Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Medi-Cal programs to the state: Can we stop printing and mailing directories the size of phone books?
 John Baackes, chief executive of L.A. Care Health Plan, is shown with two volumes of its 2017 provider directory, totaling 2,546 pages.

In Los Angeles County, signing up for Medi-Cal is often followed by a phone book-sized directory landing on your doorstep.

The 2017 directory for L.A. Care, a local Medi-Cal health plan, is 2,546 pages of doctors’ names listed by city, by specialty — anesthesiologists, gastroenterologists, ophthalmologists. It includes hours, addresses, phone numbers and languages spoken for each of the thousands of physicians.

The directory weighs more than 7 pounds. It wouldn’t fit in most mailboxes. And it can quickly become obsolete.

Advertisement

“It’s out of date the minute it comes off the press,” said John Baackes, chief executive of L.A. Care Health Plan.

Doctors frequently change their information or drop in and out of the network, so the health plan updates an online version daily. But for years, health plans across the state have been required to mail these printed directories to people who sign up for Medi-Cal.

Five million people have joined Medi-Cal since it was expanded under the Affordable Care Act in 2014, which means at least as many directories have been mailed out — at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.

Now L.A. Care and other Medi-Cal managed care plans are asking the state for permission to stop automatically mailing a directory to every enrollee. State officials say they’re reviewing the proposals.

The push for online directories is an example of how Medicaid programs that ballooned under the law known as Obamacare are refining operations and looking for ways to save money while insuring so many people. It also reveals the sometimes slow pace of change in such a big program — and the way costs add up quickly when every policy affects millions.

In 2014, the Affordable Care Act gave states money to expand their Medicaid programs, which insure low-income Americans and are jointly paid for by the state and federal government.

From the end of 2013 to the spring of this year, total enrollment in Medi-Cal jumped from 8.6 million to 13.5 million, or more than a third of all California residents, according to state data.

With that growth also came an increase in the number of doctors willing to take Medi-Cal patients and the size of the directories through which patients can learn who those doctors are.

L.A. Care’s directory was so big this year that it had to be split into two books, each the size of a phone book. Other counties’ have grown as well, but Los Angeles has the most Medi-Cal members — 4 million — and participating doctors.

“It’s more ridiculous with us because of our size,” Baackes said.

Printing and mailing cost $9 to $13 for each set of books, according to L.A. Care spokesman Hector Andrade. That puts the tab for the directories sent to the 90,000 people who joined L.A. Care over the last 12 months at roughly $1 million.

Until this year, L.A. Care was also sending them annually to all Medi-Cal enrollees in the health plan, which totals 2 million. Baackes said they mailed directories for the 5,000 homeless members to the L.A. County social services office, where they’re likely thrown out.

Baackes submitted a proposal in June to the California Department of Health Care Services, which runs Medi-Cal, requesting that the plan be allowed to instead mail a postcard to enrollees with a link to the online directories and an option to be mailed a printed copy.

Medi-Cal health plans across the state, including Health Net and Molina Healthcare, said they were also trying to work with the state to be allowed to provide virtual directories.

State officials said they were reviewing the proposals. A recent change in federal rules should allow them to go through, they said. Medicare, which insures Americans 65 and older, has allowed its managed care plans to email a directory or provide a link on their websites since 2011, said Jack Cheevers, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Critics of Medicaid, which covers 75 million Americans, say that the program is bloated and unsustainable. Proposals by GOP leaders to repeal Obamacare earlier this year included capping funding for Medicaid, saying the approach would force states to trim costs and find inefficiencies.

But Baackes said he didn’t think state officials were dragging their feet and that the problem was merely “symptomatic of trying to keep technology up with the rules and regulations.”

Chris Perrone with the California Health Care Foundation said state health administrators are regularly looking for ways to reduce expenses. He said they’re probably trying to ensure that patients having to request directories instead of automatically getting them in the mail doesn’t slow down how long it takes to make an appointment with a doctor.

“I don’t think it’s for lack of incentive that sometimes these things don’t happen,” Perrone said. “States already have skin in the game.”

Medi-Cal is expected to cost about $107 billion this fiscal year, and the state is on the hook for $38 billion of that, according to state budget.

Perrone said he’s collaborating with Medi-Cal and Covered California, the state’s insurance marketplace, that’s working to reduce big areas of spending: cesarean sections, opioid abuse and low-back pain. Medi-Cal officials have also said they’re working to identify patients who rack up large bills by overusing emergency rooms or because they’re addicted to drugs, so they can direct them to recovery programs or connect them with behavioral health treatment.

L.A. Care has invested in offering free exercise classes and nutrition advice to keep people healthy and prevent costs down the road. It is also trying to cut layers of bureaucracy by contracting with doctors directly, Baackes said.

He said he thinks the people who work with Medi-Cal patients and doctors daily should tell regulators where money is being wasted and propose ways to increase efficiency.

“I think that’s our obligation to do this,” he said.

soumya.karlamangla@latimes.com

Twitter: @skarlamangla

ALSO

One child, a $21-million medical bill: How a tiny number of patients poses a huge challenge for Medi-Cal

She watched her ex-husband end his life under California’s new right-to-die law. ‘I felt proud’

Knocking on doors, climbing through fences: How L.A. County’s health investigators are out trying to stop syphilis

Output: The 2017 directory for L.A. Care, a local Medi-Cal health plan, is 2,546 pages of doctors’ names listed by city, by specialty — anesthesiologists, gastroenterologists, ophthalmologists. It includes hours, addresses, phone numbers and languages spoken for each of the thousands of physicians.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Operators of even low-rated Texas nursing homes get federal cash thanks to deals with public hospitals
 “The money’s not going to take care of the people they’re supposed to be taking care of,” said Hazel Meaux, a Stowell resident and political activist who has opposed the nursing home transactions. (Ashley Landis - Staff Photographer)

From their headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., Teddy Lichtschein and Eliezer Scheiner operate some of the most poorly rated nursing homes in Texas. Their small empire has amassed more than $800,000 in federal fines over the past three years.

Regulators reported numerous problems. One patient who fractured his leg waited four days to have his broken bone treated. Another resident, given food he could not chew, choked to death in his wheelchair. An 80-year-old woman with rectal cancer screamed in agony for two weeks before attendants phoned her doctor.

Despite this record, Lichtschein and Scheiner have new partners in the nursing home trade: seven public agencies, which could position the Brooklyn duo for a taxpayer-funded windfall.

Breaking News Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond. Email Address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy SUBMIT

A special state program to attract additional federal Medicaid money will bring an extra $69 million to Texas nursing homes this year, with more to come next year. It was supposed to be for government-owned homes.

Much of it, however, will go to a multitude of private operators — such as Lichtschein and Scheiner — who were savvy enough to craft unusual licensing arrangements with governmental bodies.

In a development wholly unforeseen by state officials, the licenses of more than 300 privately owned nursing homes have changed hands within the past year. They are now held by public hospital districts and hospital authorities.

Some of these homes are hundreds of miles from the districts themselves. Many of them have been repeatedly cited for serious deficiencies.

nurse.home.grafic

These arrangements were made for the sole purpose of attracting the Medicaid supplements. This additional federal money was intended to improve patient care. But no mechanism has been put in place to enforce that.

The state failed to require that the money be spent on patients or improvements, no matter how poor a nursing home’s record. Therefore, large portions of it will flow to the original private operators to spend as they please.

“The rules are flawed in that part,” said Chris Traylor, chief deputy commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. “We’re going to be looking to change this program.”

Overhaul, however, will not occur until late next year. Until then, Lichtschein, Scheiner and dozens of other private operators — many of whom were already turning a profit — can watch as millions of government dollars come rolling in.

A study released this month determined Texas to have the worst nursing home record in the country.

The Kaiser Family Foundation’s analysis of federal nursing home rankings found that 51 percent of Texas homes received overall ratings of one or two stars out of a possible five. The rankings are done by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

No state had a higher percentage of low-rated nursing homes, the Kaiser study said. The national average is 35 percent.

One of those one-star homes is the Palo Pinto Nursing Center in Mineral Wells, about 80 miles west of Dallas. It is a Lichtschein-Scheiner property.

In 2012, state inspectors found that Palo Pinto nursing home staff did little to control a 65-year-old male resident who roamed throughout the home, sexually abusing female patients. Home operators agreed in 2013 to pay a federal fine of $120,000.

Since then, regulators have cited the home for failing to attend properly to patients’ hygiene. An inspector found one resident sitting in the lobby with flies on her. “A strong urine and fecal odor was emanating from her,” the inspector wrote, and her face and hands were dirty.

An attorney for Lichtschein and Scheiner said the state inspection process is inconsistent and gives an inaccurate picture of their properties. In a written statement, their Texas operating company said it is “constantly looking for partnerships and relationships that add value to those facilities and their ability to deliver a higher quality experience to their residents.”

As of late last year, their Palo Pinto home has a new name on its state license: the Palo Pinto County Hospital District, which operates a 74-bed community hospital in Mineral Wells. The arrangement grew out of the state program to bring extra Medicaid money to nursing homes.

Regular Medicaid payments to nursing homes are determined in part by state reimbursement rates. “Medicaid reimbursement for nursing homes in Texas is the worst of all 50 states,” said Harris Brooks, CEO of the Palo Pinto district. “They’re pretty much eking by.”

