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Input:
Regus [3]: Jet.com doubles HQ in Regus-occupied Waterfront Corporate Center III, Hoboken
 By the BF Staff

From the March/April 2016 Issue

SJP Properties has announced that e-commerce venture Jet.com (Jet) has agreed to expand its headquarters at Waterfront Corporate Center III in Hoboken, New Jersey. Jet will be commencing its build out that will double the size of its corporate offices by an additional 40,000 square feet, for a total of 80,000 square feet. The third and final building within SJP’s best-in-class, mixed-use business center, Waterfront Corporate Center III was developed by SJP in partnership with USAA Real Estate Company, and recently achieved LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Jet is the latest e-commerce venture led by Marc Lore, former CEO and co-founder of Diapers.com and parent company Quidsi. Jet launched in July 2015, bringing a significant number of jobs to Hoboken. Scott Peck, SIOR and Brian Wilson of Resource Realty represented Jet in its recent expansion at Waterfront Corporate Center III. SJP Properties was represented in-house by Senior Vice President Peter Bronsnick.

“We’re excited to continue working with SJP Properties to expand Jet’s space on the Hoboken waterfront,” said Marc Lore, Jet’s founder and CEO. “We have an innovative, tech-focused office that is helping lead the Hoboken tech community. SJP has also been supportive of our commitment to being cost efficient and smart with how we expand our footprint in phases that reflect our growth as a company.”

“Jet’s rapid growth at Waterfront Corporate Center III follows NICE Systems’ decision to relocate here, further illustrating Hoboken’s position as a top destination for the regional technology community, which benefits significantly from access to the area’s highly skilled labor pool,” said Steven J. Pozycki, CEO of SJP Properties. “We have created an environment here in Hoboken where businesses can flourish in world-class office facilities without sacrificing access to transportation, amenities and commerce.”

Situated within the heart of Hoboken’s master-planned, pedestrian-friendly waterfront, Waterfront Corporate Center is the city’s most successful mixed-use development. The three-building complex comprises 1.5 million square feet of Class A commercial space adjacent to the W Hoboken Hotel and just steps from Hoboken Terminal’s NJ TRANSIT, PATH, NY Waterway Ferry and Light Rail connections.

In addition to Jet and NICE Systems, a prestigious roster of leading-edge companies calls Waterfront Corporate Center home, including Marsh & McLennan, Thomson Reuters, RMS and Octapharma. Pearson Education occupies 200,000 square feet to serve as the lead tenant of Waterfront Corporate Center III, which also houses collaborative workspace provider Regus. Additionally, Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group recently opened its popular Del Frisco’s Grille at Waterfront Corporate Center III. The complex houses an on-site, state-of-the-art fitness center, Crunch Fitness, as well as the Wicked Wolf restaurant, Jos A. Bank, FedEx and Chase Bank. Last year, childcare learning center Kiddie Academy signed a lease to occupy a portion of the complex’s retail space.

Enhancing Waterfront Corporate Center III’s position as one of the state’s preeminent business addresses are highly efficient floor plates and floor-to-ceiling glass windows that permit natural light to penetrate deep into the floors and offer unobstructed New York City and Hudson River views. SJP has incorporated energy-efficiency and air quality control features throughout to provide a healthier and more sustainable work environment for the building’s tenants. Additionally, the building features an underground parking garage, providing tenants with covered parking access.

ALLIED SPECIALTY FOODS EXPANDS IN VINELAND

Allied Specialty Foods is investing more than $14 million in a new 75,000-square-foot facility located on 8.8 acres in the Vineland Industrial Park. The expansion is expected to add another 70 jobs to the company’s 130 current employees. The company’s existing facility includes two sites totaling about 2.8 acres. Prior to the decision, they had been considering a relocation to Delaware.

“Allied Specialty Foods, Inc. has called the state of New Jersey home for more than 20 years, and we are thrilled that it will continue to be headquartered in Vineland for the next 20 years and beyond,” said Paul Litten, President and Operating Partner. “This new and larger location will become the headquarters and total operating plant for our company. The additional space will enable us to expand our ‘Individual Quick or Flash Freeze’ manufacturing operations and add cold and frozen storage space.”

