• 2/07 - Orange County ZOOM Table - Discussion Topic: "Following the Growth Curves in Value-Based Healthcare" - Featuring Tarek El Nabli, Co-Founder and CEO of Parentis Health


• 2/15 - Bay Area ZOOM Table - Discussion Topic: "Implications of the Fast Growth of Government-Paid Healthcare: A CASE In Point: Alameda Health System" - Featuring Dave Sayen, President of the Board of Trustees of the Alameda (County) Health System and an Alameda Health Care District Trustee


• 2/16 - Los Angeles ZOOM Table - Discussion Topic: "What Are Angels, VCs, PEs, and Strategics Investing in Now?" - Featuring Dave Berkus, President of Berkus Technology Ventures & of iMedisync North America, Inc.


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

ICYMI: The Video Recording of ABL's "Supercharging Your Company's AI Game - to Surf Instead of Sink in Today's AI Growth Wave" (held in person on 1/23/24) Is Now Available on the Password-Protected "MEMBERS ONLY" Section of the ABL Website, Under "Presentations"
There you'll find the videos and slide presentations given by our excellent presenters as well as discussion among the event's attendees.

• Alameda Health System Names Dave Sayen President of Board of Trustees
• Anthem Blue Cross in California (David Pryor, MD) Earns NCQA Health Equity Accreditation Plus
• Biospectal (Eliott Jones) Launches OptiBP App in Switzerland
• Choice in Aging (Debbie Toth) Looks Forward to Annual Crab Feed & "Dishing With Debbie" Video Series
• ChromoLogic (Naresh Menon, PhD) Details Groundbreaking Strategy to Fight Ovarian Cancer
• Cigna (Chris DeRosa) Pinpoints Top Healthcare Trends of 2024 & Impact on U.S. Employers
• Donor Network West (Janice Whaley) Achieves Organizational Milestones
• Eitan Medical's (Roger Massengale) Infusion Pump Validated in Collaboration with Israeli Hospital
• El Camino Health (Cecile Currier) Named a Best Hospital for Cardiac & Maternity Care
• FOMAT Medical Research & HyperCORE (Nick Focil) are Finalists for 2024 ViE Awards
• Illumination Foundation (Pooja Bhalla, DNP) Opens New Family Emergency Home, Receives Grant from CalOptima Health, & CEO Interviewed
• Life Adjustment Team (Cynthia Sampson) Explains Partial Hospitalization Programs & More
• MedWand (Bob Rose) Receives Regulatory Clearance in Thailand + Featured in Video from The Tech Times
• Nelson Hardiman's Harry Nelson, JD Interviewed on Ramifications of Discontinuation of Popular Asthma Medication
• On Lok (Grace Li) Joins Age-Friendly Health System Initiative
• PreludeDx's (Dan Forche) Newly Integrated Residual Risk Subtype Spotlighted in Webinar
• Providence Digital Innovation Group (Marcee Chmait) on Meeting Patient Needs in a Personalized, Systematic Way
• Sheppard Mullin (Linda Igarashi) Awarded "Healthcare Firm of the Year" at 2024 M&A Atlas Awards
• WestFax (Barry Clark) Releases CloudFax Toolkit to Optimize Healthcare Communications
• Wipfli (JJ Johnson) to Present Webinar on Unmasking Cyberthreats in Healthcare
• Xolv, Catalight's IT & Tech Innovation Group (Susan Armiger), Becomes Independent Corporation

• Dave Berkus Ponders "Do You Need a Business Coach?"
• Eckert & Ziegler (Frank Yeager) & ARTBIO Announce Manufacturing & Supply Partnership
• John Tanner's NuSci Presenting In-Person Event on February 15

ABL's Technology Chairman Dave Berkus gave us a welcome shout-out in his blog seen by over 50,000 of his regular "Berkonomics" readers! Here's an excerpt from his post entitled Do you even need a business coach?: "I've personally been involved with the ABL Organization for over thirty years and share problems and solutions with a monthly roundtable of smart CEOs from companies of all sizes." (LA)