For this supplemental program, the state human services commission restricted participation to “non-state government-owned” nursing homes. That generally meant those owned by counties and local hospital districts or authorities, which are public bodies supported by local tax revenue to provide health care.

But owners of for-profit homes — aided by trade associations and legal counsel — found a way around the restriction. They simply needed to partner with the hospital districts, even if their homes were not within district boundaries.

Statewide, 94 counties and hospital districts or authorities have signed up for the new payment program. They now hold the licenses to 357 nursing homes. All but 30 of those were formerly private, according to figures from the state Health and Human Services Commission.

Most of the participating hospital districts are relatively small, though not all. The Dallas County Hospital District, which operates Parkland Memorial Hospital, is acquiring the licenses of 12 nursing homes.

The sheer number of these arrangements caught state officials by surprise. “We did not anticipate that level of interest and participation,” said Linda Edwards Gockel, a spokeswoman for the commission.

Representatives for Lichtschein and Scheiner approached the Palo Pinto County Hospital District with a proposal to participate in the program. Without paying Lichtschein and Scheiner anything, the district became the license holder for seven of their homes.

Only one of the homes for which it now holds the license is within its boundaries. Most are two counties away.

Though its name is on the licenses, the Palo Pinto district doesn’t own any of the nursing homes’ real estate or any other assets. Nor does it operate the homes. That is retained by Lichtschein and Scheiner, who signed lease agreements with Palo Pinto.

The biggest change is the enhanced funding. “It allows us to bring in federal dollars,” Brooks said. Exactly how much money is still unclear, Brooks said, but initial estimates were about $1 million a year per home.

When the additional money arrives — perhaps not until next year — some of it goes to the hospital district. “We do get a cut of it,” Brooks said.

Much of the rest will go to several companies owned by Lichtschein and Scheiner, with no requirement to spend it on better patient care.

State regulators acknowledge this hole in their plan. The next program, to begin by September 2016, will base payments on improvements.

Another of the Lichtschein-Scheiner homes now controlled by Palo Pinto is the Santa Fe Health and Rehabilitation Center in Weatherford. That's where the patient fell and broke his leg.

His left leg was “swollen twice the size of the right leg,” records said, but a technician X-rayed the wrong patient, the man’s roommate. The man with the fracture was given only Tylenol for four days until a nurse persuaded a physician to order another X-ray.

Brooks said he is aware of the problems at the homes for which his agency now holds the license. “We are very concerned over quality issues,” he said. But, he added, “These are not going to change overnight, and we have only been involved a few months at this point.”

A contractor hired by the Palo Pinto district will employ administrators and monitor the quality of the homes, Brooks said.

The Palo Pinto district also holds the license for the Benbrook Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, a Lichtschein and Scheiner property in Tarrant County.

In 2013, a 54-year-old Benbrook resident with cerebral palsy was served lunch in his room. He had “a history of incidents of aspiration and choking,” his records said, so he required a “mechanical soft” diet.

However, the attendant gave him hamburger meat. Left unattended, the man choked on the meat, and died of asphyxiation.

CMS, in its most recent assessment, gave Benbrook a one-star — “much below average” — overall rating. It staffing levels also received a one-star rating.

One measure of staffing used by CMS is “registered nurse hours per resident per day.” Benbrook’s score was about half the Texas average and only 36 percent of the national average.

However, Brooks said there are no immediate plans to hire more staff. “The cash flow is not yet available to fund much more increases.”

In state filings, Lichtschein and Scheiner list their office as a small building on the outer reaches of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. Neither of them responded to multiple requests for comment by The Dallas Morning News.

State and federal records show that companies controlled by Lichtschein and Scheiner operate 44 nursing homes in Texas, including nine in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

More than three-fourths of their Texas homes have been rated “below average” or “much below average” by CMS.

Lichtschein’s and Scheiner’s Texas homes operate from Advanced Healthcare Solutions, a company they own in Arlington. Nancy Shellhorse, a lawyer for Advanced, said the company disputes the fairness of CMS’s rankings, which are based in large part on information from state regulatory agencies.

"The current survey and enforcement process is inconsistent and standards are not clearly defined and consistently enforced, which results in an inaccurate portrayal of the quality of care provided in nursing facilities," Shellhorse said in a written statement to The News. "Advanced does not believe that the findings from surveys and investigations that are used for public reporting accurately reflect the quality of care provided by the facilities it operated."

The attorney said Advanced agreed to pay fines to CMS to avoid the expense of litigation, and the settlements were “not an admission of liability.”

Shellhorse also said that the additional Medicaid money will be used for enhancements and improvements at nursing homes. “Advanced and the nursing facilities that they provide support for continually look for opportunities to improve both the physical plants of the building as well as invest in care programs and health technology,” she wrote.

In addition to Palo Pinto, Lichtschein and Scheiner also reached similar licensing deals with six other small-town hospital districts. Among them was the Jack County Hospital District, which now holds the license for the Park View Care Center in Fort Worth.

Jack County has a population of about 9,000, and the hospital district headquarters is 60 miles from Fort Worth.

At Park View in 2012, a 54-year-old patient escaped from the home, according to a suit filed in Tarrant County. Unobserved by staff, the suit claims, she left by climbing over a fence around the smoking patio.

Eight hours later, Veranda Jimerson — who had been wearing a heavy black coat on a 98-degree day — was found dead in some nearby woods. The cause of death was multi-organ failure due to hyperthermia.

The suit was settled this month.

Park View agreed in 2013 to pay a $134,400 to CMS. In its most recent rankings, CMS gave Park View an overall one-star rating. Park View also received low marks for staffing levels that are well under state and national averages.

Frank Beaman, CEO of the Jack County district, said he had no knowledge of problems at Park View. “Actually, I am not aware of the cited deficiencies, as they did not occur on my watch,” Beaman said in an email.

Lichtschein and Scheiner’s companies will continue to operate the home while Jack County’s name is on the license. “We will monitor the quality of the home as part of our overall quality improvement plan,” Beaman said.

The Coryell County Memorial Hospital Authority in Central Texas has assumed the licenses of 20 nursing homes, including two owned by Lichtschein and Scheiner.

“It benefits everybody,” David Byrom, CEO of the Coryell authority, said of the state supplemental program.

One of Coryell’s new properties is Lichtschein’s and Scheiner’s Colonial Manor Nursing Center in Cleburne. CMS fined Colonial Manor $235,000 in September. It was there that the woman with cancer screamed in “uncontrolled, severe pain,” as state records described it, for 14 days before her doctor was called.

Byrom said Coryell will spend money to improve quality even if the state does not require it. “We’re all responsible folks,” he said.

Among the other homes now licensed to Coryell County is Brentwood Place Three in Dallas, previously owned by a Longview company. The seat of Coryell County, Gatesville, is 135 miles from Dallas.

Byrom acknowledged the unlikelihood that Coryell County would send patients to Dallas. He would not say what improvements might soon be made at Brentwood, which has a one-star rating and was fined $146,120 by CMS in 2012.

“I don’t think we have all the answers to all those questions,” he said.

Some of the homes that are to receive extra money were already showing a profit.

A consultant for the lawyers who sued Park View said Lichtschein’s and Scheiner’s companies “had plenty of resources to rectify these problems and increase staffing if they wanted to.”

Sid Gerber, the consultant, wrote in court filings that state reports for 2012 show that the Brooklyn pair’s companies at Park View “paid themselves $2,441,403 in home office, management and related party costs and fees in addition to a straight line profit of $489,367.”

At Benbrook, the 2013 cost report—the most recent available—said the home recorded $5,382,947 in expenses against $5,919,839 in total revenue.

Lichtschein’s and Scheiner’s companies provided multiple services at Benbrook. For example, the nursing home leased its building for $715,942 a year from BP Tenant LLC, a Lichtschein-Scheiner company. The two also own a company that provides therapy and rehabilitation to nursing home residents, state reports show.

“They all bill each other,” said Jason Young, the Houston lawyer who filed the Park View suit. “They’re doing quite well.”

Byrom of Coryell County said homes making a profit should not be excluded from the state program to provide additional funds. “I’m not going to be the judge of what’s a fair profit,” he said. “I don’t think that’s your role or the government’s role.”

Although federal money is being used for the state program, it’s unclear if Washington sees the need for increased scrutiny. CMS’s national public affairs office declined to comment on the Texas plan. Nor would CMS comment on whether it is allowable for money intended for patients to be spent elsewhere.

In 2013, the Winnie-Stowell Hospital District in southeast Texas commissioned a legal opinion on the nursing home program. Austin lawyer Mark D. Chouteau concluded that the hospital district could participate without incurring problems with regulators. That’s because federal involvement on such arrangements has been “sporadic and ambiguous,” Chouteau wrote, as well as “isolated and weak.”

Hubert Oxford IV, attorney for Winnie-Stowell, said a subsequent outside legal opinion warned that the district could face "some degree of risk" by participating in the program. Oxford refused to release the text of that opinion to The News, citing attorney-client privilege.

Winnie-Stowell, with a population of less than 6,000, ultimately assumed the licenses of 13 nursing homes. One of them is in Atlanta, Texas, 260 miles north of district lines.

Hazel Meaux, a Stowell resident and political activist who has opposed the nursing home transactions, said much of the new money will go toward attorney’s fees and management contracts.

“They’re just scratching everybody’s back and the money’s not going to take care of the people they’re supposed to be taking care of,” she said. “It might be legal but it isn’t right.”

