Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Blockchain key to securing personal data: Harvard Business Review
 Using smart, distributed ledgers to prove our identities and store our personal data could shift the power of (and profit from) data management from big, established firms back to individuals. This would havebig implications for identity systems. We could keep certified copies of identity documents, biometric test results, health data, or academic and training certificates online, available at all times, yet safe unless you give away your key. At a whole system level, the database is very secure, as each single ledger entry among billions would need to be found and then individually “cracked” at great expense in time and computing.

It’s a strange world we live in when large companies such as Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion are able to store huge quantities of our personal data and profit from it in a way that doesn’t always benefit us. And when those same companies lose our personal data and make us susceptible to identity theft, there’s virtually nothing we can do about it. Equifax lost the data of more than 140 million people, and recompense is not forthcoming. Meanwhile, the CEO may be stepping down with a pension worth $18 million. Clearly, the system is broken, and it’s time to stop and ask ourselves why we continue to rely on a system that doesn’t stand up to the challenges we face in a digital society.

Credit-referencing agencies benefit immensely from our data, but there are many other data privateers — from online shopping sites to retailers to media firms – that are doing the same, including our own governments. U.S. Social Security numbers, or UK National Insurance numbers, were originally created to keep track of the earnings history of workers for entitlement and benefit programs. Both have since morphed into critical numbers assigned at birth that can be used by government agencies not just to collect taxes, but to identify individuals. They are also now used by private industry to track our financial and commercial histories.

Many countries have such a national identity system. With the governments of China and India both providing their citizens a national identity (Hukou in China and Aadhaar in India), it’s safe to say that well over a third of the world uses government-issued identitifiers. Among the various ways to prove identity, the U.S. stands out for its complexity, relying on a mix of varying state mechanisms — for example the ubiquitous use of state driving licenses, combined with Social Security numbers. A decade ago, the UK attempted to establish a national identity system, which was ultimately scrapped for many reasons, which included political overreaching, lack of security, and cost overruns. None of these nation’s systems have proven to be a practical, reliable way to protect and prove our identities.

Still, numerous smaller countries, such as Singapore, are exploring national identity systems that span government and the private sector. One of the more successful stories of governments instituting an identity system is Estonia, with its ID-kaarts. Reacting to cyber-attacks against the nation, the Estonian government decided that it needed to become more digital, and even more secure. They decided to use a distributed ledger to build their system, rather than a traditional central database. Distributed ledgers are used in situations where multiple parties need to share authoritative information with each other without a central third party, such as for data-logging clinical assessments or storing data from commercial deals. These are multi-organization databases with a super audit trail. As a result, the Estonian system provides its citizens with an all-digital government experience, significantly reduced bureaucracy, and significantly high citizen satisfaction with their government dealings.

How Blockchain Works Here are five basic principles underlying the technology. 1. Distributed Database Each party on a blockchain has access to the entire database and its complete history. No single party controls the data or the information. Every party can verify the records of its transaction partners directly, without an intermediary. 2. Peer-to-Peer Transmission Communication occurs directly between peers instead of through a central node. Each node stores and forwards information to all other nodes. 3. Transparency with Pseudonymity Every transaction and its associated value are visible to anyone with access to the system. Each node, or user, on a blockchain has a unique 30-plus-character alphanumeric address that identifies it. Users can choose to remain anonymous or provide proof of their identity to others. Transactions occur between blockchain addresses. 4. Irreversibility of Records Once a transaction is entered in the database and the accounts are updated, the records cannot be altered, because they’re linked to every transaction record that came before them (hence the term “chain”). Various computational algorithms and approaches are deployed to ensure that the recording on the database is permanent, chronologically ordered, and available to all others on the network. 5. Computational Logic The digital nature of the ledger means that blockchain transactions can be tied to computational logic and in essence programmed. So users can set up algorithms and rules that automatically trigger transactions between nodes.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have increased the awareness of distributed ledgers with their use of a particular type of ledger — blockchain — to hold the details of coin accounts among millions of users. Cryptocurrencies have certainly had their own problems with their wallets and exchanges — even ID-kaarts are not without their technical problems — but the distributed ledger technology holds firm for Estonia and for cryptocurrencies. These technologies have been working in hostile environments now for nearly a decade.

The problem with a central database like the ones used to house social security numbers, or credit reports, is that once it’s compromised, a thief has the ability to copy all of the information stored there. Hence the huge numbers of people that can be affected — more than 140 million people in the Equifax breach, and more than 50 million at Home Depot — though perhaps Yahoo takes the cake with more than three billion alleged customer accounts hacked. Of course, if you can find a distributed ledger online, you can copy it, too. However, a distributed ledger, while available to everyone, may be unreadable if its contents are encrypted. Bitcoin’s blockchain is readable to all, though you can encrypt things in comments. Most distributed ledgers outside cryptocurrencies are encrypted in whole or in part. The effect is that while you can have a copy of the database, you can’t actually read it.

This characteristic of encrypted distributed ledgers has big implications for identity systems. You can keep certified copies of identity documents, biometric test results, health data, or academic and training certificates online, available at all times, yet safe unless you give away your key. At a whole system level, the database is very secure. Each single ledger entry among billions would need to be found and then individually “cracked” at great expense in time and computing, making the database as a whole very safe.

Distributed ledgers seem ideal for private distributed identity systems, and many organizations are working to provide such systems to help people manage the huge amount of paperwork modern society requires to open accounts, validate yourself, or make payments. Taken a small step further, these systems can help you keep relevant health or qualification records at your fingertips. Using “smart” ledgers, you can forward your documentation to people who need to see it, while keeping control of access, including whether another party can forward the information. You can even revoke someone’s access to the information in the future.

Several organizations are working on returning the value of your data to you, such as the state of Illinois’ pilot to test a blockchain-based birth registry/ID system. Taking this idea one step further, when you are the sole owner of your personal data on purchases, online browsing history, or mobile data, you can also choose whether or not to “sell” your own data, with rights and restrictions using smart ledgers. This could shift the power of (and profit from) data management from big, established firms back to individual users. This would also shift the responsibility. If you lost your cryptographic “keys,” then they would be truly lost and you would have to build your identity again.

Equifax and others have shown the weakness of central databases in the hands of a single firm. Mutual distributed ledger systems have the potential to provide us with identity and activity management, even permitting us to make a market selling information about ourselves, taking control and cash back from companies like Equifax and Yahoo and giving it back to ourselves. There will certainly be mistakes along the way, but how can we truly object to reclaiming control of our most private property — our personal data?

Output: Distributed ledger technology – or blockchain – has the potential to put control of personal data back in the hands of the public, rather than centralised corporations, which are increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks, according to Michael Mainelli, executive chairman of distributed ledger company Z/Yen Group. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, he cited the Estonian model of using blockchain to create ID-kaarts, a secure identity system that has proved popular with the population. Mainelli said a decentralised identity database could also give people the right to sell to, or withdraw their personal information from third parties, as they saw fit.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
National Flood Insurance Program to be exhausted by November
 As Hurricane Nate -- the fourth cyclone to batter the U.S. this hurricane season -- aimed at the U.S. last week, the Office of Management and Budget issued a dire warning and a pessimistic prognosis to Congress. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) will have "fully exhausted its financial resources," including its $30 billion borrowing authority, before the end of October. After that, it will be "unable to pay claims," according to a letter that OMB Director Mick Mulvaney sent to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The NFIP was already $24 billion in debt even before this year's monster storms ravaged the U.S. First, Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and Louisiana, saturating Houston with 60 inches of rain. Then Hurricane Irma scored a bullseye on Florida, tracking right up the peninsula with 135-mile per-hour winds. Hurricane Maria virtually decimated the island of Puerto Rico, destroying the power grid and major roadways. Damage reports there are still coming in.

"The recent hurricanes have inflicted projected losses of $16 billion," said Mulvaney. Now, Nate will dump at least an additional three to six inches of rain on the already soaked Gulf region.

Congress has repeatedly been slow to act on flood insurance -- already delaying once this year -- and in the past it has let the program lapse, which ultimately stopped construction in coastal areas where flood insurance is required to obtain a mortgage.

But now political pressure from the thousands, perhaps millions, who've been the victims of storm surge and floods will force the divided federal legislature to finally act, possibly even before the Dec. 8 deadline now set by President Trump. The White House has already asked Congress for $29 billion in disaster aid, which would include $16 billion in debt "forgiveness" for the NFIP to keep it afloat a while longer.

But Mulvaney is asking for a lot more than that, such as measures that are sure to be controversial and divide Congress, in some instances along flood-prone lines rather than by party. "The NFIP is simply not financially sustainable in its present form," he stated in the letter.

Others, including environmentalists and taxpayer advocates, agreed. "More must be done to fix the nation's problematic disaster policies … including the NFIP," said SmarterSafer, one of those groups, in a statement.

Among the reforms Mulvaney is proposing:

Identify homes and properties subject to repeat flooding because some homeowners have collected three and four times from the NFIP. Coverage for these properties would be "discontinued" if they flood again.

Increase the NFIP's reserve fund and exempt it from a cap on annual rate increases.

Phase out NFIP insurance coverage for newly constructed homes and commercial establishments located in designated "Special Flood Hazard Areas."

