Interview + Looks Forward to Upcoming Gala
• LigoLab Discusses Consumerism, Best Practices, Lab Data Analytics, Pathologist Burnout & More
• Nelson Hardiman Examines the Peril & Promise of Chatbot Therapy
• OneLegacy Teamed with NASCAR Driver, CHP & Nursing School on Special Donor Event
• Onward Wins AARP's AgeTech Collaborative Competition at CES 2023
• Pangea Lab's Yap Ching Chew, PhD, Co-Authors Article in Journal of Urology
• Parentis Health Discusses Medicare's Coverage of Home Health Care & Senior Heart Health
• Santa Cruz Surgery Center CEO Supports ASC Legislation on Capitol Hill
• Wipfli Provides Health-Related Webinars, Articles & Conference Sessions

• Eckert & Ziegler's PENTIXAFOR in Advanced Clinical Test in Cardiovascular Setting

The Lausanne University Hospital has reported the initial dosing of a patient in a phase II clinical study investigating the sensitivity of PENTIXAFOR (Boclatixafotide) in a cardiovascular and inflammatory setting. It is the first time that Eckert & Ziegler's proprietary CXCR4-compound has been used in an advanced clinical test in a non-cancer indication, opening the way for a broader use of PENTIXAFOR outside of oncology. The Gallium-68 based radio-diagnostic PENTIXAFOR promises to significantly improve the sensitivity in the detection of acute myocardial inflammation, which may allow for future early clinical management of patients with myocarditis, avoiding the progression to more severe stages. (Frank Yeager, ABL-Tech SGV)

Amazon recently closed its acquisition of health care provider One Medical and its parent in a $3.9 billion deal, hours after the Federal Trade Commission said it would not challenge the purchase but that regulators were still investigating potential competitive and consumer harms of the transaction. According to One Medical, the deal will bring Amazon access to more than 200 brick-and-mortar doctors' offices, along with roughly 815,000 One Medical members. It will also allow Amazon to expand its telehealth services and acquire valuable relationships with hospital systems, industry analysts have said. (https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/tech/ftc-amazon-one-medical-deal/index.html)

Oak Street Health's losses grew in 2022 to almost $510 million as the value-based primary care company, with a network of clinics for seniors on Medicare, which is pending an acquisition by CVS Health, continued to aggressively pursue growth. In comparison, in 2021, Oak Street reported a loss of $415 million. In 2022, the company opened 40 new centers and ended the year with 169 facilities in 21 states, serving some 224,000 patients. Last month, CVS announced plans to acquire Oak Street for $10.6 billion, as it looks to create a vertically integrated healthcare business including physicians, pharmacy, a health plan (Aetna) and more. Oak Street, which was founded in 2012 and went public in 2020, has proven that its model is scalable, CVS said. The company plans to have over 300 centers by 2026, each of which can contribute $7 million in adjusted earnings at maturity. However, in the meantime, Oak Street still operates at a loss and the clinic operator isn't expected to reach profitability until 2025 at the earliest. (https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/oak-street-health-loss-risks-cvs-acquisition/643844/)

Prescription digital therapeutic developer Theranica announced it has received FDA 510(k) clearance to use its Nerivio device for migraine prevention in patients 12 and older. The wearable is worn around the upper arm and controlled with a smartphone. It delivers electrical pulses to stimulate small peripheral nerves, which aims to trigger a conditioned pain modulation response to alleviate symptoms. The treatment lasts 45 minutes and can be used every other day for prevention or at the onset of a migraine for acute treatment. (https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/theranica-receives-fda-510k-migraine-prevention-device)

More than a quarter of Americans over 40 take medications to lower their cholesterol, most of them statins. But not everyone can tolerate statins or wants to. Now a new study confirms that bempedoic acid, approved in 2020, not only lowers cholesterol but also reduces the risk for heart attack and stroke. Statins will remain the first therapy patients are given to lower cholesterol. But the news means more people will likely be prescribed a once-daily pill of bempedoic acid, which is sold under the brand name Nexletol, along with another drug, ezetimibe, as Nexlizet. from Esperion Therapeutics (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/03/04/statin-alternative-passes-key-test-lowers-stroke-heart-attack-risk/11392232002/)

When drugmaker Eli Lilly announced last week it will slash the list price for some of its insulin products following years of criticism from lawmakers and activists that the price of the lifesaving hormone had become unaffordable, the news raised questions about what will happen to other efforts to provide low-cost insulin. However, drug pricing experts welcomed the Eli Lilly news, predicting the move won't undercut those efforts. And these other initiatives to bring lower-cost insulin to market, in turn, would put pressure on Eli Lilly to keep its prices down. Together these will help, not hamper, what could become a race to the bottom on insulin prices. (https://californiahealthline.org/news/article/eli-lilly-slashed-insulin-prices-this-starts-a-race-to-the-bottom/)