Attorney Oxford said the district has implemented a quality assurance program, and necessary funds will be spent on better nursing home care. “We really think we’re doing it right,” Oxford said.

A sizable portion of the money, he acknowledged, will flow to the district for hospital renovations and equipment unrelated to nursing homes.

“It’s a great way for the hospital districts to bring in money,” Oxford said. “We wouldn’t do it if there wasn’t a substantial return.”

Output: From their headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., Teddy Lichtschein and Eliezer Scheiner operate some of the most poorly rated nursing homes in Texas. Their small empire has amassed more than $800,000 in federal fines over the past three years.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Shared Savings Program ACOs Reduced Medicare Spending by $1 Billion
 ACOs under CMS’ largest alternative payment model outperformed fee-for-service providers in quality and cost savings within the first three years of program.

According to findings reported by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG), accountable care organizations (ACOs) participating in the Shared Savings Program are learning how to achieve greater cost savings over time. The Medicare Shared Savings Program is one of the largest alternative payment models implemented by CMS to reward providers for the quality and value of their services in order to keep patients healthy and lower costs.

The OIG’s report suggests many positive outcomes of the program, including that one-third of the ACOs that reduced their spending lowered costs enough to receive a portion of the savings. CMS data on quality measures also shows that ACOs generally improved the quality of care they provided, with a rate of 82% performance improvement on the individual quality measures within the first three years of the program. ACOs also outperformed fee-for-service providers on 81% of the quality measures.

A small portion of ACOs are reported to have gone above expectations, reducing Medicare spending by an average of $673 per beneficiary, including spending reductions for high-cost services such as inpatient hospital care and skilled nursing facility care. The OIG reports that these high-performing ACOs’ frequent use of primary care services, which can lower utilization and costs for other care, and cost reductions for services such as emergency department visits, was a factor in their cost savings. These strategies are compared to other Shared Savings Program ACOs and the national average for fee‐for‐service providers, who showed an increase in per beneficiary spending for key Medicare services.

The OIG concluded that ACOs show promise in reducing Medicare spending while also improving quality. These improvements come at a critical time, as Medicare spending is predicted to grow to $1.4 trillion by 2027. A large portion of Medicare spending has been attributed to overbilling, with the Medicare program losing more money to this error than any other program government-wide.

Output: ACOs under CMS’ largest alternative payment model outperformed fee-for-service providers in quality and cost savings within the first three years of the program.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
The Same Agency That Runs Obamacare Is Using Taxpayer Money to Undermine It
 The Trump administration said on Thursday that it would slash spending on advertising and promotion for the Affordable Care Act, but it has already been waging a multipronged campaign against it.

Despite several failed efforts by Republican lawmakers to repeal it, the Affordable Care Act remains the law of the land. But the Department of Health and Human Services — an agency with a legal responsibility to administer the law — has used taxpayer dollars to oppose it.

Legal experts say that while it is common for a new administration to reinterpret an existing law, it is unusual to take steps to undermine it. Here are three ways the health department has campaigned against Obamacare.

1. Redirecting promotional funding

Instead of using its outreach budget to promote the Affordable Care Act, the department made videos critical of the law.

In June, the health department posted 23 video testimonials on YouTube from people who said they had been “burdened by Obamacare,” including families, health care professionals and small business owners.

Scenes from the 23 anti-Obamacare videos on the health department’s YouTube page

While it’s not certain where the money for the videos came from, several former health officials who worked in the Obama administration said that they suspect it came from the budget meant to promote the Affordable Care Act.

“There’s no other budget that makes sense,” said Lori Lodes, who oversaw outreach efforts under Mr. Obama.

The Trump administration defended the videos, saying that they were produced to inform Americans about the need for change so that people would have access to affordable health care.

“As evidenced by these important and educational testimonials, the status quo has made that impossible for millions of Americans,” a department spokeswoman, Alleigh Marré, said in July. “The administration is committed to reforming the current health care system to bring down the cost of coverage, expand health care choices, and strengthen the safety net for generations to come.”

The Daily Beast reported in July that one of the participants in the videos said he felt he was being pushed “for a harder line against Obamacare.”

While the health department refers to these testimonials as “educational videos” produced to inform Americans on the need to overhaul health care, some experts question whether they fit that definition.

“The lines between what is partisan, what is propaganda, and what is educational are nightmarish and subjective,” said Michael Eric Herz, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law in New York who has written about social media and the government.

2. Attacking the law

The department targeted the Affordable Care Act with a marketing campaign as Republicans in Congress tried to repeal the legislation.

In addition to the YouTube videos, the department has used Twitter and news releases to try to discredit the health law. Since being sworn in as health secretary on February 10, Tom Price has posted on Twitter 48 infographics advocating against Obamacare, all of which bear the health department’s logo.

“Here, it’s an agency trying to destroy its own program because it opposes it,” said Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University who is an expert on government ethics. “It is inconsistent with the constitutional duty to take care that the law is faithfully executed.”

The bulk of Mr. Price’s Twitter posts were from late June to mid-July, when Senate Republicans were trying to pass a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Once, Mr. Price tweeted five infographics in a single day.

When Mr. Price posted anti-Obamacare infographics on Twitter Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat. Sun. 4 May 22 May 29 June 5 1 June 12 1 June 19 2 1 1 1 June 26 July 3 1 1 1 1 2 2 July 10 1 1 1 July 17 2 5 2 3 Senate repeal vote fails July 24 4 4 1 July 31 1 1 2 Aug. 7 Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat. Sun. 4 May 22 May 29 June 5 June 12 1 June 19 1 June 26 2 1 1 1 July 3 1 1 1 1 July 10 2 2 1 1 1 July 17 2 5 2 3 July 24 Senate repeal vote fails 4 4 1 July 31 1 1 Aug. 7 2

Around the same time, the Trump administration ended $23 million worth of contracts with companies that help people sign up for coverage.

Anti-Obamacare infographics tweeted by Mr. Price

The language in Mr. Price’s Twitter posts is often even more critical of the health law than what is used in the infographics.

Though the health department’s Twitter account has refrained from criticism, the agency itself has used its news releases to disseminate negative information about the law. Below are excerpts from recent releases.

“Year after year, insurers are finding Obamacare unworkable and are abandoning it in droves.” Health department news release

“Obamacare is flawed, failing, and harming the American people with higher costs and fewer healthcare choices.” Health department news release

In August, five congressional Democrats wrote a letter to Mr. Price demanding detailed information about his plans for marketing and outreach. “Rather than encouraging enrollment in the marketplaces, the administration appears intent on depressing it,” the letter said.

3. Deleting information online

The department removed useful guidance for consumers about the Affordable Care Act from its website.

Under the Obama administration, the health department’s website contained information to help consumers learn about the Affordable Care Act and how to obtain coverage through the health insurance marketplaces. Much of that information is now gone. Some was removed within hours of President Trump’s inauguration.

A link to a page about the Affordable Care Act disappeared from the health department’s home page the evening of the inauguration, according to a comparison of the sites, shown below.

Jan. 19 11:03 p.m. Jan. 19 11:03 p.m. Jan. 19 11:03 p.m. Jan. 20 9:59 p.m. Jan. 20 9:59 p.m. Jan. 20 9:59 p.m.

The department also changed other areas of the website, removing overviews of the law and links to information on summaries of benefits, emergency services and doctor choice, making it more difficult for consumers to learn about the law.

It also appears to have erased positive references to the Affordable Care Act, including personal stories about individuals who benefited from the law.

For example, a video about a Florida man with diabetes who said he was able to enroll in coverage without worrying about his health status was removed from a page about pre-existing conditions. A link to a page about the number of young adults who gained coverage after the law took effect is also gone.

Even before President Trump took office, health insurance markets had serious problems in some states. But Sarah Lueck, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank, said the law would not be dying on its own.

Output: The Trump administration said on Thursday that it would slash spending on advertising and promotion for the Affordable Care Act, but it has already been waging a multipronged campaign against it.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
After Harvey, telemedicine connects doctors to displaced patients
 Getting thousands of Houston-area families to shelters has been a massive humanitarian effort. But the aid doesn’t end there: Many of the displaced have chronic medical conditions like asthma or injuries from recent days that need medical attention.

Providers of telemedicine are hoping technology can help step into the breach. At Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, which has begun to take residents displaced by flooding in Houston, emergency-room doctors at Children’s Health, a pediatric hospital based in Dallas, are seeing young patients remotely.

“For every adult that comes in, there will be about three children,” explained Scott Summerall, spokesperson for Children’s Health. “We have doctors for adults available at the shelter 24 hours a day, but we don’t have as many pediatric specialists, especially at night.”

It’s thanks to a recently passed law that it’s even possible: In May, Texas became the last U.S. state to allow physicians to see patients by telemedicine without an initial in-person visit.

And it’s thanks to a recently passed law that it’s even possible: In May, Texas became the last U.S. state to allow physicians to see patients by telemedicine without an initial in-person visit.

At the Dallas convention center, patients are slowly trickling in, many of them delayed by still-flooded roads. Plans for the “mega-shelter,” however, indicate that could house up to 5,000 people in coming days and weeks.

In preparation for that, Children’s Health has set up a telemedicine station from which ER physicians at the hospital can remotely see children at the shelter, via a computer monitor and specially designed equipment for measuring vital signs. The telemedicine station has been in use since Monday.

“We expect to see a lot of rashes and infections,” said Dr. Stormee Williams, who oversees telemedicine at Children’s Health, and who is working on-site at the shelter.

