New Partnership Aims To Further Instacart’s Health Care Push
A new partnership between grocery tech firm Instacart and DispatchHealth has a goal of furthering Instacart's efforts to move into the health care market — via prescribed "food interventions." Also in the news; Careismatic's bankruptcy; human longevity research; and more.
Modern Healthcare:
Instacart, DispatchHealth Partner On Food-As-Medicine Program
A new partnership between Instacart and DispatchHealth could help the grocery technology company move deeper into healthcare. The companies announced a collaboration Tuesday that will allow DispatchHealth’s in-home healthcare providers to prescribe food interventions using Instacart’s platform. DispatchHealth emergency medical technicians, nurses and nurse practitioners will be able to distribute food stipends to patients for use to order nutritious food delivered to their doors. (Eastabrook, 1/23)
In other health industry news —
The Baltimore Sun:
With Tight Purse Strings In Annapolis, Health Care Advocates Push For Improved Access To Care, Lower Drug Prices
In what is shaping up to be a financially difficult year for the Maryland General Assembly, community health and hospital advocates hope state lawmakers consider bills that would improve access to care for low-income Marylanders, help reduce high-cost drug prices and reform prior authorization practices. (Roberts, 1/23)
Reuters:
Medical Scrubs Company Careismatic Files For Bankruptcy
Medical apparel company Careismatic Brands filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late on Monday, with an agreement to turn over control to its lenders and eliminate $833 million in debt. ... Careismatic, owned by private equity firm Partners Group, overextended itself to meet a spike in demand for medical apparel during the COVID-19 pandemic, taking on new debt in order to boost sales to brick-and-mortar retail partners, according to court filings. (Knauth, 1/23)
Boston Globe:
Steward Health Care’s Financial Issues May Hurt Health Care Access
Steward Health Care, a for-profit health system that serves thousands of patients in Eastern Massachusetts, is in such grave financial distress that it may be unable to continue operating some facilities, according to public records and people with knowledge of the situation. The fast-moving crisis has left regulators racing to prevent the massive layoffs and erosion of care that could come if hospital services were to suddenly cease. (Bartlett, 1/23)
Stat:
Dog Aging Project Founders On What Lies Ahead After Losing Funding
The Dog Aging Project, which researchers say could yield promising leads for human longevity research, is at a critical crossroads after the National Institute on Aging declined to renew their grant funding. (Balthazar, 1/24)
Modern Healthcare:
Generative AI In Healthcare Needs Government Regulation: WHO
The World Health Organization says providers have a role to play in developing guardrails for artificial intelligence in healthcare. WHO outlined its concerns in a report published last Thursday that focused on the ethics and governance of AI in healthcare. As the hype, promise and usage of AI has grown in healthcare, health system leaders, developers and congressional stakeholders have sought more concrete guardrails on its usage, particularly for clinical purposes. (Turner, 1/23)
GovInfo Security:
Judge Again Says Meta Pixel Privacy Case Dismissal Unlikely
A federal judge on Wednesday said he is inclined to let proceed a putative class action lawsuit against Meta over its gathering of data from medical center patient portals through a web activity tracking tool. In an amended complaint, plaintiffs allege that the social media giant violated their privacy by harvesting individually identifiable health information from medical websites that had embedded the Meta pixel tracking tool. (McGee, 1/17)
Also —
CIDRAP:
Primary Care Physicians' Electronic Workload Grew During Pandemic
A new study shows primary care providers' (PCPs') electronic workload was already growing when the pandemic hit, and continued to increase 3 years later. The study, published yesterday in the Annals of Family Medicine, suggests PCPs may be at risk from burnout considering the high after-hours demand to complete electronic health records (EHR) and answer patient email messages after clinic hours. (Soucheray, 1/23)