The City of Hope is investing $1.5 billion on a comprehensive cancer center and a planned specialty cancer hospital in Irvine, where eight of its experts predicted: #1: Increasing AI; #2: Clinical Trials Opening Up; #3: Blood Testing for Early Detection; #4: Precision Medicine's Exponential Growth; #5: Advanced Imaging Tech Integration; #6: Integrative Medicine's Growth; #7: Greater Generosity; and #8: Cancer Care Democratization. (https://www.ocbj.com/leader-board/8-cancer-breakthroughs-to-watch-in-2023/)

California will drop its mask and vaccination mandates for health care settings next month, the state health department announced Friday. Beginning April 3, health care workers, patients, and visitors will no longer have to wear a mask or be vaccinated to work in facilities that include hospitals and doctors' offices. The new rules also apply to correctional facilities. MEANWHILE, in a recent fireside chat with UCSF's Dr. Bob Wachter, Eric Topol of Scripps Research expressed optimism that the U.S. may be moving toward an endemic state with COVID-19 but noted there is "no guarantee" it will happen. (https://californiahealthline.org/morning-briefing/monday-march-6-2023/)

California will soon restart its annual eligibility review for people enrolled in Medi-Cal, a process that has been suspended since the onset of the pandemic. Starting in mid-April, residents enrolled in the state's insurance program for low-income people will start to receive renewal notices in the mail. (https://calmatters.org/health/2023/03/medi-cal-eligibility-2/)

On February 15, 2023, CMS published a proposed rule that would require many nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to provide more detailed reporting about their ownership structures and financial relationships. The Proposed Rule would require SNFs to report if they are owned or managed by a private equity firm or PE-affiliated real estate investment trust. It would also force the facilities to provide information about any transactions with broadly defined "related parties." Comments on the Proposed Rule are due by April 14, 2023. (https://kslawemail.com/128/9980/pages/art1.asp?sid=9685334f-4bd9-47c8-a880-fd11dbcb2cba)

In a little more than two months since its launch, ChatGPT passed the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam and prompted major scientific journals to ban or restrict its use in research. Now, hospital and health system leaders are trying to determine where the technology could be most helpful and where it may cause harm. The artificial intelligence-powered chatbot is being touted as a tool that could "transform" healthcare, as it is said to be capable of mirroring intuitive human conversation. According to OpenAI, the tool's creator, ChatGPT works by learning from human feedback. The tool is also said to be able to answer follow-up questions, admit its own mistakes, challenge incorrect premises and reject inappropriate requests. While the tool is still in its early stages, hospital and health system IT and physician leaders believe the technology has significant potential. (https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/the-promises-and-pitfalls-of-chatgpt-10-digital-leaders-on-how-hospitals-might-use-it.html)

At Mayo Clinic's cardiology department, doctors use an artificial-intelligence program to help detect new heart problems. Elsewhere, a group of primary-care doctors is using it to help identify an eye condition that can lead to blindness. A number of hospitals are using it to catch patients at risk for sepsis. In such cases, AI tools use algorithms to better identify patients that might be at risk for certain conditions or diseases. Doctors aren't relying on the technology alone to diagnose patients, and their use of generative AI such as ChatGPT is largely limited to paperwork and reports, though some are testing to see if it could play a more useful role. Some doctors, however, are using AI to aid them in reaching a diagnosis, often earlier than they otherwise would have. Physicians say AI holds promise, but they are also wary of yielding to machines, both because the technology is still emerging and also because research has shown that biases in AI can harm the care some people receive. (https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-doctors-use-ai-to-help-diagnose-patients-ce4ad025?mod=wsjhp_columnists_pos1)

In California, union-aligned Democratic state lawmakers recently introduced legislation that would mandate a statewide $25 minimum wage for health workers and support staffers, likely setting up a pitched battle with hospitals, nursing homes and dialysis clinics. State Sen. María Elena Durazo's bill would require health facilities and home health agencies to give raises to many support employees, including nurse technicians, housekeepers, security guards, food workers and laundry providers. The Los Angeles Democrat said workers remain underpaid even as they play a crucial role in the COVID-19 pandemic. Many who earn close to the state's $15.50 minimum wage, she said, struggle with inflation. The bill is backed by the influential SEIU-UHW West, which represents roughly 100,000 workers statewide, similar proposals have previously faced strong opposition from the health industry. If lawmakers approve the bill and Gov. Gavin Newsom signs it, one labor leader estimated, 1.5 million California workers could get a wage hike come January 2024. (https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-15/california-democrats-propose-25-minimum-wage-for-health-workers)

The workforce of the future will be made up of a greater mix of employees of all ages as people live and work longer, economists project. As a result, companies competing for these workers are expected to offer more benefits tailored to needs at different stages of life. The Wall Street Journal anticipates these evolving work perks and benefits in the coming decade: Stints and Sabbaticals; Daycare for Your Parents; Hyper-Personalized Benefits; On-site Counselor; and Post-Parental Leave. (https://www.wsj.com/articles/five-new-benefits-and-perks-employers-will-tailor-to-your-needs-f6cebd1e)

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