“Our current Vineland facility has reached maximum capacity,” Litten continued. “We have already started purchasing new equipment, which is in addition to the $14-million investment. Once we are up and running in the new facility, we expect to be the number one steak sandwich supplier in the country.” Current plans are for the new site to be operational in the 4th quarter of 2016.

As part of the company’s expansion project, the New Jersey EDA provided Allied Foods with a Grow New Jersey Assistance Program award worth an estimated $13.7 million, which is directly tied to the creation of new jobs. In addition, the company received a $3.5-million loan from the Vineland UEZ program repayable over 20 years.

“Allied Foods has been a staple in Vineland for decades, and its expansion brings a new infusion of jobs and economic benefits to the region,” said New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. “We are so pleased that they decided not only to remain in the Garden State but also to grow in the Garden State.”

Vineland’s Director of Economic Development Sandy Forosisky said, “We are thrilled that Allied Specialty Foods is staying in Vineland, expanding operations, and adding more jobs. This is a great way to start off the new year. We are also excited at the opportunity to find a new business who might be interested in acquiring Allied’s existing facility.”

Founded in 1956, Allied Foods produces and distributes USDA-approved thin-sliced steak and chicken products. Company sales in 2015 were estimated at approximately $50 million.

Output: E-commerce venture Jet.com is to double the size of its headquarters at  SJP Properties' Waterfront Corporate Center III site in Hoboken, New Jersey, to 80,000 sq ft. The building is also home to Regus, Pearson, which is the lead tenant with 200,000 sq ft, and a recently-opened Del Frisco’s Grille restaurant. The Waterfront Corporate Center lists NICE Systems, Marsh & McLennan, Thomson Reuters, RMS and Octapharma among its tenants, has an on-site fitness centre, Crunch Fitness, several banks and childcare learning centre, Kiddie Academy, in a portion of its retail space.


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FTSE 100 CEOs earn 160 times average wage, despite 17% pay drop
 Political pressure, public disapproval and campaigning all combined to restrain pay at the top in 2016. But what next?

Reality bites: Average FTSE 100 CEO pay packet drops by 17% in the past year

Slowdown in CEO pay welcome, but huge gap remains between the top and the rest

An annual assessment of FTSE 100 CEO pay packages released today shows that rewards at the top have dropped by almost a fifth, but still remain extraordinarily high.

The analysis, from the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, and the High Pay Centre, the independent think tank, shows that the average FTSE 100 CEO now receives an annual pay package of £4.5 million. This represents a 17% drop from £5.4 million in 2015. While this may represent a significant drop in CEO pay packages, it would still take the average UK full-time worker on a salary of £28,000 (median full-time earnings) 160 years to earn what an average FTSE 100 CEO is paid in just one year and 1,718 years to earn what Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, received last year alone (£48.1 million).

Key highlights from the CIPD and High Pay Centre’s analysis include:

• In 2016, the pay ratio between FTSE 100 CEOs and the average pay package of their employees was 129:1 – so for every £1 the average employee is paid, their CEO receives £129. In 2015, the ratio was 148:1.

• 60 of the FTSE 100 CEOs are paid more than 100 times the typical annual pay of a UK worker which currently stands at £28,000 per year (mean earnings).

• In contrast to the generous pay packages awarded at the higher levels, just over a quarter of the FTSE 100 are accredited by the Living Wage Foundation for paying the voluntary living wage to all their UK-based staff.

• There are just six female FTSE 100 CEOs. While women make up 6% of the FTSE 100, they earn just 4% of the total pay. Male CEOs in the FTSE 100 earned on average £4.7 million last year, compared with £2.6 million on average for women.

Peter Cheese, chief executive of the CIPD, said:

“We have to hope that the reversal in rising executive pay is the beginning of a re-think on how CEOs are rewarded, rather than a short-term reaction to political pressure. The fall in executive pay is a step in the right direction, but it’s still happening within an overall reward system where average wages in the UK have been flat. Our analysis also shows a clear gender pay disparity at the top, with female CEOs receiving less than their male peers. Quite rightly this issue of fairness is increasingly being called out and this needs to be addressed at all levels of businesses.

