Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
COO Departs From Billionaire's Health Initiative Haven For 'Family Reasons'
The chief operating officer of the healthcare venture backed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase dubbed Haven recently left the company. As CNBC first reported, Haven COO Jack Stoddard left the joint venture on April 30 for personal reasons, the company confirmed. Stoddard, who joined Haven in September, previously worked for Comcast as its digital health general manager, an affiliated startup Accolade that oversaw employee health benefits as well as UnitedHealth Group's Optum. (Kacik, 5/17)
Losing such a key executive so early in the process could be a big setback for Haven, which has laid out an ambitious effort to bring down health-care costs, starting with the combined 1.2 million employees at the three companies. The entity, which is set up as a nonprofit, was named Haven in March and at the time had about a dozen people. (Farr, 5/17)
The Trump administration's top health IT official on Thursday highlighted the promise of third-party apps to help address numerous problems in the industry, from improving interoperability to easing burdensome reporting. ...That mentality underlies the proposed interoperability rule the ONC released in February. The proposal outlines how regulators will require healthcare providers and insurers to share medical data with patients, such as through application programming interfaces that connect electronic health record systems with third-party apps. (Cohen, 5/17)
She alights from a black Ferrari convertible, her Christian Louboutin stilettos glinting in the sunlight. The lid of her black lacquer grand piano is propped open in the living room of her plush Beverly Hills home. "I own a chain of elderly care facilities," she says into the camera on Bravo's reality television show "The Millionaire Matchmaker." ''My net worth is $3 to $4 million, probably." (Gollan, 5/19)
Uwe Ernst Reinhardt was a professor of political economy at Princeton University and held several positions in the healthcare industry. Reinhardt was a prominent scholar in health care economics and a frequent speaker and author on subjects ranging from the war in Iraq to the future of Medicare. (5/16)
Kaiser Health News: Escalating Workplace Violence Rocks Hospitals
Across the country, many doctors, nurses and other health care workers have remained silent about what is being called an epidemic of violence against them. The violent outbursts come from patients and patients’ families. And for years, it has been considered part of the job. When you visit the Cleveland Clinic emergency department — whether as a patient, family member or friend — a large sign directs you toward a metal detector. (Harris-Taylor, 5/20)