Allow private insurers to sell flood insurance in these flood hazard areas. Remove the legal barriers for those who want to switch from the NFIP to private insurance even though insurers would be in competition with the NFIP. Private insurers would get access to now-restricted NFIP data.

Flood insurance risks would have to be disclosed before a real estate transaction is completed.

Mulvaney recognized that many homeowners in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico cannot afford flood insurance -- federal or private -- as premiums continue to climb. So he suggested an "affordability program" for low-income policyholders. His proposals seem to echo some of the bills Congress is currently considering, which are already being criticized by coastal builders, which in many instances would be shut out of lucrative shorefront real estate.

Consumer advocates such as Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, have criticized the idea of letting private insurers compete with the NFIP because insurers could "cherry pick" their policyholders leaving the worst ones for the NFIP, which would only fall further into debt.

But Mulvaney's letter -- and Nate adding to this year's onslaught of tropical cyclones -- will almost certainly raise the pressure on Congress to act … quickly.

Trending News Why Amazon pays employees $5,000 to quit

Output: The US National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) will be "fully exhausted" by the end of October, it has been warned. The NFIP was already $24bn in debt before a series of hurricanes devastated parts of the US and Puerto Rico. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Mick Mulvaney said the storms had caused projected losses of $16bn and warned the body was "simply not financially sustainable in its present form". He proposed a series of measures, including allowing private insurers to sell cover in flood-prone areas and introducing an affordability scheme for low-income policyholders.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Workbench raises $1.7m for its project-based learning platform
 WORKBENCH, a project-based learning platform for K-12 educators, has raised $1.7 million, the Baltimore Sun reports. The deal is part of an ongoing $2 million seed funding round led by Brown Advisory, and brings the company’s total funding to nearly $5 million.

Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Workbench offers ready-made project ideas, as well as curriculum and directions for implementing projects into the classroom. The platform also connects users and makers with companies and products that sell maker tools and other project ideas.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Workbench’s recent raise will be used “to expand sales and marketing outreach for its hands-on learning tools.”

Output: Online learning platform Workbench has raised an additional $1.7m in funding to expand its marketing and sales operation. The company, based in Baltimore, Maryland, provides resources for teachers at primary and secondary schools. Workbench has now attracted total funding of nearly $5m including from the most recent round, which was led by investment firm Brown Advisory. The raise will reportedly be used “to expand sales and marketing outreach for its hands-on learning tools”.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Regus WeWork accused of corporate espionage by co-working competitor
 On the wall of one of Knotel's New York locations, a "wanted" poster displays the mugshot of a man the company believes is secretly employed by WeWork, its main co-working rival.

Amol Sarva, chief executive and co-founder of the fast-growing Knotel, claimed that man and several other employees of the $20 billion co-working giant posed as prospective tenants to gain access to Knotel's co-working spaces.

"WeWork had their paid staff lie about who they were to enter our secure areas," Sarva told Crain's. "That's corporate espionage, and it's in service to a hostile and negative strategy."

Once inside, the WeWork spies were able to assess Knotel's clientele, some of whom were later targeted with aggressive marketing materials in which WeWork offered up to a year of free rent and money to help tenants buy themselves out of their current Knotel leases.

Output: Knotel CEO Amol Sarva, co-founder of New York's third-largest office space provider, has accused rival firm WeWork of "corporate espionage". Sarva alleged that his company was infiltrated by WeWork staff posing as customers, who then targeted Knotel's clients with marketing materials and offers of free rent. "It's hard to say whether the CEO is orchestrating bad behaviour, or it's just a frat party run amok," said Sarva. According to reports, other co-working companies have experienced similar issues. WeWork did not respond to the accusations.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Yandex.Checkout deal enables Russians to pre-order Tesla Model 3
 Yandex Checkout to Provide Advanced Payments for Tesla Model 3 Orders

Yandex.Checkout, Russian leading online payment service, is the first in Russia to offer advance online payment for Tesla Model 3.

Tesla Model 3 electric car is now available to Russian customers for online booking pre-ordering at teslamodel3.ru. It is a special platform by Moscow Tesla Club, the independent supplier of electric cars in Russia and the Club of Tesla owners.

Tesla Model 3 is Tesla's first electric sedan for the mass market. (The electric car went on sale in July 2017.)

"In order to book Tesla Model 3, Russian customers need to make the advance payment of 145 thousand rubles (=2490$) from a bank card either from an identified Yandex.Money e-wallet the money will be spent on the car registration and delivery. Recently, the number of cars sold online in Russia has been growing Yandex.Checkout users have already paid for more than a hundred of different models of cars. Thanks to the partnership between Yandex.Checkout and Moscow Tesla Club, Russian fans of this high-end electric car maker now have the opportunity to make a quick and safe prepayment online. We are confident that in the coming years, online car sales will continue to grow," - says Dmitry Karmishin, Head of Sales at Yandex.Money.

Output: Russian online payments giant Yandex.Checkout has partnered with electric-car supplier Moscow Tesla Club to enable customers to pre-order a Tesla Model 3. Payments covering car registration and delivery can be made using a Yandex.Money e-wallet or bank card at teslamodel3.ru.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Surging debt and liquidity pose global risk: Schäuble
 German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, the warhorse of the eurozone debt crisis, will attend his final meeting of eurozone ministers on Monday, October 9, 2017, as variously the most loathed or loved figures in EU politics. (Photograph: JOHN THYSJOHN THYS/AFP/Getty Images)

Wolfgang Schäuble has warned that spiralling levels of global debt and liquidity present a major risk to the world economy, in his parting shot as Germany’s finance minister.

In an interview with the Financial Times, the Europhile who has steered one of the world's largest economies for the past eight years, said there was a danger of "new bubbles" forming due to the trillions of dollars that central banks have pumped into markets.

Mr Schäuble also warned of risks to stability in the eurozone, particularly those posed by bank balance sheets burdened by the post-crisis legacy of non-performing loans.

A strong advocate of fiscal rectitude, Mr Schäuble dominated Europe’s policy response to the eurozone debt crisis and has been vilified in countries such as Greece as an architect of austerity.

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But he will mainly be remembered as the most ardently pro-European politician in German chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet, skilled at selling the benefits of the euro and of deeper European integration to an often sceptical German public.

Mr Schäuble told the FT that the Brexit vote last year had demonstrated how “foolish” it was to listen to “demagogues who say...we’re paying too much for Europe”.

“In that respect they made a great contribution to European integration,” he said. “Though in the short term that doesn’t really help Britain.”

Mr Schäuble is to move to a new job as Speaker of the German Bundestag, amid widespread concern about how the legislature will be affected by the arrival of 92 MPs from the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a rightwing populist party that stunned the country’s political establishment by winning 12.6 per cent in last month’s election.

Mr Schäuble, who will attend his last meeting of the eurogroup finance ministers on Monday, sought to reassure Germany’s allies that the AfD’s surprise success would not in any way affect the country’s commitment to liberal democracy.

“There’s no chance Germany will ever relapse into nationalism,” he said.

The AfD’s voters were dissatisfied, felt excluded, were angry about perceived injustice and worried about how the world was changing. “But there’s no reason to believe that democracy and the rule of law are in danger,” he said.

However, he warned that the world was in danger of “encouraging new bubbles to form”.

“Economists all over the world are concerned about the increased risks arising from the accumulation of more and more liquidity and the growth of public and private debt. I myself am concerned about this, too,” he said.

His comments come a day after Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, said the world was enjoying its best growth spurt since the start of the decade, but warned of "threats on the horizon" from "high levels of debt in many countries to rapid credit expansion in China, to excessive risk-taking in financial markets".

Mr Schäuble’s views also chime with those of the Bank for International Settlements, which has long argued that aggressive monetary easing by central banks was fuelling bubbles in asset prices.

The BIS warned last month that the world had become so used to cheap credit that higher interest rates could derail the global economic recovery.

Mr Schäuble defended austerity, saying the word was, “strictly speaking, an Anglo-Saxon way of describing a solid financial policy which doesn’t necessarily see more, or higher deficits as a good thing”.

He said Germany’s current economic boom, with rising domestic demand and investment and the lowest unemployment rate since reunification, was a vindication of an economic policy that prioritised “sticking to the rules” and avoiding deficits. Under his stewardship the country has run balanced budgets since 2014.

“The UK always made fun of Rhineland capitalism,” he said, contrasting Germany’s consensus-driven, social market model with Anglo-American free markets and deregulation. “[BUT] we have seen that the tools of the social market economy were more effective at dealing with the [FINANCIAL]crisis...than in the places where the crisis arose.”

Mr Schäuble praised Emmanuel Macron’s “vigorous initiatives” for overhauling the EU, without directly addressing the French president’s proposals for eurozone reform. He said only that the key task facing the single currency area was to “reduce the risks, which are still too high — think of the bank balance sheets in many EU member states”.

“We have to ensure that we will be resilient enough if we ever face a new economic crisis,” he added. “We won’t always have such positive economic times as we have now.”

(Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017)

Output: Surging levels of worldwide debt and liquidity present a massive risk to the world economy, said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. There is also danger of "new bubbles" forming in the financial markets, said Schäuble, thanks to the trillions of dollars banks have pumped into them. JP Morgan's Marko Kolanovic warned that the world is on the brink of a "great liquidity crisis" last week.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
California governor to sign drug price transparency bill that infuriates pharma
 In a blow to the pharmaceutical industry, California Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed a bill into law that requires drug makers to explain and justify price hikes, making this the latest state to actively address the high cost of medicines.

The bill, which was vociferously fought by the pharmaceutical industry, is set to become one of the more comprehensive state efforts to address pricing transparency.

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For instance, drug makers have to provide 60-day notice to insurers and government health plans before increasing list prices of any medicine that costs more than $40 by at least 16 percent in a two-year period. And health plans have to provide detailed information about prescription drug costs and the portion of premiums attributed to this expense. (Here is a fact sheet on the bill.)

Output: In a blow to the pharmaceutical industry, California Gov. Jerry Brown is expected on Monday to sign a bill that would require drug makers to explain and justify price hikes, making this the latest state to actively address the high cost of medicines.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
To slow deadly hepatitis outbreak, paramedics will now provide vaccinations to the homeless
 Paramedics are the newest troops in the fight against San Diego’s ever-growing hepatitis A outbreak.

A letter signed this week by the director of the state Emergency Medical Services Authority temporarily expands state laws that govern paramedics, granting them emergency powers to “vaccinate at-risk populations in response to the outbreak.”

Dr. Kristi Koenig, director of the San Diego County Emergency Medical Service, requested the temporary scope of practice expansion on Sept. 20 and said Wednesday night that she received approval in the mail Tuesday.

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Paramedics will be able to deliver hepatitis A doses only under the supervision of nurses and only at special events created to inoculate those who are at high risk of infection, including homeless residents, drug users and those with liver disease or compromised immune systems.

Usually only nurses and doctors are allowed to give the vaccine.

“Paramedics already have basic skills in terms of delivering injections, and this approval allows us to give them extra training to do vaccination but only in very specific settings with very specific oversight,” Koenig said, adding that they will not be able to administer vaccines during emergency calls.

She said getting the state to approve the request took a fair bit of back-and-forth with California regulators. Assemblyman Todd Gloria, D-San Diego, added a letter of his own urging approval on Sept. 27.

Gloria said Wednesday evening that he believes paramedics can take pressure off public health nurses who have been engaged in a large and growing public vaccination campaign to stop the outbreak, which has now killed 17 people and sickened nearly 500 people throughout the region.

He said that these first responders can be effective with the homeless and drug-using population that has been disproportionately affected by the outbreak.

“Paramedics are often in communication with this population and, frankly, might be better able to get them to say yes to the vaccine,” said Gloria, a former city council member. “This adds hundreds of healthcare professionals to the vaccination campaign. Having more boots on the ground, so to speak, I think can help us keep this outbreak from spreading any more than it already has.”

The campaign, by all counts, continues to gain steam. Last week public health officials reported that more than 42,000 doses have been administered. During a presentation at the San Diego Convention Center on Wednesday afternoon that number was bumped up to 54,000 by Dr. Eric McDonald, director of the county’s Epidemiology and Immunization Services Branch.

Paul Sisson writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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Output: Paramedics are the newest troops in the fight against San Diego’s ever-growing hepatitis A outbreak. A letter signed this week by the director of the state Emergency Medical Services Authority temporarily expands state laws that govern paramedics, granting them emergency powers to “vaccinate at-risk populations in response to the outbreak.”


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Proposed MACRA participation threshold gets mixed reviews
 Proposed changes to the Quality Payment Program (QPP) – the value-based payment program established by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) – are drawing mixed reactions from physicians.

A key component of the proposed update to the QPP is an expansion of the exemption threshold for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Currently, physicians are exempt from MIPS if they bill $30,000 or less in Medicare Part B charges or have 100 or fewer Medicare patients. The proposal would increase the number of exempt physicians by raising the threshold to $90,000 or less in Part B charges or 200 or fewer Medicare patients.

copyright roobcio/Thinkstock

Eligible clinicians and group practices that fall below the threshold can still voluntarily submit data, but they will not be scored for their participation in MIPS and will not be eligible for bonuses or face penalties for not meeting goals.

The expanded threshold proposal drew praise from the American Medical Association for exempting many small and rural practices from the requirements, but they also called on the agency to move more quickly in notifying physicians if they fall into the exempt category.

The American College of Surgeons expressed support for the changes to the threshold, adding that going forward the threshold should “be maintained at numbers no lower than that proposed for the 2018 performance period so that providers may have certainty of the criteria and their participation responsibilities from year to year.”

The American College of Cardiology supported the expansion of the low-volume threshold and encouraged the agency to review the levels annually.

But the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons suggested the volume threshold didn’t go far enough. “We ask that CMS consider a further widening of the threshold to all practices with 18 or fewer clinicians,” the group said in its comments on the proposal. “A threshold in terms of billing amounts and the number of patients creates an unhelpful incentive for physicians to turn away Medicare patients in order to qualify for the exemption.”

The group argued that larger practices can better absorb the cost of complying with MACRA regulations and basing participation on billing could create uncertainty due to fluctuations in billing from year-to-year.

Opt in option?

Several other groups sought a pathway for exempt physicians to opt into the program and take advantage of bonuses, especially those who had already prepared for the program based on the lower initial threshold.

“By raising the low-volume threshold and not offering an opt-in ability, CMS is further and needlessly delaying practices from payment based on value over volume, as well as the intent behind the establishment of virtual groups,” the American Academy of Family Physicians wrote in comments to the CMS.

The American Gastroenterological Association voiced its support for expanding the exclusion threshold and supported the idea of an opt-in, but called on the CMS to hold harmless those practices that opted in. “Clinicians and groups opting-in to the QPP should not be subject to negative payment adjustments,” AGA said in its comments to the CMS.

The American Academy of Dermatology Association supports the proposed low-volume threshold and called upon the CMS to allow those who want to participate to create a path to opt into MIPS.

The Endocrine Society supports the expansion of the threshold, but called on the CMS to provide a pathway for those who want to participate if they are otherwise excluded.

The American Osteopathic Association also called for a pathway for exempted physicians to opt in. And they cited two negative effects of expanding the threshold to a wider group of physicians. “First, it will result in wasted resources from practices that prepared for MIPS participation and are now unable to participate,” the association said in comments to the CMS. “Second, it will have the effect of dividing all practices into two levels: those that are incentivized to provide value-based care, and a significant number that are not eligible for such incentives.”

Individuals vs. groups

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) supports the proposed threshold for individuals, but suggested changes for groups. “ACOG continues to believe that the threshold should only apply to individual clinicians and that CMS should develop a new, separate definition if the agency believes that groups should also have a low-volume threshold,” ACOG said in comments to the CMS. “Setting the low-volume threshold at both the individual and group level introduces unnecessary complexity into the program because other exclusions for MIPS only apply to individual clinicians.”

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), while supporting the general goal of reducing burden on small and solo practices, suggested it needed to be tweaked for the group setting.

“MGMA continues to question CMS’ application of the same threshold at both the clinician and group practice level,” the association said in its comments to the CMS. “This approach significantly disadvantages groups of clinicians who, in the aggregate, rarely care for Medicare patients, but include one or two members that actively participate in the program. MGMA urges CMS to extend its own logic behind setting a group practice equivalent for the non-patient-facing definition by exempting group practices when 75% or more of the national provider identifiers who bill under the group’s tax identification number meet the threshold on an individual basis.”

Expansion goes too far

But the AMGA, which represents group practices, called the new threshold “counterproductive” in its comment letter and suggested that the CMS should be lowering the threshold, not raising it.

AMGA noted that eligible clinicians who do not meet the threshold, but who are providing high-value care as defined by the QPP, are “forced to leave higher reimbursement rates on the table; these could be considerable over time.”

In addition, AMGA said that expanding the exemption decreases the money available for those who are required to participate. The CMS estimates in the proposed rule that in payment year 2019, $1.333 billion would be paid to top performers (including $500 million in exceptional performance bonus payments), but under the newest proposal, that number drops to $673 million (including $500 million in exceptional performance bonus payments). This will translate to a 0.3% bump in payment in 2020.

“The effect of eliminating of two-thirds of eligible clinicians from the MIPS formula is to financially undermine participating clinicians,” AMGA said in comments to the CMS. “They effectively lose by winning.”

gtwachtman@frontlinemedcom.com

Output: Proposed changes to the Quality Payment Program (QPP) – the value-based payment program established by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) – are drawing mixed reactions from physicians.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
A Health Care Plan That’s Universal and Bipartisan
 After the collapse of Republican efforts at one-party health care reform, many Democrats have embraced Senator Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All proposal. Few liberals would object to this “single payer” plan if it could be enacted with a magic wand, but the political realities of getting it through Congress are daunting.

Could there be a way to preserve Medicare for All’s simplicity and its guarantee of universal health care access while cutting its cost and increasing its bipartisan appeal?

Universal catastrophic coverage just might be the idea that could bridge the gap. So far, the idea has gotten more attention in conservative circles, but if liberals would give it a careful look, they would find a lot to like.