“Rather than focusing predominantly on share price or short term profit, we need a much more balanced scorecard for performance that also takes account of other indicators of success such as investment in people, social responsibility and accountability, and long-term value creation. High pay must be addressed as part of the much broader review of UK corporate governance.”

Stefan Stern, director of the High Pay Centre, said:

“We have finally seen a fall in executive pay this year, in the context of political pressure and in the spotlight of hostile public opinion. This is welcome, but the response has been limited and very late. It is also, so far, a one-off. We need to see continued efforts to restrain and reverse excess at the top. And we should beware the ratcheting up of pay lower down the FTSE league table as CEOs and remuneration committees ‘chase the median’. This helps nobody but a few lucky top execs”.

Business Minister Margot James said:

“It remains this government’s firm commitment to build an economy that works for everyone, making Britain one of the best places in the world to work, invest and do business.

“We have been very clear that to achieve this ambition businesses should be run responsibly, including ensuring executive pay is properly aligned to performance as outlined in the Corporate Governance Reform green paper.

“This report shows encouraging signs that the UK’s largest firms are already making progress in this area and our responsible business reforms, which we will publish shortly, will help to enhance the public’s trust and confidence in big business.”

The CIPD/High Pay Centre’s analysis highlights how the gap between the highest and lowest FTSE 100 pay packages has closed as companies ‘chase the median’, which currently stands at £3.45 million. The average pay packages of the 25 highest paid CEOs have dropped by 24% to £9.4m in 2016. Conversely, the 32 lowest paid CEOs in the FTSE 100 have seen an increase in their overall package. The CIPD and High Pay Centre are warning that this trend of ‘chasing the median’ needs as much attention from the Government and investors as is given to earners at the top end of the scale.

Further findings from the CIPD/High Pay Centre analysis include:

• Median FTSE 100 CEOs’ pay in 2016 was £3.45 million, a drop from recent years and marginally higher than £3.39 million in 2010.

• Comparing the median pay of a FTSE 100 CEO to that of a full-time worker, the pay ratio stands at 122:1, or 149:1 when compared against all UK employees.

• This ratio rises to 132:1 when comparing the average or ‘mean’ pay of a FTSE 100 CEO with that of a full-time worker across the whole UK economy.

To advocate fairer and more ethical approaches to pay and reward, the CIPD and High Pay Centre have recommended that all publicly listed companies should be required to:

• publish the ratio between the pay of their CEO and median pay in their organisation, within the context of their overall reward strategy.

• have employee representation on their remuneration committee.

• establish a human capital development sub-committee with a wider remit to focus on all aspects of people, culture and organisation to provide better insight and guidance to the Board and beyond.

In addition, the CIPD and High Pay Centre are recommending that the Government should set voluntary human capital (workforce) reporting standards to encourage all publicly listed organisations to provide better information on how they invest in, lead and manage their workforce for the long-term.

Notes

• The full report – Executive Pay: review of FTSE 100 executive pay packages –

will be available to download from 00.01 Thursday 3 August 2017 at: www.cipd.co.uk/execpay or at www.highpaycentre.org/pubs/cipd-high-pay-centre-survey-of-ftse100-ceo-pay-packages-2016

Methodology (full detail available in the report)

• When referencing the CEO pay package this refers to the “single figure” as is required to be disclosed in annual reports following government reforms in 2013, i.e. pay including salary, bonuses, incentives and employer pension contributions.

• We focused our research on the top 100 FTSE companies as at 22 March 2017 and analysed the information published in their annual reports for the financial year ending in 2016. For further details on the methodology, see the full report.

