Distilinfo News Of The Week | Edition-5
Sunil Kumar
Founder Member & Chief Managing Editor at DistilNFO Publications / Managing Editor at Omnitalk Retail
Welcome to DistilINFO News Of The Week!
Here you will find the latest news and updates from DistillINFO, our news and information platform for the Payer, Provider, IT
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1.What $8B Buys Aetna with Signify Health
With CVS Health’s agreement to purchase Signify Health for $8 billion, the line of payers and technology companies grabbing a piece of the home health market continues to grow.
“There is a race to the consumers’ home, whether it’s providing health at home, virtual care or primary and long-term care,” Gurpreet Singh, a health services consultant at PwC, told Becker’s. “The goal for most competitors is to ‘own the home or
‘own the front door’ to health delivery.”
2. Humana Partners with TrueVoice on Digital Marketing-
Humana has partnered with TrueVoice Growth Marketing on a new growth marketing approach that uses real-time behavioral metadata from agents, brokers and third-party administrators to guide acquisition and retention campaigns.
The digital initiatives have nearly doubled lead volume and increased email conversion rates, according to Humana.
3. Rural Hospital Association Expands Access to Telehealth Resources
Aiming to support rural communities in obtaining access to virtual care, Equum Medical has partnered with the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) to add telehealth resources to treatment practices.
As a nonprofit organization, the NHRA aims to use multiple methods of communication, education, and research to support rural healthcare organizations and improve the health of Americans residing in rural communities.
4. Large Employers Aim to Redirect Healthcare Spending, Boost Quality
Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH) has announced a series of goals to help large employers redirect healthcare spending and improve care quality for its members over the next five years.
“Our new goals reflect the need and interest of large public and private purchasers to adopt modern ideas and novel partnerships so that savings can be spent in areas that foster better health,” Elizabeth Mitchell, president and chief executive officer of PBGH, said in a press release emailed to HealthPayerIntelligence.
5. Consumers Seek Transparency Around Treatment Costs, Healthcare Deals
Consumers voiced their support for more transparency around healthcare costs and deals, with three-quarters of respondents supporting protections against site-based treatment cost increases in an AHIP survey.
“Every American deserves access to affordable, comprehensive, high-quality health coverage and care. But rising health care costs continue to be a top concern for consumers nationwide, especially during a time of high inflation,” the press release stated.
1. 28 Recent Hospital, Health System Executive Moves
The following hospital and health system executive moves have been reported by Becker’s Hospital Review since Sept. 6:
1. Darian Harris was named CEO of St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, Calif., and Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna, Calif.
2. David Levine, MD, was named chief medical officer of Norwalk, Ohio-based Fisher-Titus Medical Center.
3. Taylor Rose was named CEO of Dillon, Mont.-based Barrett Hospital and Healthcare.
4. Robert Riney was named CEO of Detroit-based Henry Ford Health.
5. Jeffrey Carr was named vice president of business development at Arlington, Va.-based VHC Health.
2. Information as a Social Determinant: 3 Ways Google is Addressing Health Inequity
Social determinants fall into five main categories, according to Health.gov: economic stability, education access and quality, healthcare access and quality, neighbourhood and built environment, and social and community context.
But Google argues there’s another determinant: information. That’s why the tech giant announced a series of updates on Monday at the Google Health Equity Summit. The event was held both virtually and in person.
3. HRH Hospital Invests in MEDITECH EHR to Optimize Clinical Workflows
Houlton Regional Hospital (HRH) in Maine is implementing a MEDITECH EHR platform to optimize clinical workflows and care coordination.
The EHR will support data exchange between the hospital and the Houlton Regional Hospital outpatient physician office practices.
Work on the implementation began in January 2022, and hospital officials said the system is set to go live on October 1st.
4. Racial Mental Health Disparities Cost US $278B in 4 Years
Racial mental health disparities cost the United States around $278 billion between 2016 and 2020, putting a price tag on a health equity issue that’s long plagued the nation, according to researchers from the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine with support from Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.
5. Amazon – Telehealth Flexibilities Should Be Expanded By The Senate
Amazon joined hundreds of provider groups, hospitals and virtual care companies to send a joint letter to the U.S. Senate to pass a two-year extension of telehealth flexibilities policies that were enacted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The letter, sent by a group of 375 organizations on Sept. 13, asked members of the Senate to pass legislation that would extend the COVID-19-era telehealth flexibilities for another two years for both Medicare and commercial market patients.
1. Microsoft Azure is taking its cloud into space
“We are bringing together a deep integration of ground station partner networks to enable our customers’ data delivery to an Azure region of choice at zero cost, thus reducing their total operational costs and ensuring data is available in the customer’s Azure tenant for further processing,” said Microsoft in a statement.
2. Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter dodge questions on social media and national security
Executives from four of the biggest social media companies testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee Wednesday, defending their platforms and their respective safety, privacy and moderation failures in recent years.
Congress managed to drag in a relatively fresh set of product-focused executives this time around, including TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas, who testified for the first time before lawmakers, and longtime Meta executive Chris Cox.
The hearing was convened to broadly explore social media’s impact on national security and touched on topics ranging from domestic extremism and misinformation to CSAM and China.
3. Amazon Announces New $99 Kindle e-reader with Better Screen
Amazon on Tuesday announced a new entry-level $99 Kindle e-reader with several improvements over the prior model.
The new Kindle also comes with twice the storage, 16 gigabytes instead of 8 GB, which should be more than enough for most digital book libraries.
4. How to Create a Culture of Innovation
So much has changed since the early days of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced organizations to rethink where and how people work.
What didn’t change was the need for organizations to continue to move forward with digital initiatives. For CIOs and IT leaders, that meant adopting a sink-or-swim mentality, and accelerating initiatives even as they transitioned to remote work.
5. The Tech Industry Needs a Labor Movement
Imagine yourself working at Apple. It’s April 2022. You’re being told by the higher-ups that you’ve got to come back to the office — by which I mean you’ve read a Slack message on your laptop.
You continue your workday, pissed that your bosses don’t seem to understand that you can do this job remotely.