The basic idea is simple. Everyone would have a policy that covered all medical expenses above a deductible amount. For those with very low incomes, the deductible would be zero. For others, routine health care would not be covered, but they would be protected against the truly unaffordable costs of chronic illnesses and severe accidents. For example, the plan would not cover the cost of a visit to a doctor’s office to make sure a bad cold is not something worse, but it would cover all costs of treatment above the deductible amount if the cold turned out to be lung cancer or a serious case of pneumonia. Ideally, a broad range of health care needs would be covered, including dental and mental health.

Output: After the collapse of Republican efforts at one-party health care reform, many Democrats have embraced Senator Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All proposal. Few liberals would object to this “single payer” plan if it could be enacted with a magic wand, but the political realities of getting it through Congress are daunting.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Schumer Says He Rebuffed Another Offer From Trump on Health Care
 The Trump administration, the aide said, needed to stop sabotaging the law before bipartisan negotiations could begin.

Mr. Trump has established an easy rapport with “Chuck and Nancy,” as he likes to call Mr. Schumer, a fellow New Yorker, and Ms. Pelosi, of California. The three bonded last month over a dinner of honey sesame crispy beef in the White House, and their discussions have gone beyond the fiscal deal and how to protect young immigrants brought to this country illegally from being deported.

They have prodded Mr. Trump to put aside the Republican credo of “repeal and replace” in favor of more modest tweaks to the existing law. They have urged him to preserve subsidies, known as cost-sharing reductions, paid to insurers under the health law to help low-income consumers pay for out-of-pocket health expenses like co-payments and deductibles.

But Mr. Schumer’s quick rebuff of Mr. Trump on Friday shows the limits of the partnership. The senator has said that much will depend on whether the president keeps his promise to protect the young undocumented immigrants who are beneficiaries of the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

“Whether he pivots or not will be one of the most fundamental questions of this administration,” Mr. Schumer said recently. “It’s the $64,000 question. The only way it can happen is if we have a successful negotiation on DACA, and secondly whether we get health care.”

Output: President Trump reached out to the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, on Friday to propose yet another effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but Mr. Schumer later said he had quickly shot down the offer.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Trump Takes Away Fundamental Health Care for Women
 A few years ago, I had a patient who was a nurse practitioner at a Catholic hospital in Baltimore. She needed an IUD, but her insurance didn’t cover it because her employer objected to contraception. That meant she would have to pay almost $1,000 for the device herself, and with her modest income, that was impossible for her.

Fortunately, Planned Parenthood was able to help her get the basic health care she needed. I remember how grateful she was, and I think of her every time I read about employers refusing to cover birth control. Under the Affordable Care Act provision, she would have still been able to get birth control through her insurer, even though her employer had opted out. Today, she would again be left with no other options.

I also think of the college students who are working hard to build their futures, where the cost of birth control can put textbooks or groceries out of reach. Or moms who are forced to decide between school clothes for their kids or birth control.

And those hardest hit by this policy will be poor women and women of color. According to a survey, 51 percent of African-American women ages 18 to 34 said they have had trouble purchasing birth control, and cost can be one of the most significant barriers for women of color in getting health care. In addition, these women too often suffer higher rates of chronic conditions because of systemic barriers to care. Not all of these diseases are pregnancy-related, but many can be managed by contraception.

Output: The average American woman spends just three years pregnant or trying to become pregnant, and a full 30 years trying not to be pregnant. So it’s no surprise that birth control is a standard part of most women’s lives. In fact, roughly nine out of 10 women will use birth control during their lifetime.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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New Trump Executive Order Could Gut Obamacare Markets
 A health-care policy wonk. Photo: Mandel Ngan/Getty

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that, according to a senior administration official, President Trump is preparing to sign an executive order this week that could significantly weaken the Affordable Care Act. The order is not a done deal yet, but reports from other outlets have surfaced similar details about its specifics.

According to the Journal, Trump will mandate the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury to make it easier for people to sign onto health-care plans that are skimpier than what Obamacare currently allows, circumventing rules laid out by Congress when it passed the law in 2010.

As part of the executive order, Trump will exempt “association plans” from the strictures of the Affordable Care Act. This means that small businesses will be able band together to buy insurance coverage as a group, allowing them to negotiate lower prices and premiums for employees. But it also means that the health-care plans they purchase are not required to cover essential health benefits like preexisting conditions, maternity care, and other basics of Obamacare. When the Affordable Care Act passed, association plans were classified as small businesses and became subject to the same, stricter coverage rules as larger corporations.

The Trump administration may also allow individuals to use this loophole, which could be an attractive choice for young, healthy consumers who want to pay lower premiums for more bare-bones coverage than the Affordable Care Act allows. But if such consumers peel off from the current individual markets, the Obamacare markets would be left with a preponderance of old and sick people, resulting in the “death spiral” that has long been breathlessly predicted by Republicans — but which has not yet come to pass.

Trump will also allow insurers to offer “short-term medical insurance,” a low-cost option that had been restricted by the Obama administration, to be made available to consumers for up to a year, as opposed to the current three months. He will expand “health reimbursement accounts,” which employees use to pay for out-of-pocket expenses. And he will allow individuals to buy insurance across state lines.

All of these measures are seen by health-care experts as having the potential to damage significantly the already fragile Obamacare individual markets, which depend on a mix of healthy and infirm enrollees.

“This appears to be a backdoor way of undermining the Affordable Care Act,” Kevin Lucia, a professor at Georgetown’s Health Policy Institute, told Vox.

The order is sure to face court challenges from states that would prefer to keep their Obamacare markets as they are.

The new rules have been favored by many Republicans for years, and the executive order appears to be, at least in part, the brainchild of Kentucky senator Rand Paul, who has criticized past Obamacare repeal efforts for not going far enough. The Journal reports that Paul has been working with Trump for months.

Andy Slavitt, who led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid from 2015 to 2017 and has become an influential advocate for protecting the Affordable Care Act, has labeled the executive part of “synthetic repeal” a multi-pronged approach to undermining Obamacare in lieu of repeal legislation.

Even before the executive order, the Trump administration has been busy sabotaging the law from the inside. It has drastically cut the budget for outreach, made Healthcare.gov inaccessible at key times, and prevented even conservative measures to stabilize state markets, among other measures.

But Trump has not given up on congressional repeal just yet.

At a fundraiser in North Carolina Saturday night, the president told a group of wealthy, restive donors that he was still committed to repeal, though he acknowledged it was a steep climb. He also discussed his unexpected phone call to Chuck Schumer on Friday, in which he discussed a possible deal with Democrats on health care. The New York senator said he told Trump on Friday that he needed to stop sabotaging the law before Democrats would come to the bargaining table.

Whether Trump is serious about a bipartisan effort, or just wants to spook his fellow Republicans, remains to be seen. But if the reported executive order comes to pass, it would be another sign that the president’s burning desire to roll back his predecessor’s achievements supersedes his desire to improve Americans’ health care.

Output: The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that, according to a senior administration official, President Trump is preparing to sign an executive order this week that could significantly weaken the Affordable Care Act. The order is not a done deal yet, but reports from other outlets have surfaced similar details about its specifics.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Democrats accuse Trump of ‘sabotage’ on Obamacare sign-ups
 While the Trump administration failed to repeal Obamacare, it’s doing everything it can to whack it administratively — pulling resources, while pursuing strategies that are likely to depress sign-ups for the law’s fifth open enrollment. As a result, even supporters acknowledge that Obamacare enrollment will likely drop for a second straight year as more young and healthy people jump ship, putting even more stress on fragile markets and driving a fresh round of partisan bickering over who’s to blame.

“They’re trying to sabotage the markets,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), warning that Republicans are fully responsible for the law’s fate. “It’s now all them. It is all them. One hundred percent.”

Republicans insist that if enrollment tanks, it will be because of rising premiums and dwindling choices.

“A much bigger driver than a government agency trying to get you to enroll is what’s going on in the market itself,” said Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan. “Our market has been the poster child of the disaster.”

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services defended the reductions as a bid to reduce wasteful spending, contending most people are already aware of open enrollment and don’t need as much help. Officials have said they cut funds to navigator groups that failed to meet their enrollment targets last year. Navigators dispute that, however, saying that agency didn’t account for people they helped enroll in Medicaid, advised to automatically re-enroll in Obamacare, or helped to start applications but who finished at home.

A CMS spokesperson also emphasized that individuals will still have a range of options to help them sign up this year, including local insurance agents and brokers and certified application counselors.

The impact of the cuts will be felt most acutely in the 28 mostly red states that rely solely on the federal government to run open enrollment. The Trump administration’s 90 percent cut to its advertising budget means individuals won’t see television ads urging them to visit HealthCare.gov. Its decision to eliminate 40 percent of federal grant money to enrollment assistance groups means far fewer on-the-ground resources, especially compared with states like California and Massachusetts that continue to pour resources into state outreach.

Concern about the cuts has already spurred a counter-offensive led by former Obama administration officials Lori Lodes and Josh Peck, who oversaw outreach and education for HealthCare.gov. Their new nonprofit — called Get America Covered — is planning to do some of the outreach that federal health officials won’t, enlisting celebrities and pushing out information aimed at getting people covered.