The CIPD is the professional body for HR and people development. The not for profit organisation champions better work and working lives and has been setting the benchmark for excellence in people and organisation development for more than 100 years. It has a community of over 140,000 members across the world, provides thought leadership through independent research on the world of work, and offers professional training and accreditation for those working in HR and learning and development. www.cipd.co.uk

The High Pay Centre is an independent non-party think tank established (in 2012) to monitor pay at the top of the income distribution and set out a road map towards better business and economic success www.highpaycentre.org

Output: FTSE 100 CEOs earned 160 times the average wage in 2016, according to the High Pay Centre’s annual survey of executive pay. The average pay for top CEOs last year was £4.5m ($6m), compared with average full-time earnings of £28,200. However, average CEO pay did fall by 17% from £5.4m over the year. Male FTSE 100 CEOs earned on average 77% more than their female peers, with the two groups earning £4.7m and £2.6m respectively. The FTSE 100 currently contains just 30 female executive directors and, of the UK’s top 100 companies, 77 have none at all.


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FTSE 100 CEOs earn 160 times average wage, despite 17% pay drop
 Ordinary employees would have to work for 160 years to earn the average remuneration of FTSE 100 chief executives in 2016, according to new research.

The average take home pay for the bosses of Britain’s top stock market-listed companies was £4.5m last year, according to the High Pay Centre’s annual survey of top executive pay. This compares to Office for National Statistics figures showing average annual earnings of £28,200 for full-time employees in the year to April 2016.

The report also shows that male FTSE 100 bosses earned 77% more on average than their female counterparts last year.

Although the sample size is small, with only six female FTSE 100 chief executives last year, details of the huge pay gap in British boardrooms will reignite the debate on female remuneration, after the BBC was criticised for revealing a third of its 96 top earners are women and the top seven are all men.

Male chief executives at FTSE 100 companies earned an average £4.7m last year compared with £2.6m on average for women, according to the High Pay Centre.

Peter Cheese, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which co-authored the report, said: “Our analysis . . . shows a clear gender pay disparity at the top, with female chief executives receiving less than their male peers.

“Quite rightly this issue of fairness is increasingly being called out and this needs to be addressed at all levels of businesses.”

The data shows that while just six of the FTSE 100 chief executives were women in 2016, they earned just 4% of the total pay. There are still just 30 female executive directors in the FTSE 100 and 77 of Britain’s top 100 companies have no female executive directors at all.

Emma Walmsley is the new head of GlaxoSmithKline. Photograph: HANDOUT/AFP/Getty Images

The six female chief executives who were running FTSE 100 firms in 2016 include Alison Brittain, boss of Whitbread which runs coffee chain Costa and budget hotel group Premier Inn, Veronique Laury of B&Q owner Kingfisher, and Alison Cooper, from cigarette giant Imperial Brands.

The others were Liv Garfield, boss of water firm Severn Trent, Royal Mail boss Moya Greene, and Dame Carolyn McCall from budget airline easyJet - the former chief executive of Guardian Media Group who will take over at ITV in the new year. They were joined this year by Emma Walmsley, the new chief executive of drugs firm GSK.

In response to initiatives such as the Davies Review for Women on Board and the 30% Club, which campaigns for greater representation of women on boards, there has been an 8% increase in the number of females on the pay committees of FTSE 100 boards.

It is these committees that determine the renumeration of bosses. However, there are nine firms that have no women on their remuneration committees.

This year’s report highlighted one positive trend – the average pay of a chief executive has fallen by 17% from £5.4m to £4.5m over the year.

But it would take the average worker 1,718 years to accrue the £48.1m annual remuneration of Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of marketing firm WPP, who is Britain’s highest paid FTSE 100 boss.

Some of the biggest pay climbers this year include Nicandro Durante, chief executive of British American Tobacco, whose total pay rose from £4.5m to £7.6m. It was announced this week that the Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into the firm over bribery allegations in Africa.

Arnold Donald, boss of holiday firm Carnival, earned just over £22m in 2016, the year the firm was ordered to pay a fine of £32m for illegally polluting the seas. This was up from £6m in 2015.

Tim Roache, GMB general secretary, said: “We all know we live in a very unequal society – but these figures really bring home the scandalous gulf between rich and the rest.

Working people create the wealth in this country and they are sick and tired of fat cat bosses getting all the cream, especially when everyone else suffers squeezed living standards

“Working people create the wealth in this country and they are sick and tired of fat cat bosses getting all the cream, especially when everyone else suffers squeezed living standards.”

Ann Francke, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, also warned: “High-profile cases of runaway executive pay and ‘rewards for failure’ have fuelled a breakdown of trust in business that needs to be rebuilt.