READ MORE: Pioneering cancer drug, just approved, to cost $475,000 — and analysts say it’s a bargain

She added that flood conditions, like mold in flooded homes, can exacerbate conditions such as asthma. In addition, floodwater may carry viruses and bacteria from dead animals, chemicals, and other contaminants that could cause serious health problems in children if they swallowed it.

“We have doctors around the country calling in and saying, ‘I use telemedicine. How can I help?’ But because they are laws and rules about who can practice where, unless they have a license in Texas, they can’t do it.”

“There’s also behavioral health issues,” Williams added. “Children are susceptible to anxiety and depression, especially in a time like this. ”

And the Dallas shelter will eventually house a pharmacy, which should enable parents to fill their kids prescriptions on-site.

Dr. Maeve Sheehan, a pediatrician at Children’s Health, is another of the physicians on-site at the convention center. Telemedicine has helped both the medical and nonmedical workers at the site, Sheehan said.

“We have a lot of volunteers here, and people, especially kids, get sick at night. This way they can be in touch with emergency room doctors whenever they need help.”

That, Sheehan said, is a notable improvement over disaster response teams she’s worked on in the past. “We didn’t have telemedicine for Katrina,” she said. “I was on [call] all night. This time, I don’t have to be. Telemedicine makes a big difference.”

READ MORE: Houston hospitals may not be back to normal for a month

Williams said she’s seen an outpouring of support from fellow physicians in the days since the storm hit.

“We have doctors around the country calling in and saying, ‘I use telemedicine. How can I help?’ But because they are laws and rules about who can practice where, unless they have a license in Texas, they can’t do it,” she said.

Still Williams hopes that the Harvey response efforts will be the beginning of telemedicine as a regular part of disaster recovery.

“I’m really excited that we’re doing this,” said Williams. “This is an example of how telemedicine can be used in the most extreme situations, when health care is most needed.”

This article is reproduced with permission from STAT. It was first published on August 31, 2017. Find the original story here.

Output: Getting thousands of Houston-area families to shelters has been a massive humanitarian effort. But the aid doesn’t end there: Many of the displaced have chronic medical conditions like asthma or injuries from recent days that need medical attention.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
UK's first bio-substitute natural gas plant to open next year
 OUR BRANDS

Supporting professionals working across more than a dozen industries and sectors, our leading brands are trusted providers of news, information and research, as well as sources of creative inspiration. They represent the diversity and inclusivity we champion as a business.

The communities we have built around our brands mean we can offer in-depth commercial insights and data analysis and connect our business partners to new audiences.

Output: Work has begun on the UK's first commercial plant to convert household waste into bio-substitute natural gas (BioSNG). Located in Swindon and operated by Saxlund International, the £25m ($32m) facility is set to open in 2018 and will process an estimated 10,000 tonnes of household waste annually, producing 22 GWh of BioSNG. Saxlund secured £11m of funding for the scheme through the Department for Transport’s Advanced Biofuels Demonstration Competition.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Florida’s new faces of old age
 This feature is part of Salon's Young Americans initiative , showcasing emerging journalists reporting from America's red states. Read more Young Americans stories .

As far back as the late 1800s – when industrialist and developer Henry Flagler and others made the state a viable destination – people have moved to Florida in their later years. Back then, it was for doctor’s orders – warm weather was said to possess healing powers. Now, it’s almost a rite-of-passage: retire, then move to the Sunshine State.

According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 20 percent of Florida’s population is 65 and older. That’s a sizable chunk of the state’s economy – and political impact.

But not all retirees come to Florida, as the saying goes, “to die.” Lately, a lot of them move here to start living, and their days are full of more than shuffleboard and early bird specials. Carolyn and Pat are two of the many seniors who weren't born in Florida but now call the state home.

Carolyn, 62

Carolyn grew up in a “pretty, little town with pretty, little shops and boardwalks” in New Jersey and retired nearly twenty years ago to Largo, about 30 minutes south of Tampa on the west coast.

Carolyn and her husband had inherited a one-bedroom house in one of Florida’s many 55-plus mobile home parks. They were soon kicked out. At 45 and 50, they were considered too young to live there.

“It’s not like we’re hooligans who had wild parties every night,” she said. “We didn’t throw furniture through the windows.”

In high school, Carolyn had a creative and “eccentric” personality, but it wasn’t until retirement, she said, that the former preschool teacher was able to tap back into her artistic side as an adult.

“When people are retired, they don’t have time constraints,” she said, “and they get a chance to do what they want to do.”

The newfound time has also allowed her to take singing lessons, jewelry making classes and sign up for pottery studio. For an upcoming talent show, she planned to dress as a nun and sing “I Will Follow Him” from "Sister Act."

This routine is especially funny to her, because she’s an ordained minister.

“I’m trying to be a better person and not take anyone’s inventory like ‘Well, you did this,'” she said. “Who cares? That’s their business.”

Pat, 74

Pat moved to Florida when she was near the age of 50 because of an abusive relationship. Her parents lived in the same Largo mobile home park that she lives in now, and she wanted to be closer to them for safety.

“I didn’t realize how strong I was until I walked away from that man,” she said. “I thought if I could do that then, I could do anything.”

Framed swimming ribbons cover her mobile home. Forest-green carpet runs throughout the house. She keeps a dish of chocolate chip cookies wrapped in plastic on her living room table.

“I don’t think of aging as aging,” she said. “I think of it as experiences.”

Pat grew up a tomboy in New Hampshire and still has the accent – she pronounces party as “pah-ty” and says “idea-rs.” As a teenager, she competed on the swim team and loved it so much she later coached the sport.

Earlier this summer, she took home five first places ribbons in a swim meet. She now hopes to go to the national championships to compete in the 70-to-74-year-old division. All ages, she says, can compete – there’s even a “90 and up” category. Pat trains about three times a week and said she bikes every day if it’s not too hot.

“I have arthritis, but it’s not going to beat me, I’ll be danged,” she said. “I have a bike, and there’s always the pool.”

Along with swim practice, Pat spends a good deal of her time in the production of scripted shows with themes such as “Country Bumpkin’” and “Broadway.” To promote her shows, she invites people from other mobile home parks.

“My shows are geared to seniors and done by seniors,” she said, adding, “I fill the hall.”

Output: According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 20 percent of Florida’s population is 65 and older. That’s a sizable chunk of the state’s economy – and political impact. But not all retirees come to Florida, as the saying goes, “to die.” Lately, a lot of them move here to start living, and their days are full of more than shuffleboard and early bird specials.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
For Vulnerable Older Adults, a Harrowing Sense of Being Trapped
 HOUSTON — A Holocaust survivor waded waist-deep in flood water. Dozens of people were trapped in a 14-story residence for seniors. A disabled man sat alone at home, without the aide who usually helps him, watching the water rise and unsure if anyone would come.

Harvey was terrifying for millions of people along the Gulf Coast. But it was particularly difficult for the region’s seniors and disabled, many of whom struggled to escape as the water rose. Now, some wait in shelters for chemotherapy, dialysis, pain medication, a pillow. Rescue teams are still evacuating people from their homes.

Inside her apartment in a Houston Housing Authority senior residence on Friday, Ida Szydlik insisted that she hadn’t been scared as the water rushed into her building over the weekend, filling the first floor. “We were just frightened for the other people,” said Ms. Szydlik, 97, as she began to cry. “I was in prayer, but I wasn’t scared, I was too busy praying that this would all go away.”

It is impossible to be sure how many older people have been affected by the storm, and many experts say it is too early to know how nursing homes are dealing with the impact.

Output: Harvey was terrifying for millions of people along the Gulf Coast. But it was particularly difficult for the region’s seniors and disabled, many of whom struggled to escape as the water rose.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
New leader ready to prepare HIMSS for the approaching silver tsunami
 When Hal Wolf looks at the future of HIMSS, he sees “tremendous opportunities” but he is also keenly focused on the “silver tsunami” that is coming.

“We must recognize that healthcare systems are going to be financially strapped,” he said in his first interview with Healthcare IT News. “We have a lot of people living longer and there are going to be fewer people producing GDP.”

Wolf, who takes over as President and CEO of HIMSS today, succeeds Steve Lieber, who is stepping down after more than 17 years.

He’s already given serious thought to how HIMSS needs to change in order to help its membership meet these challenges, some of it based on his experience in healthcare IT leadership roles. He was director of information and digital health strategy at The Chartis Group; chief operating officer of Kaiser Permanente's Federation; and regional CIO at Kaiser Permanente IT in Denver.

“We have an amazing membership,” he said. “And HIMSS has an astounding opportunity to continue to expand its relevancy and its value in healthcare.”

But the crunch that an aging population will present across healthcare is a challenge he believes will require new approaches.

“I am a huge believer in patient at home,” Wolf said. “People will need information not just in the home but globally as well.”

Connecting medical devices, supporting reimbursement systems, and delivering medical records where they’re needed are all at the center of the transformation to home-based care.

He also believes the membership will have increasing needs to learn about predictive modeling using genomic data. And he sees a need to improve automation of the supply chain.

“When we look at how goods are purchased in this space, the process has not been digitized within the provider community,” he said adding that the change can provide tremendous value to the quality of care and help control cost.

Wolf believes HIMSS must continue to provide educational value and networking opportunities to its members.