Eckert & Ziegler (EZ) and ARTBIO, Inc., a clinical-stage biotech company specializing in the development of a new class of alpha radioligand therapies (ARTs), have entered into a strategic manufacturing and supply agreement. As such, EZ will support ARTBIO to establish manufacturing and delivery of its pipeline therapies using its proprietary AlphaDirect Lead-212 isolation technology. The collaboration aims to expedite the development of Lead-212 based ARTs, starting with the clinical development of ARTBIO's lead asset of AB001 in prostate cancer. (LA)

On the evening of February 15, NuSci Nutrition Science Foundation will present a Nutrition Science Workshop, in which John Tanner will share his nutrition journey after suffering a near-fatal cardiac arrest in 2009. The evening, to be held at Tanner Research in Duarte, will include dinner and a gift book. (LA)

Health care employment grew at its fastest clip since 1991 last year as the industry's pandemic recovery continued and demand for care picked up. Health care jobs expanded by 3.9% in 2023, much higher than the 1.5% growth rate across all other industries, according to new Altarum data. Health care added 654,000 jobs last year, representing almost a quarter of all new jobs in the U.S. Jobs in outpatient care are up 9.6% since the start of the pandemic, while hospital employment is up 3.7%. Staffing at nursing and residential facilities, which were hit hard during COVID-19, is still down 4.6% from pre-pandemic levels despite steady increases in the past two years.
     Altarum notes that some of the growth is from hiring to replace workers who left the field over burnout in recent years. Health insurers have also reported more people are seeking care than expected, which they said is an indication that patients are getting elective procedures they put off during the pandemic. While that means greater demand for health care jobs, it also means higher insurance costs that could be passed along to customers. (https://www.axios.com/2024/02/02/health-care-jobs-recovery-pandemic)

Nurses continue to garner the highest ethics rating from Americans among a diverse list of professions, a distinction they have held for more than two decades. The 79% of U.S. adults who now say nurses have "very high" or "high" honesty and ethical standards is far more than any of the other 17 professions rated. Two other health-related professions - medical doctors and pharmacists - rank second and third behind nurses, with 62% and 58% of Americans, respectively, rating them highly. (https://news.gallup.com/poll/467804/nurses-retain-top-ethics-rating-below-2020-high.aspx)

Proposition 1 would enact a key part of Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan to get people with severe mental illness off the streets and into treatment. It would authorize $6.38 billion in bond money to build residential treatment facilities for people with mental illness, and would divert some existing mental health tax revenue to cover addiction treatment and housing. It would amend the Mental Health Services Act, which voters passed in 2004 to levy a 1% tax on people whose incomes exceed $1 million to pay for mental health services.
     Supporters of Prop 1 argue the law needs to be updated to reflect the reality in California, where addiction and mental illness are often intertwined and where a huge housing shortage has driven living costs out of reach for many. Some mental health organizations oppose the measure because it would divert money from some programs funded by the Mental Health Services Act. Newsom and his allies contend that the money needs to be shifted around to help people with the most severe mental illness who are falling through cracks in the system. They also argue that some programs funded by the act should instead be using money from other sources, including expanded funding for government-backed health insurance plans, to cover some of their costs. (https://www.sfchronicle.com/election/article/california-proposition-1-18635750.php)

CMS has released the Calendar Year (CY) 2025 Advance Notice for the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Programs that would update payment policies for these programs. The Advance Notice complements a proposed rule, also for CY 2025, that CMS released in November 2023 that would, if finalized, strengthen protections for the millions of people who rely on MA and Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage. MA payments from the government to MA plans are expected to increase on average by 3.70 percent, or over $16 billion, from 2024 to 2025, as proposed. CMS is also detailing improvements to the structure of the Medicare Part D drug benefit for CY 2025 that will result in lower drug costs for millions of people with Medicare through the concurrent release of the Draft CY 2025 Part D Redesign Program Instructions. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, in 2025, annual out-of-pocket costs will be capped at $2,000 for people with Medicare Part D. More Information: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/01/31/cms-releases-proposed-payment-updates-2025-medicare-advantage-part-d-programs.html