“We need to introduce a fairer ratio between executive and average pay. We also need transparent reporting and stronger remuneration committees to make sure executive pay packages are based on long-term evaluation of performance.”

Organisations may have found it harder to justify executive pay hikes at a time when workers are struggling to make ends meet.

Cheese said: “We have to hope that the reversal in rising executive pay is the beginning of a re-think on how chief executives are rewarded, rather than a short-term reaction to political pressure.

“The fall in executive pay is a step in the right direction, but it’s still happening within an overall reward system where average wages in the UK have been flat.”

Output: FTSE 100 CEOs earned 160 times the average wage in 2016, according to the High Pay Centre’s annual survey of executive pay. The average pay for top CEOs last year was £4.5m ($6m), compared with average full-time earnings of £28,200. However, average CEO pay did fall by 17% from £5.4m over the year. Male FTSE 100 CEOs earned on average 77% more than their female peers, with the two groups earning £4.7m and £2.6m respectively. The FTSE 100 currently contains just 30 female executive directors and, of the UK’s top 100 companies, 77 have none at all.


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Input:
Facebook custom audience feature allows brands to target users
 Facebook is adding a feature that will allow brands to target ads to users who have RSVP’d to brand events.

Facebook is going to let advertisers target users who have RSVP'd to events.

Facebook rep confirmed the plan to The Drum after screenshots were posted on Twitter, but chose not to comment further.

Output: Facebook has announced a feature that allows brands to target users with ads, if that user has sent an RSVP to the brand’s event. The “Events” custom audience feature will allow advertisers to target users that have engaged with arranged events, whether the user has responded as “interested” or “going”, and can narrow down potential leads using those parameters. Facebook confirmed the new feature in discussions with The Drum.


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Future: Property Tech conference confirms 2018 London show
 It will be the fourth annual event of its kind; in May this year there were 812 delegates from 386 companies and 20 countries. Angels Media - publisher of Estate Agent Today and Letting Agent Today - was the conference media partner.

The highly-popular FUTURE:PropTech conference, regarded as the leading event for showcasing and debating industry technology, has been confirmed again for next year.

Gary Chimwa, organiser of the event, is planning something bigger and better in central London in 2018 with a promise of 1,200 delegates, over 100 speakers and more than 60 brand showcases demonstrating innovations.

“Digital transformation is now without doubt a critical part of the strategy of any forward looking company within the property sector. Indeed the new maxim is now Location, Location, Innovation” he says.

Chimwa believes the event offers a platform for leading PropTech startups and entrepreneurs to mix with the more traditional property sector.

There are more details here.

Output: The Future: PropTech conference organisers have confirmed it will take place next year in central London, with the promise of "1,200 delegates, over 100 speakers and more than 60 brand showcases demonstrating innovations". The 2017 event, held in May, attracted 812 delegates from 386 companies and 20 countries. Organiser Gary Chimwa said: "Digital transformation is now without doubt a critical part of the strategy of any forward-looking company within the property sector. Indeed the new maxim is now 'location, location, innovation'."


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UK politicians aren't fixing empty homes crisis: The Guardian
 Empty property bought by investors to sit unused is a scandal the Guardian has exposed this week, finding 1,652 in the Grenfell borough of Kensington and Chelsea alone.

Not long ago I interviewed a long-time upmarket estate agent in Knightsbridge, opposite Harrods, who told me she begged foreign buyers to agree to rent out their vacant properties, to no avail. They always refuse. She describes the change she has seen in those streets over recent years, as they turn dark at night, no lights on, with so many mothballed houses sitting there as gold bullion in the bank, not homes for anyone. The area is dying, she says, warning that all the reasons that made it desirable will be lost. John Healey, Labour shadow housing minister, says there are some 200,000 long-term vacant properties, including “those bought and left empty by speculative investors,” in the wealthiest areas.