“The strength of HIMSS membership has always been to facilitate getting members together to share information and best practices,” he said. He places high value on the connections made at events that lead to relationships forming after the event is over. “The educational piece is critical. That’s what drives our eco-system and that’s why so many of our members are active.”

He is also firmly behind HIMSS involvement in public policy.

“This is extremely important. I cannot stress this is enough,” he said. “We are a trusted source in the United States for public policy.” He is already involved in work to educate the FDA on certification of digital devices and is focused on emerging technologies like blockchain.

“We have a very important role to play because as a non-profit we have a neutral and judicious view on care and the enablement of technology that is a cornerstone public policy,” he said, adding that he hopes to extend the work internationally, collaborating with HIMSS members who already involved.

He served as an advisor to WHO (World Health Organization) and has been involved in discussions with the ministers of health in a number of European countries. Most are facing the same challenge of an aging population and a declining economic base.

One of the traits Wolf shares with outgoing HIMSS President and CEO Steve Lieber: face-to-face meetings have been an important factor in his success. And he intends to continue a heavy travel schedule.

He is not planning to change his permanent address from Colorado to Chicago, where HIMSS’ headquarters is located. But his lifestyle will remain the same. He said he’ll “continue to be living out of United Airlines seat 6B.”

Healthcare IT year in review This was one of our most popular stories of the year.

Twitter: @GusVenditto

Email the writer: gus.venditto@himssmedia.com

Output: When Hal Wolf looks at the future of HIMSS, he sees “tremendous opportunities” but he is also keenly focused on the “silver tsunami” that is coming.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
New class of drugs targets aging to help keep you healthy
 Story highlights Have researchers found a fountain of youth in senolytic drugs? A new paper calls for clinical trials to test the age-modifying drugs in humans

CNN —

Researchers have turned the spotlight on a new class of drugs that they say could “transform” the field of medicine – and the drugs work by targeting aging.

The researchers, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, are calling for senolytic drugs to make the leap from animal research to human clinical trials. They outlined potential clinical trial scenarios in a paper published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society on Monday.

“This is one of the most exciting fields in all of medicine or science at the moment,” said Dr. James Kirkland, director of the Kogod Center on Aging at the Mayo Clinic and lead author of the new paper.

As we age, we accumulate senescent cells, which are damaged cells that resist dying off but stay in our bodies. They can affect other cells in our various organs and tissues. Senolytic drugs are agents capable of killing problem-causing senescent cells in your body without harming your normal, healthy cells.

Senescent cells play a role in many age-related chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, most cancers, dementia, arthritis, osteoporosis and blindness, Kirkland said. Therefore, senolytic drugs are a possible treatment approach for such diseases.

As a practicing physician, Kirkland said that he has grown increasingly concerned for his patients who are sick with many of these age-related conditions.

“The same processes that cause aging seem to be the root causes of age-related diseases,” he said. “Why not target the root cause of all of these things? That would have been a pipe dream until a few years back.”

In 2015, scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and the Mayo Clinic, including Kirkland, identified this new class of drugs. In a study published in the journal Aging Cell, they described how senolytic drugs can alleviate symptoms of frailty in mice and extend the length of time the mice are healthy as they grow old.

Then, last year, the researchers demonstrated in a study in Aging Cell that clearing senescent cells in mice can improve their vascular health.

Fourteen senolytic drugs have been discovered and are being actively studied, 11 of which Kirkland’s colleagues and their collaborators found, he said.

Are these age-modifying drugs ready for human trials?

Scientists have long known that certain processes influence your body’s aging on the cellular level, according to the paper. Those processes include inflammation, changes in your DNA, cell damage or dysfunction and the accumulation of senescent cells.

It turns out that those processes are linked. For instance, DNA damage causes increased senescent cell accumulation, Kirkland said.

So an intervention that targets senescent cells could attenuate other aging processes as well, according to the new paper. That is, once such an intervention is tested for efficacy and safety.

“I think senolytic drugs have a great future. If it is proven that it can reduce senescent cells and rejuvenate tissues or organs, it may be one of our potential best treatments for age-related diseases,” said Dr. Kang Zhang, founding director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the new paper.

Yet taking senolytic drugs from mouse studies to human ones is a “big leap,” Zhang said.

“So we will have to wait for clinical trials to see whether this would work in humans,” he said. “One possible clinical trial strategy is to test this class of drugs in an age-related disease, such as neurodegeneration, like Parkinson’s disease, to see if it can reduce clinical severity of the disease and improve tissue functions.”

In the new paper, the researchers wrote that potential clinical trial scenarios include testing whether senolytic drugs could alleviate multiple chronic diseases in a single patient or whether such drugs could treat conditions that involve senescent cell accumulation in one location in the body, such as osteoarthritis.

They also suggest testing whether the drugs could treat diseases for which there are no medicines proven to slow the progression of that disease, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a cell senescence-associated disease that affects the lungs.

Other potential clinical trial scenarios include testing whether the drugs could alleviate frailty in older adults or could treat conditions associated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy, since radiation can produce cellular senescence, Kirkland said.

For instance, “in mice, if you treat one leg with enough radiation, after three months, the mouse has trouble walking. If you give a single dose of these drugs, they’re able to walk quite well, and that persists for two years,” he said. “These drugs could mitigate the effects of therapeutic radiation.”

Certain experimental cancer drugs already undergoing clinical trials, such as navitoclax and obatoclax, have been shown to have some senolytic properties, Kirkland said. If senolytic drugs prove to be efficient in treating humans and end up available for use, he said, they could cost about the same as some cancer drugs.

“Some of the drugs at the moment are moderately expensive,” he said.

Cancer drugs can range in cost from about $20 a month to thousands a month. Venclexta or venetoclax, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and has been studied in combination with navitoclax, has a monthly price tag of about $8,000, according to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

“If we’re able to reduce hospitalizations … the savings on the medical care and hospital side might more than offset the cost of these drugs by a longshot,” Kirkland said, though it remains unclear what the dosage options would be for senolytic drugs for short- or long-term use.

What the future holds for senolytic drugs

As for how soon he thinks human clinical trials might commence, Kirkland said doctors could have an idea of how well senolytic drugs work for serious health conditions in about a year and a half or two years.

Once the drugs are tested in humans, researchers expect many companies to be lining up to develop or manufacture senolytic drugs. Some have already expressed interest.

One company, Unity Biotechnology, aims to be the first to demonstrate that removing senescent cells can cure human diseases, said its president, Nathaniel David.

“In the coming decades, I believe that health care will be transformed by this class of medicine and a whole set of diseases that your parents and grandparents have will be things you only see in movies or read in books, things like age-associated arthritis,” said David, whose company was not involved in the new paper.

Yet he cautioned that, while many more studies may be on the horizon for senolytic drugs, some might not be successful.

Follow CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

“One thing that people tend to do is, they tend to overestimate things in the short run but then underestimate things in the long run, and I think that, like many fields, this suffers from that as well,” David said.

“It will take a while,” he said. “I think it’s important to recognize that a drug discovery is among the most important of all human activities … but it takes time, and there must be a recognition of that, and it takes patience.”

Output: Researchers have turned the spotlight on a new class of drugs that they say could "transform" the field of medicine -- and the drugs work by targeting aging.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Efficient method for cellulosic conversion to glucose discovered
 French and Norwegian scientists have discovered a ground-breaking enzymatic mechanism that could revolutionise biorefining and biofuel production.

The research focuses on enzymes known as Lytic Polysaccharide Monooxygenases (LPMOs), which in recent years have drastically improved the conversion of cellulose into fermentable sugar (glucose), a pivotal step in the creation of second generation biofuels.

Despite their common use in the commercial production of bioethanol, much ambiguity remains over how LPMOs work at a molecular level. There are also persistent challenges connected to their industrial application, the enzymes unstable under process conditions and their use requiring the costly addition of oxygen.

Bastien Bissaro, a guest researcher at NMBU (The Norwegian University of Life Sciences) from INRA, France, and an NMBU team led by Vincent Eijsink have now discovered that the mechanism by which LPMOs break down cellulose is different to previously thought. Most notably, they’ve determined that LPMOs don’t actually need oxygen to function, but hydrogen peroxide, a relatively cheap liquid chemical.

Huge significance

Bissaro and Eijsink’s discovery is a game-changer in more ways than one. Scientifically, it contradicts many of the prevailing ideas of biochemistry. From an industry point of view, it shows that the way LPMOs are harnessed in biorefining needs to be reconsidered.

Applying their findings, Bissaro and colleagues show that by controlling the supply of hydrogen peroxide, it’s possible to achieve stable enzymatic cellulose conversion processes, much higher conversion rates than previously thought possible and higher glucose yields.

A statement from NMBU makes the case that the findings, published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, are of great commercial interest. Collaborative work with industrial partners is now underway.

Bissaro and colleagues’ findings could have ramifications beyond biomass conversion. LPMOs are abundant in nature, and are known, like hydrogen peroxide, to play a role in bacterial infections.

Output: A team of researchers have made they are calling a "game-changing" breakthrough with an enzymatic mechanism that could revolutionise biorefining and biofuel production. The team examined how lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) work at a molecular level and discovered that, to convert cellulose into fermentable sugar (glucose) – a crucial step in the biofuel process, LPMOs require hydrogen peroxide and not oxygen, which is more expensive. Using hydrogen peroxide, the team also achieved much higher conversion rates and glucose yields. Collaborative work with industrial partners has already begun. The research was undertaken at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Citigroup prepares to expand wealth management in Australia
 Citi Australia is repositioning its wealth management business to focus on meeting the needs of Australia’s affluent High Net Worth investors.

