Is it OK to believe in the Medicare/Doc Fix again? (Morning Read)

Obama signaled that he’s prepared to sign a bipartisan deal on Medicare that is emerging in Congress. We might be able to stop talking about doc fix. “I love when Congress passes bipartisan bills that I can sign. It’s very encouraging,” he joked in a speech at the White House.

The Morning Read provides a 24-hour wrap up of everything else healthcare’s innovators need to know about the business of medicine (and beyond). The author of The Read published it but all full-time MedCity News journalists contribute to its content.

TOP STORIES

Obama signaled that he’s prepared to sign a bipartisan deal on Medicare that is emerging in Congress. We might be able to stop talking about doc fix. “I love when Congress passes bipartisan bills that I can sign. It’s very encouraging,” he joked in a speech at the White House.

Health and wellness incentives per employee: a record $693.

On social distancing policies and the unvaccinated: “Even when they are effective, social distancing measures can have adverse consequences for economic and civil liberties.”

The mapping of one nation’s genome should capture your imagination.

LIFE SCIENCE

RAPS gives a nice overview of the FDA’s plans to better manage generics.

Medtronic has joined in on a $44 million Series A round for Semma Therapeutics for development of a Type 1 diabetes cell therapy-device treatment.

Dartmouth researches have found that the protein Pom1 possesses the ability to modify different sets of proteins to coordinate the processes of cell growth and division.

The FDA has approved Anthrasil, Anthrax Immune Globulin Intravenous (Human), to treat patients with inhalational anthrax in combination with appropriate antibacterial drugs.

Accounting problems affecting share price has taken Salix’s $13B offer from Allergan off the table.

Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), a group within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has signed a three-year research collaboration agreement with MED Institute, a Cook Group company that supports developers of medical products through the key phases of obtaining market approval.

The FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health and MED Institute are collaborating on research to assess the radio frequency-induced heating of passive metallic vascular and orthopedic devices in MRIs, according to a press statement. The goal is to help engineers better design MR safety testing strategies and to better understand thresholds for heating.

PAYERS-PROVIDERS

Why Dr. Zeke Emanuel is wrong (from Modern Healthcare’s ex-publisher)

A new 100-bed hospital is opening in Atlanta.

Becker’s Hospital Review has put out a list of 54 hospitals for which 90 percent or more of patients gave an overall care rating of nine or 10 on their HCAHPS Survey.

Cleveland Clinic has added Piedmont Healthcare to its cardiac care partnership.

TECH

Visual Arts and Science, which has an platform focused on various eye-related ailments, got a second FDA approval.

Robert Wachter, MD, gave a Q&A describing the 90 or so people, from across the healthcare industry and beyond, he spoke with for his new book, The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age.

Keep this app culture in mind: half of app makers spend zero on security.

A very nice profile of one of our favorite people: Jean Sarasohn-Kahn.

Old, poor, female and in love with digital health.

Hearst Health has formed an alliance with Jefferson School of Population Health to create a $100,000 annual prize to highlight an organization’s or individual’s achievement in wellness. The announcement, which was made at Jefferson’s annual Population Health Colloquium, is also no doubt designed to give more visibility to Hearst Health, which is just over one year old.

POLITICS

In a speech at the White House, President Obama took a jab at the Republican party for not having an Obamacare fix figured out.

“We have been promised a lot of things these past five years that didn’t turn out to be the case,” Obama said at a White House event marking the healthcare law’s progress. “Death panels. Doom. A serious alternative from Republicans in Congress.”

Healthcare exchanges still struggling with middle and high-income sign ups.

An old, retired political crank hates Obamacare. Next!

A LITTLE EXTRA

During the opening keynote at Facebook’s F8 conference, Mark Zuckerberg announced that users will soon be able to reach out to businesses straight from the standalone Facebook Messenger app.

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