What happens at the top end of the market knocks on all down the chain – and what’s happening at the bottom is a disaster. Report after report chronicles the downward plunge. Last week the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reported on an alarming acceleration in evictions, mostly from the burgeoning private rented sector, two-thirds in London. The average age of private renters’ “head of household” is now 40, and 36% of private renters have children who live insecure lives, frequently moved out and away from their schools. Over a quarter are in officially substandard conditions, yet spend an ever higher proportion of their low incomes on rent – in London 45%.

The local government association reports 120,000 families in temporary accommodation, a three-fold increase since 2014, rising at the rate of one secondary school per month. Councils with a statutory duty to house the homeless face heavy losses: Inside Housing found that Brent loses £178 a week for each family in a B&B. That’s no surprise, as the Osborne/Duncan Smith housing benefit cuts, cap and freeze mean state support no longer covers the rent. Far worse is about to strike as the yet harsher universal credit is rolled out, with more waves of evictions anticipated.

All this we know. The housing crisis reaches up into middle-income families and well above, as children can no longer afford to buy what their parents took for granted in their youth. Since 2010 there are nearly a million fewer home-owning households. At last it may be becoming a hot political issue: Labour’s manifesto plans were popular, promising 100,000 new social homes a year, minimum three-year private tenancies and rents capped to rise by no more than inflation. Labour would rightly suspend the right-to-buy disaster that has turned a third of flats in council estates into expensive private rentals.

By the next election, Labour needs to raise housing to the top of the agenda, with a real sense of national emergency. But with 64% of households secure home-owners, and 80% of the high-voting, Tory-leaning retired owning their own homes, that’s a hard task. There is no mystery about housing, no insoluble problem. All that’s required, as with most of Britain’s great social dysfunctions, is the political will to do something about it. Consider Harold Macmillan building 350,000 council homes a year – yes, council housing – and Labour’s 100,000 seems modest.

Above all, every effort should be made to freeze the housing market, and the intention announced to stop prices rising by more than inflation. Government has plenty of levers: lift the cap on council tax bands, so property pays today’s rate, not one last set in 1991. Declare that any future rise in property values above inflation will accrue capital gains tax: there is no good reason for people’s homes to swell in untaxed value. If the market were chilled, over time housing would stop being used as a nest egg, or gold bullion, and become just another commodity, like food, where buying or renting would become neutral choices.

Every effort should be made to freeze the housing market and stop prices rising by more than inflation

The Guardian today analyses how other countries are choking off the buy-to-leave luxury vacant property disease: Vancouver charges 1% of the value every year for any property left empty for six months, sending owners “scrambling to rent”. Councils could be set free to impose whatever extra tax they choose on empty property, so long as it is loudly earmarked for building more housing for others. There would be a Daily Mail stink raised about any new taxes on an “Englishman’s castle”, especially on people’s own homes, but also on second homes. All second home-owners, my family included, should be prepared to pay high enough local taxes to contribute to housing others.

The great question is whether this profoundly unequal, often ungenerous-minded country can change itself into something better. Do we have the politicians with the moral heft and the persuasive skills to convince enough voters that those, especially of my generation, who have accumulated unimaginable unearned wealth just by buying a house cheaply when we were young, should be willing to help redistribute it not just within our own families, but among those whose families never shared in this undeserved property bonanza? If not, the wealth and property gap will go on widening and Britain will be an ever worse place to live.

Output: UK politicians lack the will to to solve the country's social housing crisis, reported Polly Toynbee in The Guardian. She called on the government to freeze the housing market by preventing prices rising beyond inflation levels and lift council tax band caps, as well as imposing a capital gains tax on homes whose value rises faster than inflation. Toynbee also cited a Canadian policy of imposing a 1% value-based tax on properties vacant for more than six months, which could reduce the number of empty homes around the country.


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London to double electric car charge points in 2018
 T he prospect of thousands of electric cars driving round London’s streets came a step closer today as Sadiq Khan announced a £4.5 million investment in 1,500 new charging points across the capital.

Transport for London and the capital’s town halls will roll-out the new green charging infrastructure - which will almost double the number of points - over the course of 2018.

It comes after the Government last week announced a ban on sales of petrol and diesel cars from 2040 to help tackle the country’s toxic air problem.