Several Senate Democrats have talked with Get America Covered about turning their own political networks into a makeshift campaign to drive people to HealthCare.gov.

“If the administration is going to try to undermine open enrollment, we’re going to have to build a massive operation outside of Washington,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who met Tuesday with the group. “I’m going to be helpful in any way that I legally can be, including pushing the message out and helping raise money for it.”

On Friday, 13 former regional CMS directors wrote to acting Health and Human Services Secretary Don Wright objecting to the agency’s decision not to allow regional directors to participate in sign-up events around the country.

“To continue down the current path would undermine the will of Congress in passing the ACA — which remains the law of the land — and unnecessarily damage the marketplace,” they wrote.

Obamacare’s supporters admit there’s little chance of matching the federal government’s vast reach or resources. The Obama administration used every imaginable option to spur sign-ups over the last few years. Even then, enrollment had begun to plateau at about 10 million — less than half the level originally projected by the CBO.

With half the enrollment time and millions less to spend, those closely involved with the enrollment effort say they’ll struggle to build on that number — especially coming off a bruising repeal fight marked by President Donald Trump’s claims the law is already dead.

“The recent repeal efforts have created a great deal of political noise,” said Jessie Menkens, who oversees outreach efforts for the Alaska Primary Care Association, which lost about 25 percent of its federal funding this year. “It has caused a lot of confusion and it has caused a sense of unease.”

Congressional Republicans, though, say that Obamacare was already in a free fall before the Trump administration took office. They note that nearly half the counties in the country have just a single insurer selling plans, and premiums have skyrocketed in many places.

“I think Obamacare is sabotaging enrollment because the costs are so high, the choices are so limited,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).

Those problems, while real, are unlikely to cause the markets to implode. That’s because there’s a core group of millions of enrollees who receive generous subsidies tied to their incomes. So even if premiums jump, many of those customers won’t see their monthly bills increase, making them unlikely to drop coverage.

Beyond those people, though, the lack of advertising and outreach is likely to put a big dent in Obamacare’s sign-ups.

“My fear, of course, is that people will lose coverage because they didn’t do what they needed to do to re-up,” said Margarita Labarta, CEO of Florida’s Meridian Behavioral Healthcare, which saw its federal grant cut from $550,000 in 2017 to just over $40,000 now. That wasn’t even enough to fund one full-time worker, she said, so the group turned down the money.

Just one group is now doing outreach work in the 17-county, predominantly rural area where Meridian works, she said.

In Louisiana, funding for the main statewide navigator group was cut 72 percent. The hit forced Navigators for a Healthy Louisiana to lay off 14 people and make very tough choices. It reassigned its remaining five navigators to the communities where they’ve seen the highest enrollment, leaving broad swaths of the state without anywhere to turn for in-person help.

“North Louisiana — the entire upper part of the boot — is without navigator services,” said Brian Burton, the group’s state director. “It leaves more people needing assistance and fewer people to assist them.”

It also remains unclear what will happen once HealthCare.gov opens for business. Randy Pate, who heads the CMS office that oversees Obamacare implementation, told staffers last week that the agency is making it easier to find the sign-up site, and for people to enroll through insurers and brokers.

But at the same time, it’s planning to shut down HealthCare.gov for 12 hours on five of the six Sundays during open enrollment — a popular time for people with weekday jobs to sign up. The open enrollment period itself has been compressed from 12 weeks to six, from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15.

“What we’re doing is focusing on those things we can control,” said Cheryl Gardner, the CEO of New Mexico’s health exchange, which manages its own marketplace but relies on the HealthCare.gov website. “These [outages] are pretty long and right in the middle of open enrollment, which is really inconvenient.”

State officials have also complained that CMS is keeping them in the dark on how it plans to manage the expected crush of people trying to access the website. A CMS spokesperson said that call center staffing will be consistent with prior years and that they’ll use waiting rooms and a callback service to ensure everyone who wants to enroll by the deadline can do so. But the agency has not said how many call center employees will be dedicated to open enrollment, or whether it has a contingency plan should HealthCare.gov suffer technical problems, said Heather Korbulic, the head of Nevada’s state health exchange.

That all adds up to big questions about how enrollment under the Trump administration will actually work.

“The good thing is that the bar is so low and they’re doing so little, that anything people do on the outside is going to have an impact,” Lodes said. “But nothing can replace the government.”

Output: Obamacare's first open enrollment season under the Trump administration is expected to be a flop — and even the law's most ardent supporters are worried there's little they can do to change that.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Tips for post-retirement adventure, health and happiness at Successful Aging Expo
 Colleen Soto, an instructor at MiraCosta College, center, lead her class, Fitness for the Active Older Adult, during The San Diego Union-Tribune Successful Aging Expo held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds Saturday.

If all goes well, El Cajon residents Rex and Christiane Beckham soon will be spending six months in Ireland, then six months in Germany, then who knows where.

“My wife and I are getting ready to retire,” Beckham said Saturday. “We’re going to do a lot of traveling, and we’re looking at our options.”

As part of their retirement research, the Beckhams joined thousands of others at the one-day Successful Aging Expo at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

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“We need to look at our retirement income and start to live within those means now, while we’re still working, to see if we can manage that,” his wife said.

People thinking about retirement also should look for ways to declutter and downsize, she said. And they need to prepare ahead for ways to keep themselves occupied after they’ve left their full-time jobs.

“It’s really important to prepare for that change,” she said. “It’s huge.”

After six years at the Town & Country Resort in Mission Valley, the aging expo moved to the fairgrounds this year to make more room for guests, speakers and exhibitors. The event grew from 140 booths last year to 245 booths this year.

“We’re trying to give people the tools they need,” said consultant Beth Reynolds, who worked with sponsors The San Diego Union-Tribune and Sharp Healthcare to organize the event. “There’s a lot of interactive information here.”

Tory Chainel wears 360-degree virtual reality goggles at the California Earthquake Authority booth during The San Diego Union-Tribune Successful Aging Expo at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and experiences a simulated 5.0 to 6.0 magnitude earthquake. (Howard Lipin/U-T)

Exhibitors ranged from health services to legal firms, from hearing-aid sales to real estate agents. Longtime San Diego television meteorologist Pat Brown offered travel tips, newspaper columnist and radio host Richard Lederer delivered a talk titled “The Gift of Age,” and experts in other fields shared their wisdom.

Carlsbad resident Charles Ables said he was there to learn more about long-term care, an important issue for many older families.

He and his wife, who uses a wheelchair, have made some modifications to their home, and they want to stay there as long as they can. He was collecting information from an organization that helps disabled people stay independent.

“Long-term care is a big issue for us,” Ables said. “It’s great to have everything like this in one place.”

Medical marijuana dispensary Torrey Holistics also joined the participants for the first time, providing a booth and a speaker to discuss the latest developments in the use of cannabis for healing and pain relief. Gray-haired guests lined up three deep at the counter to ask questions about cannabis laws, dispensaries and consultants.

“Our booth has been busy all day,” employee Aleks Kirilenko said.

Gerontologist Diane Darby Beach talked to a room of 50 or more people in the Mission Tower building about the four keys to a healthy brain: nutrition, social connections, mental exercise and physical exercise.

“Your brain is a muscle,” Darby Beach said. “It needs to be exercised. Your brain craves novelty.”

Getting out of the house, maybe for dinner with friends, could be one way to cover all four of those brain-boosting activities.

“We as human beings were made to interact with other human beings,” she said. “If we get isolated, we get depressed.”

Recent research shows people continue to grow brain cells all their lives, she added, so new activities have a positive effect on people of all ages.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehl

Output: If all goes well, El Cajon residents Rex and Christiane Beckham soon will be spending six months in Ireland, then six months in Germany, then who knows where. “My wife and I are getting ready to retire,” Beckham said Saturday. “We’re going to do a lot of traveling, and we’re looking at our options.”


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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India to pilot technology-based education scheme
 October 09, 2017 12:00 am | Updated 04:35 am IST - Bengaluru

Is there a better way to teach today’s youngsters, who have grown up with smart devices, than through the use of the same technology?

Edugaming and edutechnology have changed classrooms across the world and the Union Ministry of Science and Technology is keen to implement similar methods in classrooms across India. The Ministry will soon start a pilot in schools in the country with the collaboration of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and NITI Aayog and Finnish education companies.

A four-day conclave is being organised from Monday at the Centre for Cellular And Molecular Platforms, NCBS-TFIR Campus, Bengaluru, to work out the framework of the pilot programme.

Secretary of Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, K. VijayRaghavan, said: “Should they be on board, we plan to put edugaming and teaching methods in the same schools where there are tinkering labs. And depending on their success, we will take them to other schools in the country.”

Dennis C. Joy, Resident Editor, Science Media Centre at IISc., Bengaluru, said: “Edutech and edugaming is the use of technology to teach children. It could be through games to teach mathematical concepts, or virtual laboratories to teach biology and chemistry.”

Shirin Kulkarni, Research Director and co-founder at CCE Finland, one of the companies participating in the programme, said that what set apart the education system in Finland was the freedom given to teachers to design the course structure based on the student’s requirement. “In Finnish education, formal education begins only at the age of six when the child is put to pre-school. It is only at the age of seven that they start learning alphabets and mathematics,” said Ms. Kulkarni. However, informal learning starts in daycares where children go to from a young age.