In what is a rapidly growing segment of its client base, the U.S. bank has ambitious plans for the country.

Australia has the third largest pool of high net worth individuals (HNW) in Asia-Pacific (APAC) with more than 230,000 people with $1 million or more in investible assets.

Australian Ambitions

Having recently expanded Citi Australia’s wealth management business with new specialist hires the bank has rolled out ambitious plans for the coming years.

These include the hiring of 100 new relationship managers over the next three years to meet expected client growth and ensure clients have access to a dedicated relationship manager.

Development of new products and solutions including a digital currency account tailored for clients investing and transacting in a range of currencies.

Digital Initiatives

There will also be continued innovation and investment in digital service platforms and the introduction of more tools including the roll out of video banking, enabling clients to see and speak with their relationship manager and product experts securely via chat, audio and video calls within the Citi mobile app.

The focus on wealth management in Australia follows similar expansion in APAC, with Citi seeking mid teen growth of its affluent client base in the region in 2017.

Citi currently manages $218 billion across the region and has over 400,000 investment clients.

Output: US bank Citigroup has revealed plans to expand further into Australia's high-net-worth market, which has grown to 230,000 individuals. The repositioning includes hiring 100 additional relationship managers, new products, such as a digital currency account for clients working in a range of currencies, the introduction of video banking and other innovations. Australia has the third largest pool of high-net-worth individuals in the Asia-Pacific area and Citi's move followed a successful similar initiative elsewhere in the region.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Huawei's new phone chipset comes with built-in AI processor
 Now that we’ve gotten all the talk about the notebook’s looks and design out of the …

Mohon Sekarang

Output: The Kirin 970, the processor for Huawei's soon-to-be released Mate 10 smartphone, comes with a neural processing unit (NPU) which provides the computing power required for artificial intelligence. The NPU performs 25 times better a quad-core Cortex-A73 CPU cluster, according to Huawei. The Kirin is the first in a series of AI-focused technologies that Huawei plans to release, said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Yell to drop Yellow Pages phone directory and go digital only
 Yell has announced the final print cycle of Yellow Pages, marking the company’s full transition to a purely digital business after 51 years in print, to date. The first of the 104 final editions is being distributed in Kingston in January 2018, with the final ever edition distributed in January 2019 in Brighton, back where it all began. Alongside the shuttering of the print edition, Yell said it is committing to help a million businesses be “found, chosen and trusted by more customers online by 2020”.

“We’re proud of the transformation we’ve made from print to digital,” said Yell CEO, Richard Hanscott. “Like many businesses, Yell has found that succeeding in digital demands constant change and innovation. We’re well placed to continue to help local businesses and consumers be successful online, both now and in the future.’'

Yell is the largest reseller of Google AdWords in the UK and provides a full range of digital media and managed services for businesses, including pay-per-clock advertising, display advertising, websites, social media and directory listings. Over 130,000 businesses currently advertise with Yell, while and Yell.com is used by millions of consumers every month.

Output: Yell is finally giving up on its printed telephone directory, the Yellow Pages. The move will mark the company's full transition to being online only after 51 years in print. The first of the 104 final editions will be sent out in Kingston in January, with the last-ever edition being distributed in January 2019 in Brighton, where it first launched. More than 130,000 firms advertise with Yell, with Yell.com used by millions of consumers each month.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
RhythmOne RhythmOne confirms $185m YuMe purchase
 Following earlier speculation they were in negotiations, RhythmOne has confirmed it will purchase video adtech outfit YuMe, in a $185m deal building on its RadiumOne purchase earlier this year.

The company's leadership has now publicly declared that its 2017 acqusitions form part of a strategy to assemble a consolidated adtech offering to take on established players such as Facebook and Google.

UK-based RhythmOne, which is listed on the AIM, today (September 5) confirmed the deal for YuMe, itself listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with the acquisition consisting of one-third in cash, and two-thirds in shares, and expected to close in the first quarter of 2018.

RhythmOne claims that post the closure of the proposed deal, the combined entity will be “a complete end-to-end platform” – the goal of many of the recent adtech mergers and acquisition (M&A) this year.

A RhythmOne release states: “The combination of RhythmOne and YuMe will bring together demand-side and supply-side strengths in the fast growing segments of mobile, video, connected TV and programmatic trading."

The note goes on to state that the company’s board of directors have “identified a window of opportunity” in the adtech sector to build a credible, scaled offering that can pose as a “sustainable alternative to entrenched players in the industry.”

A note from its board of directors also goes on to reference to “a contraction in market valuations of public and private companies” in recent years – something that is likely fueling the number of M&A deals in the sector.

The note goes on to read: “The directors believe that, as a result of the acquisition, the company will be a more attractive alternative to the largest networks and exchanges, represented by companies such as Google and Facebook.”

The release also features a statement from RhythmOne, chief executive, Ted Hastings, it read: “Through YuMe, RhythmOne gains access to premium video supply including emerging, high-value connected TV inventory, unique customer insights, cross-screen targeting technology and established demand relationships. We believe this combination will give RhythmOne the resources, relationships and talent to drive value for its shareholders, and a true return on investment.”

Earlier in the year, RhythmOne announced it has acquired certain assets of RadiumOne for an undisclosed amount – although speculation since, has pegged the figure at circa $22m.

Speaking at the time of the purchase, Richard Nunn, RhythmOne’s chief revenue officer, said the acquisition would provide advertisers with insights, prediction, campaign targeting, execution and measurement.

The number of M&A deals in the wider digital media sector numbered 115, according to a Results International study. Although the second quarter was not as busy, 102 deals were still scored during the period, it was an increase of 24 on the same period in 2016.

More recent activity has seen consolidation among adtech players – as opposed to buys from strategic players, or strategic players – most notably the proposed takeover of Rocket Fuel by Sizmek, Rubicon Project's purchase of nToggle, and Outbrain's acquisition of Zemanta.

Another notable trend in this year's adtech M&A has been the growing popularity of companies possessing video capabilities with publicly-listed Tremor Video agreeing to sell its demand-side platform (DSP) to TapTica for $50m. Meanwhile, Europe's largest broadcaster RTL Group announced it was to complete its purchase of SpotX last week, plus earlier in the year Teads sold to US-based telco Altice.

Output: UK adtech firm RhythmOne is buying video adtech firm YuMe for $185m as part of its merger and acquisition strategy. RhythmOne said the deal will mean the combined firm can provide a consolidated adtech solution, bringing together both demand and supply-side strengths in mobile, video, TV and programmatic trading. The acquisition followed RhythmOne's purchase of RadiumOne assets earlier this year. The deal for the New York Stock Exchange-listed company will consist of one-third cash and two-thirds shares and is expected to complete early next year.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Joe Media UK invests in podcasts with three new series
 Joe Media U.K. is jumping into podcasting with three podcast series this month.

The most fully-formed is a weekly hour-long interview series called “Unfiltered,” where presenter and journalist James O’Brien interviews figures from sport, politics, music and entertainment. In the works is also a weekly football podcast series and a weekly entrepreneurial podcast series, both around the one hour mark and distributed across platforms including Soundcloud, Stitcher and iTunes.

Joe Media’s monetization model is to create a product, like a weekly Facebook Live show, and get one brand on board as a sponsor. As yet there are no brands signed up to sponsor these podcasts, said Niall McGarry, owner of Joe Media parent company Maximum Media.

“You make better money long term off the back of a good product, we’re not answering to private investors so there’s not the pressure to be overly profitable,” he said. “We’re happy to wash our own face and give people the product they want.”

While McGarry said it’s unlikely that “Unfiltered” will sign up a sponsor, he’s expecting it to pull in weekly listeners of up to 50,000 in the first four months, with weekly listener numbers reaching a quarter of a million in the longer term. “The podcast market is still embryonic in the U.K.,” he said.

“Unfiltered” presenter James O’Brien has been credited with making radio go viral after short video clips of his radio shows have notched up millions of views on Facebook. Joe Media will also distribute the full podcast episodes on its YouTube channel, where it has 38,000 subscribers, and chop up the best moments to market the podcast on Facebook, where it has 4 million followers, and Twitter. Sponsored brands will also have exposure here.

This is part of Joe Media’s growth as a distributed media company. A frivolous one-minute long compilation video of TV presenter Richard Madeley can sit happily alongside a four-thousand-word article on gender equality or an hour-long podcast interview on politics. “Humans are more rounded individuals, it’s not just banter central,” said McGarry. This also offers more breadth for advertisers.

Joe Media is currently building its fourth studio to cater for more audio programming. The U.K. operation has 50 employees, currently on LinkedIn it’s advertising for an audio editor and a creative director plus three other roles, McGarry estimates the headcount will reach 80 in the next six months.

This year McGarry estimates the company will turnover about £3 million ($3.9 million), roughly four times what it brought in the previous year, and it has been “modestly profitable.” Programmatic is a growing part of its revenue, 70 percent comes from branded content. Of next year’s turnover, which McGarry is estimating at roughly £12 million ($15.5 million), audio will be 15 percent.

While in Ireland this year’s turnover is predicted to be €8.5 million ($10.1 million). Growth has been quick: In May Maximum Media was number 250 in the Financial Times’ list of Europe’s 1,000 fastest growing companies by revenue.