HHS through CMS recently announced a new model to test approaches for addressing the behavioral and physical health, as well as health-related social needs, of people with Medicaid and Medicare. The Innovation in Behavioral Health (IBH) Model's goal is to improve the overall quality of care and outcomes for adults with mental health conditions and/or substance use disorder by connecting them with the physical, behavioral, and social supports needed to manage their care. The model will also promote health information technology capacity building through infrastructure payments and other activities. The IBH Model will be tested by the CMS Innovation Center. Under IBH, community-based behavioral health practices will form interprofessional care teams consisting of behavioral and physical health providers, as well as community-based supports. (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/01/19/cms-announces-model-to-advance-integration-in-behavioral-health.html)

In late January, the Biden Administration announced 21.3 million people selected an Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Marketplace plan during the 2024 Open Enrollment Period. Total plan selections include more than five million people - about a fourth - who are new to the Marketplaces and 16 million people who renewed their coverage. (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/01/24/historic-21-million-people-choose-aca-marketplace-coverage.html)

The deadline to enroll in a health care plan through Covered California - the state's health insurance marketplace - has been extended from Wednesday, January 31,until Friday, Feb. 9. State officials made the announcement through a recent press release, explaining that Covered California's service center was recently taken offline in response to a cybersecurity incident that affected the third-party vendor that supports its phone lines. Many residents who tried to sign up for a health care plan by calling the service center experienced long wait times, the release said, which also noted that "at this time," there was no indication that any members' personal information was compromised. More than 243,000 people have already signed up this enrollment period, state officials said - a 13% increase from last year.
     California already boasts one of the lowest uninsured rates in the country, with only 6.2% of non-elderly Californians lacking health insurance, according to a 2023 report from the California Health Care Foundation. When the state launched its insurance marketplace in 2013, the uninsured rate was around 17%. (https://www.kqed.org/news/11974310/covered-californias-enrollment-deadline-now-extended-to-feb-9)

Neurology was one of the top five therapeutic areas for U.S. digital health startup investment in 2023 - rising from ninth place in 2022 - and accounted for nearly 8% of overall digital health funding in January of this year. Startups that sealed deals in January are building virtual memory clinics, wearable tracking capabilities for Parkinson's disease, and brain stimulation for depression. (Rock Health's Rock Weekly - the pulse of digital health, 2/5/24)

UCI Health, the largest health system in Orange County, is acquiring four medical centers from Tenet Healthcare Corp. for $975 million in cash. The proposed acquisition of Tenet's Pacific Coast Network includes Los Alamitos, Fountain Valley and Placentia, as well as Lakewood and associated outpatient locations. (https://www.ocbj.com/healthcare/uci-health-buys-4-tenet-hospitals-for-975m/)
ALSO, UCLA Health's request to acquire L.A.-based West Hills Hospital and Medical Center has been authorized by the University of California Board of Regents. UCLA Health's acquisition of the 260-bed hospital, which is part of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare's Far West division, aims to address the academic health system's patient, emergency department and operating room capacity constraints, a spokesperson said. UCLA Health is not disclosing the terms of the agreement, which is subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions. (https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/ucla-health-acquiring-los-angeles-hca-hospital.html)

Amgen is trying a unique strategy with its obesity drug candidate: testing whether it can wean patients toward lower or less frequent doses over time. (https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/05/amgen-obesity-drug-maintenance/)
MEANWHILE, weight-loss drug tirzepatide - sold under the brand names Zepbound for obesity and Mounjaro for diabetes - significantly lowered the blood pressure of adults with overweight or obesity who took it for nine months, according to a new study. (https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/05/health/weight-loss-blood-pressure/index.html)

Ransomware gang LockBit recently targeted Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago, demanding $900k in 48 hours or else patient records would be leaked to the dark web, The Record reported on Jan. 31. Saint Anthony announced the cybersecurity incident on Jan. 29, stating that they first discovered unauthorized access on Dec. 18, 2023. The investigation, concluded on Jan. 7, 2024, found that an unknown actor had made copies of files containing patient information on Dec. 18. (https://www.dhinsights.org/news/lockbit-hits-chicago-hospital)

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