Technology is given great importance in Finnish schools, particularly for older students. “From class seven onwards, they have more technology in their learning. The teacher designs experiments based on the student’s aptitude and level of understanding,” explains Ms. Kulkarni.

According to Mr. Joy, a pilot trial will be done in a few schools in the country, which will be finalised during the conclave, and if successful, the programme would be scaled up.

Edutech and edugaming is the use of technology to teach children. It could be through games to teach mathematical concepts, or virtual laboratories to teach biology and chemistryDennis C. JoyResident Editor, Science Media Centre at IISc., Bengaluru

Output: India's Union Ministry of Science and Technology will test-run teaching through gaming and technology in selected schools with a view to rolling out the method nationwide. The trial will see Finnish education firms collaborate with Indian government initiatives Atal Innovation Mission and the National Institution for Transforming India.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Electron system allows creation of electrochemistry compounds
 A researcher setting up a flow electrolysis experiment. Credit: ©: Alexander Sell, JGU

In the cooperative EPSYLON research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, scientists from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Evonik Performance Materials GmbH have developed a state-of-the-art and innovative electro-organic synthesis method.

The results of their research, presented in last week's issue of Science Advances, allow the use of electrosynthesis as a sustainable green chemistry for technical applications. The method allows the operator to react flexibly to the available supply of electricity. Moreover, the operator no longer has to rely on customized electrolysis apparatuses and can use a range of equipment.

The method was developed more than 160 years ago by German chemist Hermann Kolbe. Although electrochemical synthesis methods are used in the chemical industry, this has so far been a niche technology. One reason is that electrolysis conditions must be very finely controlled and uniform current input is essential. Due to the sophisticated technical infrastructure required, the option of electrosynthesis remained out of reach to most chemists. Today, the green potential of electrochemistry has been rediscovered. It makes sustainable and eco-friendly chemistry possible with very simple means, particularly with the use of surplus power from renewable sources such as wind or solar energy.

Electrochemistry is a versatile and powerful method to produce chemical compounds or to effect chemical changes in molecules. To put it simply, electrons replace costly and toxic reagents. Unnecessary waste can be avoided and the reaction can be halted at any time by simply switching off the power. Another advantage over classical synthesis is that many individual steps are more easily implemented by electrochemistry. In some cases, this can shorten synthesis by several steps. However, electrolyses often require a narrow current-density window and long reaction times. In addition, selectivity and scalability are more difficult or even impossible.

Up to eight different experiments can be simultaneously performed in this screening electrolyzer. Each small plastic cup houses two electrodes. Credit: ©: Carsten Siering, JGU

The key to the success of the research group at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz is the use of a unique electrolyte system. The electrolyses here have extremely high stability to variation in current density, allowing operation in a current-density window with a width extending over more than two orders of magnitude, with no loss of productivity or selectivity. If the supply of current permits, the electrolysis may be carried out in a short time with very high current density.

More information: "Unexpected high robustness of electrochemical cross-coupling for a broad range of current density" Science Advances (2017). advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/10/eaao3920 Journal information: Science Advances

Output: Scientists from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Evonik Performance Materials have developed a unique electron system that could unlock the niche technology of sustainable green electrochemistry, using electrons to create chemical compounds instead of reagents. In an article published in Science Advances, the JGU team revealed how their electrolyses allowed operation in a wider current-density window, with no negative impact on selectivity or productivity. The study also said excess renewable energy could be used for the electrochemistry process, as reactions stop when the power supply stops, resulting in minimal waste.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Mobile payments boom in China
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Mobile pay is taking China by storm and changing daily commerce. The transformation of a society limited to bills denominated in 100 yuan ($15) or less into one where QR payment codes abound was by far the biggest change in mainland China since my last visit four years ago. When eating out or shopping with local friends, they paid by scanning a QR code on the restaurant table or by showing a similar code on their smartphones to the store clerk. A spices shop, museum souvenir store and seller of traditional Chinese calligraphy brushes all had signs saying they accepted mobile pay. Rather than, "Do you take credit cards?" the question was often "Do you take Alipay? WeChat Pay?" The running joke was that street beggars would rather take a mobile donation than cash.

A dessert store worker scans a mobile QR payment code in Beijing, China, while the blue sign below promotes the store’s use of Alipay. Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

Lack of red tape and a less developed financial system have apparently allowed mainland China to leapfrog the developed world into embracing mobile payments. Mobile payment volume in the country more than doubled to $5 trillion in 2016, according to Analysys data cited by Hillhouse Capital in a May report. In the first quarter of this year, Alipay had 54 percent of that mobile payments market, and WeChat Pay accounted for 40 percent, the study said. The Chinese mobile pay habit is also affecting other countries. More than 6 million Chinese traveled abroad during the "Golden Week" national holiday in early October, according to state-backed media outlet Xinhua. That puts pressure on popular tourist destinations like Japan and Hong Kong to add mobile pay services. Just over the border in Hong Kong, I heard a few mainland Chinese customers asking a store clerk to scan their phones' QR codes while Cantonese-speaking locals paid in cash. In April, Nikkei reported that the number of stores accepting Alipay in Japan will double to 45,000 this year, according to the regional head of Ant Financial Services.

Customers can buy traditional Chinese calligraphy brushes at this Xi’an, China, store using QR payment codes. From left to right: WeChat Pay, Alipay and the QR code for the store’s WeChat account. Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

The growth of mobile pay in China comes off a solid base of smartphone users. The ubiquitous WeChat messaging app from Chinese technology giant Tencent reached 963 million monthly active users in the second quarter. In professional settings, adding each other on WeChat sometimes replaced business card exchanges. Alipay, which is owned by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial Services, has 520 million users, according to its international website. The app is linked to online money market fund Yu'e bao, encouraging users to invest and spend with Alipay. Attractive interest rates of nearly 4 percent or more have turned it into the largest money market fund in the world, with 1.43 trillion yuan ($217 billion) as of the end of June, according to state media reports citing Yu'e bao's manager, Tianhong Asset Management. Hong Kong-based research investment company CLSA expects Chinese electronic payments volume to quadruple to 300 trillion yuan by 2021. During that time, online wealth management products' assets under management should triple to 6.7 trillion yuan and online loans could also triple to 3.5 trillion, said Elinor Leung, head of Asia Telecom and Internet Research at CLSA. "High mobile internet and ecommerce penetration, and an underdeveloped traditional financial market will drive growth," Leung said in a Sept. 5 report. Mobile pay is growing so rapidly in mainland China that as a foreigner I sometimes found it difficult to complete basic transactions without it.

After scanning the QR code on the table at this restaurant in Beijing, China, customers enter the payment amount in the app. Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

When I tried to pay at a Beijing McDonald's on a late night, the only payment options were China's Union Pay credit card system, Apple Pay or WeChat Pay and Alipay. As an American visitor without a Chinese bank account, I wasn't able to find a way to use those systems and the store clerk wouldn't take my cash. "Cash is accepted in all McDonald's restaurants across China. After our investigation, we believe this is an isolated case that happened during night shift change, and thus, all cash counters were temporarily closed," a McDonald's China Customer Care Center told me in an email. Taxis were also nearly impossible to hail in Beijing due to the rise of Didi, a ride-hailing app that bought Uber's China operations in a deal worth $35 billion last summer. Because Didi was linked through WeChat, I couldn't use it without a Chinese bank account. When I finally did get a taxi, the driver gave me a fake 50 yuan bill in change. Several stores also claimed three of my 100 yuan bills from a New York money exchange were counterfeit. If I could participate in the cashless society, I would not have lost about $50.

The bike unlocks after the customer scans its QR code through a bike-sharing app. Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

The growth of mobile pay in China has supported another business: bike sharing. Led by a few start-ups, the number of bikes stacked along the side of the street or sometimes scattered even alongside highways in China has exploded. The number of monthly active users doubled from February to more than 20 million in March, according to TrustData cited by Hillhouse Capital. Two of the largest Chinese-based start-ups, Ofo and Mobike, say they have a combined more than 13 million bikes around the world and have each raised at least $1 billion. Incidentally, Mobike entered the U.S. on Sept. 20 by deploying bikes in Washington, D.C., while Ofo made its first foray into the country by launching in Seattle in August.

A bicycle from bike-sharing startup ofo in the Muslim Quarter of Xi’an, China. Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

The dominance of mobile pay also means companies like Ant Financial and Tencent have access to hordes of personal data. That data can then be shared with the Chinese government, which prioritizes control. Some parts of China have been testing a personal credit score system linked to mobile pay data. But unless privacy issues have immediate negative consequences, convenience may trump all. A smartphone is increasingly the only thing someone in China needs to carry when going out. Disclosure: Travel to Asia was supported by the East-West Center, the Better Hong Kong Foundation and the All-China Journalists Association.