Joe Media has two podcast series in Ireland, with several more planned for launch. “The GAA Hour,” featuring interviews about the Gaelic Athletic Association has been sponsored by Allied Irish Bank for the last two years. It’s hoping to repeat this success in the U.K.

“Advertising is bought locally,” points out McGarry. “We’re creating podcasts for a British market, we’re not going global, that’s not necessarily what a podcast strategy should be. We want to be as big as possible in Britain, brand budgets will come from ad agencies in Britain, they won’t pay for listens around the world.”

Image: courtesy of Joe Media.

Output: Men's lifestyle publisher Joe Media is expanding into podcasting, and is set to launch three series with a view to each show carrying a brand sponsor. One of the podcasts, Unfiltered, featuring James O’Brien interviewing people in the news, is expected to pull in 50,000 in the first four months, according to Niall McGarry, owner of parent company Maximum Media. He said advertising would be locally led, adding: "We’re creating podcasts for a British market, we’re not going global, that’s not necessarily what a podcast strategy should be." The other two podcasts are understood to be about football and business start-ups.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Pernod Ricard saves $70m by taking a quarter of ad spend in-house
 Pernod Ricard is part of a wave of marketers taking more media buying in-house.

The spirits maker has a small team of media buyers buying inventory directly from demand-side platforms such as Adobe Advertising Cloud (formerly TubeMogul) and Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager. For instance, the business now asks that media agencies use client-preferred DSPs that allows its marketers to log in and manage buys in real time. This way Pernod Ricard controls the contract with the DSP, if not the operation, utilizing the software’s managed service tools to run it.

Today, a quarter of Pernod Ricard’s digital media is bought by its own media buyers rather than its agencies. The company saved €60 million ($71.5 million) in the the first half of the year, half of it being reinvested back into its advertising. It’s a decision Pernod Ricard told investors last week it wouldn’t have made without the assurances of its own internal expertise.

“We [Pernod Ricard] had to readjust ourselves to make sure that we speak the same language as our partners and understand what’s going on [with our investments] so that we can then play that back within our marketing,” said Thibaut Portal, who heads up the global media hub. “Our objective is not to buy media at the cheapest cost — it doesn’t mean anything.”

Media budget cuts across the package-goods sector may have agencies worried but at Pernod Ricard there are no plans to make any major changes to its own spending. As Gilles Bogaert, the company’s managing director for finance and operations recently told financial analysts, the business is reinvesting a sizeable proportion of corporate-wide savings back into its media budgets. Bogaert explained: “In total, we estimate that the advertising and promotion efficiencies represent, more or less, half of the €200 million ($238.3 million) [savings we plan to make between 2016 and 2020]. And as you know, we decided to invest half of the €200 million ($238.3 million) into advertising and promotion. So net-net impact on the advertising and promotion ratio would be more or less neutral. But with, in reality, more efficiency behind our brands.”

But the pursuit of those efficiencies will not push media agencies away from Pernod Ricard like some advertisers are alleged to have done, assured Portal. A recent study from the World Federation of Advertisers that revealed some big brands are taking more digital expertise in-house was interpreted by some observers as the latest signal of the gradual disintermediation of the media agency.

However, Pernod Ricard’s own burgeoning media expertise is meant to give it a better understanding of its investments, while simultaneously easing the eroding margins of its agencies. Like it has done with its in-house content-production team, Pernod Ricard takes on more of the day-to-day costs of managing its media investments such as adapting content for different channels and localizing assets, while it’s agencies are tasked with the strategy and creative responsibilities.

Portal added, “What’s changed is our philosophy of remunerating the added value that the agencies are bringing; we’re remunerating the results and the performance of our investments [as they move down the supply chain]. … I believe because we have a common set of KPis and dashboards that we share with our agencies it means we’re sharing the same objectives in real time. It resembles a partnership rather than the advertiser being on one side and the supplier on another.”

Looking forward, Portal believes there are still points he and his team must address around viewability and the relevancy of metrics they receive from different partners. It will follow in the footsteps of P&G, Unilever and L’Oreal by coming up with its own viewability standards in the coming months, believing it is “a critical topic to improving our effectiveness.”

Pernod Ricard marketers no longer see video views as its key KPI. Instead, they are adjusting to completion rates and targeting to ensure ads are served as completely as possible to the right users. Portal added, “We’re going more in depth on assessing the real impact of media on sales. We need to close that loop.”

It’s why the company has placed a greater emphasis on collecting its own data over the last two years. The company’s run brand, for instance, has reportedly tested lead-generation ads on Facebook in recent weeks that collect email addresses, according to Adweek. After 10 days, the campaign collected 1,300 new leads and open rates between 43 and 77 percent, per Salesforce.

Portal concluded, “As a wine and spirits producer with a commitment toward responsible drinking and advertising to people over the legal drinking age, we already have strong mandates around brand safety, fraud and transparency. I’m not saying [this year’s events] are minor issues, but we were well prepared because we’ve been doing it [taking more responsibility of our media strategy] for years.”

Output: French spirits company Pernod Ricard's media team saved the company €60m ($71.5m) during H1 2017 by purchasing directly 25% of its digital media, instead of relying on agencies. The savings will be reinvested in the firm's advertising budgets, while the company gains a better understanding of its media investments. Thibaut Portal, head of the global media hub, likens working with agencies to a partnership that works to a common set of goals. "Our objective is not to buy media at the cheapest cost – it doesn’t mean anything," said Portal.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Indian trading body pushes measures to promote digital payments
 NEW DELHI: Traders body CAIT today suggested several measures such as tax benefits to both consumer and merchant to promote digital payments in the country.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said to achieve goals like cashless economy and reaching 2,500 crore digital transactions, the government needs to set up a regulatory authority for digital payment systems.

"Tax rebates for consumers for certain types of digital payments will be an important step. Also similar benefits should be extended to merchants either in the form of sales tax," CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal told reporters here.

The confederation has prepared a report on universal access to infrastructure and open payment systems. In this, it has also recommended formulation of a digital payments policy.

The other suggestions include implementation of reward scheme for merchants and consumers; faster adoption of mobile QR code based card acceptance solutions, formation of digital payments board and an authority to monitor Rupay.

Khandelwal said to better encourage universal adoption and socialisation of digital payments, the government should remove requirement for banks to report electronic transactions and make consumers fearless to go for cashless economy.

"There should be no card refusal and no surcharge should be levied on digital payments as it would act as a deterrent to promote such payments. There is a need to increase POS terminals besides allowing non-bank finance companies to issue digital payments," he added.

He urged the government to implement the recommendations of Watal Committee report on digital payments.

"Today 96 per cent of transactions are done in cash and our country has only about 25 lakh POS terminals. This needs to increase rapidly," Khandelwal said.

The government had demonetised high value currency (Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes) last November and has been promoting a less cash economy through greater push on digital payments.

The CAIT will forward these suggestions to the ministries of finance and commerce, and state governments. RR MR

Output: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has suggested introducing tax rebates to help promote digital payments across the country. The trading body urged the government to set up a regulator for digital payments to help achieve the goal of becoming a cashless economy. It also suggested setting up a reward scheme for sellers and consumers, and pushing for quicker adoption of QR code-based payment systems.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Co-living developer to let tenants pay rent in bitcoin
 A London property developer is to allow its tenants to pay their deposits in bitcoin – the first time the virtual currency has been used in the UK residential homes market.

Co-living pioneer The Collective has announced that prospective tenants can pay deposits from Monday in bitcoin. By the end of this year it will also accept rent payments in the cryptocurrency. This is the first time in the UK a major property developer has enabled bitcoin payments. The Collective said it was in response to demand predominantly from international customers.

The price of bitcoin hit a record high of $4,700 (£3,627) last week, having risen by 350% since the beginning of the year. Bitcoin is the world’s first decentralised currency and is not controlled by any government or bank. While increased global recognition is leading to mainstream adoption, critics warn that – as a vehicle popular with speculators looking to make a quick buck – it is volatile, risky and potentially dangerous.

However, from Monday The Collective’s online booking form for its Old Oak co-living scheme – the world’s largest co-living development,with 550 rooms, which launched last May and where rent starts from £178 a week for a 10 sq m space – will accept bitcoin deposits. The standard deposit is £500 – for all unit types and sizes – and The Collective has pledged “spot conversion”, which means it will bear any financial risk while holding the deposit, returning it at the original value when the tenancy finishes.

Tenants will have the ability to pay their rent using bitcoin from this autumn.

The Collective is like a student halls of residence but for people starting their career in London

“The rise and adoption of cryptocurrency globally, particularly bitcoin, is a fascinating development in how people store value and transact for goods and services worldwide,” said The Collective’s chief executive and founder, Reza Merchant. “With many savers and investors now choosing and becoming more comfortable with cryptocurrency, people will expect to be able to use it to pay for life’s essentials, including housing deposits and rent.”

However, the Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla) expressed reservations. “There may be niche parts of the market that would be willing to accept bitcoin in exchange for traditional rental income,” said David Cox, chief executive of Arla Propertymark, but I think the bitcoin and electronic currency market is still in its infancy and the market will need to develop more before it becomes a mainstream payment method for rent.”

The Collective’s head of technology, Jon Taylor, said: “One of the biggest barriers to the popularity of bitcoin is making it more consumer-friendly, and we believe this will become established as an easy and convenient way to pay deposits.”