Output: China is fast becoming a cashless society as mobile payments cause a major shift in the nation's daily commerce, more than doubling to $5tn last year, according to Analysys data cited by Hillhouse Capital. The data also showed that in Q1 2017, Alipay had 54% of the mobile payments market, while WeChat Pay took 40%. "High mobile internet and ecommerce penetration, and an underdeveloped traditional financial market will drive growth", said Elinor Leung, head of Asia Telecom and Internet Research at CLSA.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Amazon's 'Thursday Night Football' reaches fraction of audience
 "Views" is a useless metric. I “view” ads on social media networks as I quickly scroll past them. I “view” banner ads on websites as I consequently ignore them. I "view" every TV show that I see for half a second as I channel hunt with the remote control.

But tell that to many of the media reporters who covered Amazon Prime’s global live-streaming of the first of eleven Thursday Night Football games during this season of American football. The New York Post, Fortune magazine, and Reuters, for example, all highlighted NFL figures stating that a reported 1.9m people “viewed” the kickoff show.

At first glance, the number looked impressive -- especially for a tech company’s first foray into big-league sports programming, which cost Amazon a reported $50 million for the total package. The result seemed to lend credence to the opinions of people such as creative director JP Manterola and MobiTV chief executive Charlie Nooney who think that sports will soon be watched online along with everything else. (Of course, the latter has an obvious bias.)

But the picture becomes fuzzier as one digs more deeply.

Todd Spangler of Variety and Peter Kafka of Recode wrote two of the best media reviews of the event. Their articles put the right numbers in the correct context and stated that the average audience watching Thursday Night Football for at least 30 seconds on Amazon Prime Video was 372,000, with each person watching an average of 55 minutes.

Spangler and Kafka deserve credit for discussing average viewership in their stories and not highlighting the sensationalist 1.9m number instead.

(Note: I filed this column before the second Thursday Night Football game, which was scheduled to occur a few days before publication.)

Why is this important?

Many marketing pundits – myself included – discuss the positives and negatives of digital mediums compared to traditional ones. But such analyses are always going to be faulty because the metrics that online and offline marketers use are completely different. We have only apples-to-oranges comparisons.

TV and radio have average viewers and listeners. Print has average circulations. These numbers represent human beings, are usually audited by independent third parties, and have standard definitions throughout the industry.

Online ad platforms have “impressions,” which is the number of times that one browser made one request for one advertisement to load. Digital video platforms have “views,” which means little. Furthermore, these numbers are very prone to fraud, not yet independently audited, and are defined differently by every ad network in the context of measures such as “viewability.”

So, it is difficult to contrast online and offline because we cannot compare marketing apples to apples. There should be one metric to rule them all in the online and offline worlds. One example: as Facebook releases more original programming on the Watch platform, I challenge the company to report the exact same metrics as TV networks do.

Comparing online to offline

In the case of Amazon’s Thursday Night Football, we can finally make some concrete comparisons in the context of the single metric of average audience size. According to the Variety and Recode reports and my own calculations, here is what we can surmise:

2.5% (372,000) of the total average audience (15.1 million) watched on Amazon Prime.

97% (14.6 million) of the total average audience watched on traditional television.

3.5% of Amazon Prime members viewed the game (there are an estimated 54 million in the US).

In another example, Business Insider advertising editor Mike Shields recently wrote that “cable TV should be worried” because the BuzzFeed food show Worth It had gained 280 million views. But again, “views” means nothing. Anyone can throw some money at a bot network or click farm and get millions of “views” of anything.

I want Buzzfeed to report the average viewership of Worth It consisting of a decent length of time. Then, we can see whether the company is truly anywhere close to television. Just remember that Yahoo’s streaming of an NFL game in 2015 garnered 15m “views,” but the number plummeted to 2.4m when television’s metrics were applied. The average game gets 10m to 20m on TV.

These are yet more examples of how television is nowhere close to being “dead”.

Quantity versus quality of views

It’s not only about the number of views. It’s also about the quality of views. Even if Amazon were to obtain a large viewership, it might not necessarily mean that the programming would be useful for marketers.

We in the marketing profession are in the business of selling stuff. So, our chief concern should not be which mediums are most popular but which ones are best at helping us to do our job. Whether more people watch American football on television or Amazon is not the primary issue.

Just because a medium is popular does not mean that it is good for marketing. A medium that is used by millions of people can still be a bad marketing channel. A medium that is used by few people can be a great marketing channel. Popular mediums and effective marketing channels are not always one and the same.

Mediums themselves have their positives and negatives. We need to know which ones are the best at selling stuff by their very natures. In this context, television soundly defeats online video such as Thursday Night Football as well.

In this email newsletter, Ad Contrarian Bob Hoffman summarizes a presentation by Karen Nelson-Field, a professor at the University of Adelaide and the founder of Media Intelligence Company, at a recent ReThinkTV event in Australia:

More people actively view an advertisement on television compared to the same ad on YouTube or Facebook. (All of the research is here.)

Advertisements on television take up the entire screen on television but not on YouTube or Facebook.

Hoffman notes:

“The combination of an ad's time, pixels and coverage Dr. Nelson-Field calls 'visibility.' It should be obvious that ads with higher 'visibility' would be more effective. But in an irrational advertising environment in which anything online or 'digital' has been imbued with magical properties, it is significant that someone as made a conclusive effort to check the science.”

People go online to get something done, which makes the cold internet a set of mediums that are best suited for tactics such as direct marketing. People watch television to have experiences such as watching sports on the large boxes in their living rooms – and that makes the warm medium best suited for advertising campaigns.

Marketers who think that television is “dead” need go back to the practice squads.

The Promotion Fix is an exclusive biweekly column for The Drum contributed by Samuel Scott, a global marketing speaker who is a former journalist, newspaper editor, and director of marketing and communications in the high-tech industry. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Scott is based out of Tel Aviv, Israel.

Output: Amazon's live-streaming of football games reached only a fraction of the audience it publicly claimed. The company is reported to have spent $50m in total buying the rights to its first package of sports programming, and claimed that 1.9 million people viewed the first 'Thursday Night Football' game on their platform. However, the 'viewers' figure has been challenged as misleading, with a number of journalists pointing out that actual number of people watching for at least 30 seconds on Amazon Prime was just 372,000. This represented just 2.5% of the programme's audience, and just 3.5% of Amazon Prime's members.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
UK rents dip as landlords saturate market in southeast
 Rents in Britain dropped in the final summer months for the first time in at least five years, according to Rightmove.

National asking rents outside London fell by 0.2% in the three months to September, which is one of the busiest times of year for tenants looking for a new home. It was the first fall at this time of year since Rightmove started tracking rents in late 2011.

The decline comes as landlords flood the south-east of England with newly available rental properties, distorting the national picture, as they turn away from a stuttering London property market.

The glut of homes available to rent pushed down rents in the south-east by 2.3% in the period. Average rents rose in every other UK region apart from Greater London and Yorkshire and the Humber.

The biggest quarterly increase came in the north-east, where the average asking rent rose by 2.6% to £564 per month.

Britain’s housing market is looking increasingly broken amid a chronic shortage of new homes. Young people are particularly hard hit, with millennials spending three times more of their income on housing than their grandparents, often for worse quality accommodation, according to the Resolution Foundation.

The proportion of households privately renting in the UK has ballooned in the past 20 years. According to official figures, around 65% of UK households were owner-occupiers at the end of 2016, while 17% were renting from a private landlord and 18% from a social landlord.

Theresa May pledged an additional £2bn a year to councils and housing associations for affordable homes in her speech to the Conservative party conference in Manchester last week.

Rightmove’s head of lettings, Sam Mitchell, said more landlords were acquiring homes immediately outside London, therefore increasing the supply of available property and pushing down rents. “Agents are reporting that some investors looking for better yields are shifting their focus from London,” he said.

Areas such as Surrey, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire are among the most popular for landlords seeking investments outside of London. Prices have not fallen as much in areas with good commuter links, where demand remains strong.

Asking rents in the capital fell at an annual rate of 3.3% in September to an average of £1,920 per month. The average asking rent per month across the country in September was £789.

However, Mitchell said he expected the cost of renting to increase in London due to the supply of available accommodation decreasing as landlords look elsewhere for investments.

Output: UK asking rents outside London fell 0.2% in the three months to September, the first dip for the period in Rightmove data going back to 2011. It revealed a glut of properties had reduced prices in the southeast by 2.3%, while the average rent in the northeast rose 2.6% to £564 ($747) per month. Across the UK, the national average monthly rent in September was £789. A third of UK households were renting from either private or social landlords at the end of last year, according to official figures.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
FeetMe raises $2.3m for shoe insole fitness-tracking technology
 Paris-based FeetMe, which is creating smart, connected insoles, raised $2.28 million (1.95 million euro) in seed funding. The round was led by Kurma Diagnostics. Other investments came from the Paris Saclay seed fund, Idinvest Partners, Seventure, and SOSV.

“This seed round will help us pursue the development of our product to target therapeutics areas in collaboration with market players,” Alexis Mathieu, founder and CEO of FeetMe, said in a statement. “The connected insole allows patient and physician to manage and evaluate, in realtime and remotely, treatments’ efficacy to adapt them more precisely and without constraints for the patient. Creating new digital biomarkers will reinforce existing therapeutics with a companion diagnostic and monitoring solution.”