The Collective’s model is to give tenants a hassle-free life similar to that in a student hall of residence, but for people starting out on their career. Its expanding facilities offer a 21st-century alternative to flat-sharing, the traditional rite of passage for twentysomethings arriving in the capital. Tenancy levels are typically 97.7% and the first Collective baby was born in August, although the family has since had to move out as children and pets are not allowed to live in the building.

The company recently announced that the London Legacy Development Corporation was set to grant the world’s first “co-living” planning permission for its latest building, a 250-room, 19-storey development in Stratford, east London, which will open in late 2018 or early 2019. It has also acquired a third major site in London’s Canary Wharf.

Output: London co-living property developer The Collective has become the first UK firm to allow tenants to pay their deposits in bitcoin. The company, which pioneers collective living arrangements for young professionals similar to university halls of residents, will also accept rent payments in the cryptocurrency from later this year. The price of bitcoin hit a record high of £3,627 ($4,700) last week, a rise of 350% since the start of the year, but critics have warned it remains a risky investment. The Association of Residential Letting Agents also expressed doubts about electronic currencies becoming mainstream for rental income.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Insurtech could save Asian insurers $300bn a year by 2025: UBS
 Privacy Policy

Hubbis is committed to safeguarding the privacy of our users while providing a personalised and valuable service. This Privacy Policy statement explains the data processing practices of Hubbis. If you have any requests concerning your personal information or any queries with regard to these practices please contact our Privacy Officer by e-mail at [email protected]

Our site contain links to third party sites which are not subject to this privacy policy. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of any such sites that you visit.

Information Collected

We collect personally identifiable information about you (your “Data”) through:

the use of enquiry and registration forms

your purchase of any our products or services

the provision of your details to us either online or offline

The elements of your data that we collect may include:

Name

Job title

Company name

Company address, phone and fax number

Mobile telephone number

E-mail address

Educational history, work experience and other information from your CV if you provide this to us

We may also collect information that we request from you regarding your use of our service or that we collect automatically about your visit to our sites. Please see our Cookie Policy for more details.

Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

We use your Data for purposes which may include:

providing our users with a personalised service

processing orders, registrations and enquiries

conducting market research surveys

allowing users to participate in interactive features of our service, where they choose to do so

We may also disclose your information to business partners and to third party suppliers we engage to provide services which involve processing data on our behalf, successors in title to our business or in accordance with a properly executed court order or as otherwise required to do so by law. We reserve the right to fully co-operate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requiring or requesting us to disclose the identity or other usage details of any user of our sites.

We also use information in aggregate form (so that no individual user is identified by name):

to build up marketing profiles

to aid strategic development

to manage our relationship with advertisers

to audit usage of the site

We use technology on some of the pages of our websites, which may record user movements, including page scrolling, mouse clicks and text entered. It will not record financial information such as credit or debit card details. The data we collect in this way helps us to identify usability issues, to improve the assistance and technical support we can provide to users and is also used for aggregated and statistical reporting purposes.

Security Policy

Hubbis has appropriate measures in place to ensure that our users’ Data is protected against unauthorised access or use, alteration, unlawful or accidental destruction and accidental loss. User Data may be transferred outside Hubbis to data processors such as fulfilment houses but they will act only on our instructions to provide the services required.

Transfer of Data

The Internet is a global environment. Using the Internet to collect and process personal data necessarily involves the transmission of data on an international basis. Therefore, by browsing Hubbis sites and communicating electronically with us you acknowledge and agree to our processing of personal data in this way. By agreeing to our transfer of your Data to third party organisations for them to send you details of products and services offered (as detailed above) you are deemed to provide your consent to any transfer of your Data to or within any organisation.

User Access and Control of Data

If you wish to amend any of the Data which we hold about you, or update your marketing preferences, please contact admin or visit the “Contact Us” section of our website.

Output: The Asian insurance market could make savings of $300bn annually by 2025, thanks to improvements brought about by insurtech – benefits that would eventually be passed on to the consumer, according to UBS. It said mobile apps and online aggregators would help make shopping for insurance easier, while streamlining and increased automation would speed up the claims process, making it more attractive to the underserved Asian market, where only 13% of the population holds insurance policies.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Grab rolls out P2P payments
 Southeast Asian ride-hailing service Grab is venturing further into the payments market, adding a P2P instant fund transfer feature to its app in Singapore.

Users will be able to transfer 'GrabPay Credits' to one another and, from later in the year, to merchants. Grab says that it aims to team up with more than 1000 firms that are cash-reliant, enabling them to accept digital payments through its GrabPay mobile wallet.

Jason Thompson, head, GrabPay, says: "Every day, over 75% of Grab users in Singapore go cashless and use GrabPay to pay for rides. Grab users are familiar with using mobile payments for daily transactions, via the Grab app.

"Fund transfer is the first step to expand the use of GrabPay as a mobile wallet. Today, users can transfer money to one another; in the coming months, they can look forward to use GrabPay to buy food or other goods and services from physical shops."

Grab has made no secret of its efforts to become "the #1 universal mobile payments solution in Southeast Asia". In April, the firm agreed to buy Indonesian digital payments outfit Kudo to boost the GrabPay business.

Meanwhile, as it asks customers to put faith in its ability to protect their money, the firm has introduced a new six-digit GrabPay PIN as a second factor authentication to make the mobile wallet more secure. Customers with more than $150 worth of credits in their account are required to activate the PIN.

Output: Malaysia-based ride-hailing company Grab has launched GrabPay Credits, a peer-to-peer instant fund transfer feature for its mobile wallet in Singapore. Initially enabling payments between users, before being extended to merchants, Grab aims to tempt more than 1,000 firms to the app. The move is part of Grab's ambition to become Southeastern Asia's universal mobile payments solution, and follows the introduction of a GrabPay authentication PIN to add an extra layer of security to its mobile wallet.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Vanguard casts its first vote against Exxon on climate report
 The four hottest years on record were 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, according to government institutions including NOAA and NASA.

It's official: index fund giant Vanguard Group voted against Exxon Mobil management for the first time to require the oil and gas giant to report on climate change, according to proxy voting records published by Vanguard on Thursday.

The Exxon Mobil shareholder measure passed at the company's annual meeting earlier this year, a victory shareholder advocates said could not have happened without the vote of Vanguard, though the fund company had refused to reveal its specific company votes before Thursday's official disclosure.

Vanguard also voted against management at Occidental Petroleum over a similar climate measure — also expected based on the results from the Occidental Petroleum shareholder meeting earlier this year. But Vanguard did vote with oil and gas management and against shareholder climate proposals in a majority of 2017 proxy measures.

The two votes against Exxon and Occidental management contrast with Vanguard's votes against shareholders putting forward climate proposals at Noble Energy , Marathon Petroleum , Devon Energy , Chevon and Kinder Morgan .

Vanguard also voted against requiring Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to report on climate and divest from fossil fuel holdings.

A Vanguard spokeswoman said its decisions have more to do with how the shareholder proposals are worded and not the fund company's commitment to climate policy among its holdings. "While we believe the issue is real, we may not believe the proposal meets our threshold for support."

Vanguard, the world's largest index mutual fund manager with $4 trillion under management, has not been known for its shareholder activism, but its influence as an investor is large and growing. The fund giant took in more than $300 billion in 2016, while the rest of the mutual fund industry combined had investor redemptions. "With Exxon and to a lesser extent Occidental, these votes can also be seen as bellwethers for the entire industry that major investors are expecting action on climate risk disclosure," said Jon Hale, the director of sustainability research at Morningstar.

BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors, two other investing giants with large exchange-traded fund businesses, have received higher marks in past years from shareholder advocates for commitment to social and environmental issues. Both voted the same way as Vanguard on Exxon and Occidental.

Hale noted that State Street was the strongest voice among the investing giants, voting in favor of six of the seven shareholder climate change measures among S&P 500 energy companies, with the exception of Noble Energy. He said most seemed to be similar in scope.

"What seems to be going on with Vanguard is that they are giving companies time to make progress towards improving their climate disclosures, but in the cases of Exxon and Occidental, they felt they had already done so and not seen the progress they were expecting. That leads me to believe that these other companies will either have to show improvement this year or we should expect Vanguard to vote for the resolution next year."

He also noted that State Street has been active on this issue for a lot longer than Vanguard.

"Funds are not immune from the attraction of taking action at a few high-profile companies to put down a marker that companies need to be more transparent about climate risks, in general," said Heidi Welsh, founding executive director of the Sustainable Investments Institute.

Output: Vanguard has voted against Exxon Mobil for the first time to make the oil and gas giant report on climate change. The Exxon shareholder measure passed at the company's AGM earlier this year, according to proxy voting records published by Vanguard. The fund company had previously refused to disclose its specific company votes. Vanguard also voted against management at Occidental Petroleum over a similar measure, but did vote with oil and gas managements in a majority of 2017 proxy measures.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Schroders unveils carbon footprint investment guide
 In order to read this article you will need to subscribe, please click here

If you already have an account, Click here to login.

---

Output: UK asset manager Schroders has launched the Carbon VAR model, a new addition to its broader investment toolkit. The model helps businesses understand how higher carbon prices could affect their profitability in the future, demonstrating that in high-risk sectors such as construction, steel and commodity chemicals, profits could fall by 80%. "The results don’t bear much resemblance to carbon footprints, underlining the dangers of assuming funds or portfolios with low footprints will be insulated if policies toughen", said Andy Howard, Head of Sustainable Research at Schroders.