FeetMe’s insoles contain pressure sensors and motion sensors. They communicate via Bluetooth with an app, and the companion software includes algorithms that can use that data to analyze patients’ walking and running gait.

The company deploys the insoles in both the clinical sphere and the consumer space. For clinicians, FeetMe’s smart insoles can be used to detect early warning signs of Parkinson’s or multiple sclerosis, to assess a patient’s recovery from orthopedic surgery, to collect data to aid in the design of orthotics, or to monitor for diabetic foot ulcers.

In all these clinical cases, the advantage of a sensor is that it provides quantitiative, comparable data, whereas the status for gait analysis is highly subjective and observation-based.

In the consumer sphere, FeetMe offers FeetMe Sport, which uses the sensors to analyze runners’ metrics like stride power and running pace, and feeds that data to an AI-powered computerized running coach. It also integrates with consumer apps including Strava and Runkeeper.

FeetMe Sport can be purchased on the company’s website for $175.54 (149.99 euro). The clinical product has CE Mark clearance, but is not currently cleared with the FDA.

Output: French start-up FeetMe has raised €1.9m ($2.28m) to develop smart, connected shoe insoles that gather data through sensors for analysis of a user's walking and running gait. The data, sent to an app via Bluetooth, also can be used by physicians to assess treatment efficacy, detect early warning signs of conditions such as multiple sclerosis and help design orthotics. For consumers, the company offers the FeetMe Sport platform, which analyses runners' metrics, such as stride power, for use by an artificial intelligence-powered virtual fitness coach.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Apple now ships more chips than Intel
 You’ve probably heard of Jony at Apple but probably don’t know about Johny.

Jony is a celebrity executive known as the face of Apple Design. Johny is the executive in charge of custom silicon and hardware technologies across Apple’s entire product line.

Under Johny’s leadership, Apple has shipped 1.7 billion processors in more than 20 models and 11 generations. Currently Apple ships more microprocessors than Intel.

The Apple A11 Bionic processor has 4.3 billion transistors, six cores and an Apple custom GPU using a 10nm FinFET technology. Its performance appears to be almost double that of competitors and in some benchmarks exceeds the performance of current laptop PCs.

A decade after making the commitment to control its critical subsystems in its (mobile) products, Apple has come to the point where is dominates the processor space. But they have not stopped at processors. The effort now spans all manners of silicon including controllers for displays, storage, sensors and batteries. The S series in the Apple Watch the haptic T series in the MacBook, the wireless W series in AirPods are ongoing efforts. The GPU was conquered in the past year. Litigation with Qualcomm suggests the communications stack is next.

This across-the-board approach to silicon is not easy or fast or cheap. This multi-year, multi-billion dollar commitment is rooted in the Jobsian observation that the existing supplier network is not good enough for what you’re driving at. Tiny EarPods, Smart Watches, Augmented Reality, Adaptive Acoustics require wrapping your arms around all parts of the problem. The integration and control it demands are in contrast to the modular approach of assembling off-the-shelf components into a good-enough configuration.

There are times and places where modules are adequate and times and places where they aren’t. The decision depends on whether you are creating new experiences or new “measures of performance” vs. optimizing for cost within existing experiences or measures of performance.

The very notion of a microprocessor is a rejection of the discrete component designs that preceded it. Earlier computers had central processors made up of many discrete components. VLSI stands for Very Large Scale Integration with emphasis on Integration. As computing has progressed toward ambience and ubiquity the idea of using discrete components became normative again but that was not considered sufficient by Apple.

So while the “Silicon” in Silicon Valley has come to be seen as an anachronism, silicon development today means competitive advantage. The only problem is that it takes years, decades even to establish competence. The same duration that it took for the building of Apple as a design-centric business fronted by Jony Ive.

Apple also now needs to be understood along the dimension of silicon-centric engineering as led by Johny Srouji.

Output: Apple now dominates the processor market, shipping more chips than Intel. Apple's A11 Bionic processor has 4.3 billion transistors, six cores and a custom GPU, and its performance is almost double that of its competitors. A decade ago, the tech giant said it would take control of the subsystems in its mobile products and has since sought to apply this across-the-board approach to all types of silicon, including controllers for displays, sensors and batteries.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Munich Re partners with ride-sharing car rental firm Drover
 Drover, a UK-based ride sharing and mid-term car rental company has partnered with reinsurance giant MunichRe to offer a bespoke insurance product for gig-economy drivers.

Insurance used to be available to drivers through traditional fleet cover policies but it was expensive and insufficient for Drover’s business model.

MunichRE is offering a tailor-made product for fleet owners and ride share drivers. They can buy, maintain and renew policies via the Drover platform. Drover CEO Felix Leuschner says the insurance is a game-changer that will deliver cost savings and a whole new level of customer service.

Mobility as a service

The company was established in 2015 by self-titled serial entrepreneur Leuschner as a mobility-as-a-service platform, bridging the gap between short-term car hire and long-term vehicle leasing.

“We’re changing the way people access cars,” he asserts

Described as Netflix for cars, Drover connects fleet owners with individual drivers and enables them to acquire the use of a vehicle through a flexible monthly rental agreement. It specializes in offering PCO, Uber-ready vehicles.

SaaS-based Fleet Management

Bookings are made through the company’s website and it offers a SaaS-based fleet management interface, mobile app, fuel card and other services, including insurance.

London-based Drover also set up shop in Manchester in September and continues its commercial relationship with BMW (UK) (established through its participation in the car giant’s 2016 Innovation Lab).

Output: Drover, a UK ride-sharing car rental firm, has teamed up with Munich Re to offer insurance coverage to its client base. The partnership will allow the firm to offer bespoke policies for ride-sharing drivers and fleet owners, according to the two firms. Prior to this arrangement, Drover made use of traditional fleet insurance policies, which didn't gel with its business model.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Google struggles to make ads load as fast as content
 One person’s page speed is another person’s monetization problem.

Six publishing sources, requesting anonymity out of fear of angering Google, said their ads load slower than their content on AMP, and that is part of the reason why they make less money per pageview from AMP than they do from their own websites. In one instance, the revenue per page on AMP was less than half of what the publisher got on its owned and operated properties. In effect, the user experience is almost too good, with content loading so fast that people scroll past the ads before they’ve been able to load, resulting in ads that aren’t deemed viewable.

But these publishers had trouble isolating how much of this discrepancy is due to how AMP loads content since AMP’s standardization also restricts page design, article recirculation and the type of ad units that publishers can use, and each of these variables makes it more difficult for publishers to make money on the platform. However, they agreed the gap between content and ads loading persists even though Google has worked on the issue since AMP launched about 20 months ago.

“There are a variety of issues around AMP with ads, and the fact that AMP [editorial content] loads ‘too fast’ is definitely among them,” said a publishing exec.

Publishers have struggled with getting ads to load as fast as the content loads on AMP for awhile. Google recently tweaked how ad requests can be made within AMP to speed up ad-load times.

But Google hasn’t forced advertisers or tech vendors to adopt its spec that trims JavaScript to make AMP ads load faster. Since Google has so much power within media and marketing, it is bound to irritate somebody regardless of which route it takes to load AMP’s ads and content.

If Google forced advertisers to cut down their tracking code, reduce the size of their creative or do extra work to implement special tags for AMP ads, it would piss off clients that collectively push billions of dollars through the search giant’s products. But by loading content faster than the ads, Google makes it harder for publishers to make money on AMP. Since Facebook Instant Articles is frustrating publishers, appeasing them could benefit Google by giving it an edge over its rival.

Google acknowledges upfront that the goal of AMP is to improve user experience and page speed first, and figure out monetization second.

“The aim of AMP is to load content first and ads second,” said a Google spokesperson. “But we are working on making ads faster. It takes quite a bit of the ecosystem to get on board with the notion that speed is important for ads, just as it is for content.”

Getting text to load fast is simply easier than quickly loading ads with high-resolution imagery and multiple tracking tags. Rather than blame Google, one publishing source blamed advertisers and their heavy creatives for slow-loading ads within AMP.

A perverse incentive is in play: The quicker AMP loads content, the more noticeable the lag on ad load becomes. And it’s not just publishers that are affected. If Google’s exchange sold the ads that users scroll past without seeing, then Google also loses out on a chance to make money.

But there is a bigger issue than driving CPMs with fast-loading article templates. In the long run, it’s in Google’s best interest to maintain its dominance in search, and one way to keep people engaged on the open web is to speed up webpages, even if that means sacrificing some short-term revenue.

Publishers, which are already dependent on search traffic, are scared of acting against the platform’s wishes, even if that means adopting a platform where some ads don’t load in time for the user to see, said Paul Vincent, CEO of Neuranet, a tech company that helps publishers comply with Interactive Advertising Bureau specs for fast-loading ads.

“The whole reason that publishers are considering AMP is that Google gives AMP pages prioritization in search,” he said.

Output: Google AMP loads content too fast for ads, meaning publishers make less money per page view than they do from their own sites, it has been claimed. Six publishers said ads were not deemed viewable because AMP content loaded so quickly, meaning readers scroll past ads before they have even loaded. This, in turn, is costing publishers advertising revenue, they claimed. Google recently made adjustments to speed up ad-load times, but has not made advertisers adopt its spec to make ads load quicker.