But Mr Khan, environmentalists and some motoring experts accused it of falling short of what is needed to deal swiftly with toxic air — which is blamed for a death toll of about 9,000-a-year in the capital alone.

The chosen boroughs - 25 of London’s 32 - will each receive up to £300,000 of government cash to install the standard charging points, which take between four and eight hours to charge a family car, in residential areas.

Town hall officials will now identify sites where charging points could be installed. Some of the cash could be spent on new approaches such as using lamp posts as the base and power supply for charge points, which would be cheaper and quicker to roll out with less impact on the streetscape.

They believe the scheme will help motorists without access to off-street parking to make the switch from polluting vehicles to zero-emissions ones more easily. More money will follow next year if the scheme is successful.

The new points will be in addition to the network of 150 rapid charge points for taxis and commercial fleets that TfL is installing by 2018.

Mr Khan, who wants all new road vehicles driven in London to be zero emission by 2040, said: “This substantial investment in electric charging points will make a real difference, making electric vehicles an easier and more practical option for Londoners across our city.

“We have a bold ambition to make London’s transport system zero emission by 2050, and working with boroughs to roll out more charging infrastructure is a vital part of making this a reality.”

The money for this tranche of charging points comes from the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles’ ‘Go Ultra Low City’ scheme.

But the Mayor called on ministers to “step up” their investment in charging infrastructure so every Londoner could consider going electric over coming years.

Julian Bell, London Councils’ transport and environment spokesman, said: “Improving London’s air quality by reducing emissions is a real priority for our city. It is unacceptable that 9,000 people a year die early in London due to air pollution.

“So it is great to see London boroughs bidding to invest in conveniently located electric vehicle charging points. This will help to ensure we have infrastructure in the right places to make it easier for people across the capital to choose electric vehicles.”

The only boroughs not to receive the funding are Barking & Dagenham, Bromley, Enfield, Harrow, Hillingdon, Kingston and Sutton.

Mr Khan’s draft transport strategy also aims for all taxis and minicabs to be zero-emissions capable by 203 and buses by 2037, while London’s entire transport system would be zero emission by 2050.

He has called for a national diesel scrappage scheme although ministers are understood to believe it would be too expensive.

Output: London will see a £4.5m ($6m) investment in 1,500 new charging points for electric cars, according to an announcement by the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan. The infrastructure, which will nearly double the number of existing points, will be launched by Transport for London and the city’s town halls across 2018. The scheme will operate in 25 of London’s 32 boroughs, each of which will receive £300,000 to install the points. The new charging points will be in addition to the 150 rapid charge points for taxis and commercial fleets also set for installation by 2018.


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Fruit Street Health uses telemedicine for diabetes prevention
 Fruit Street Health, a digital health and telemedicine company currently focused on delivering a digital diabetes prevention program, has raised $3 million in new funding from physician investors. Dr. Jeremy Tucker, a senior emergency medicine physician on the board of directors of Fruit Street, led the round, which brings the company's total funding to $8.4 million.

Raising money from physicians, rather than from venture capitalists, has been a strong intentional preference since the company's founding in 2013. CEO Laurence Girard expounded on the philosophy in a recent Huffington Post editorial.

"Most venture capitalists will never interact with a patient, much less hold a medical degree," Girard wrote. "VC investors do not use your product. Our investors commonly use our product with their patients and provide valuable feedback we can use to continuously improve our product."

Based in New York, Fruit Street offers a telemedicine service to providers that allows them to monitor patients via wearables, mobile apps and virtual visits. The clinician can pull up the patient's aggregated data on a virtual whiteboard during the teleconference and discuss it with them.

The platform incorporates a number of connected health devices including wireless scales, Fitbits, blood pressure cuffs, and glucometers, as well as a mobile app for taking pictures of food that the company describes as "Instagram-like".

The company is one of many diabetes prevention programs (some digital and some in-person) that works with DPP marketplace Solera Health. Diabetes Prevention Programs are backed by a good deal of efficacy data, going back to a landmark 2002 study of in-person DPPs. As of last year, the DPP has the distinction of being the first (and so far only) chronic disease prevention program that's reimburseable by Medicare.

In addition to working with health insurance companies through Solera, Fruit Street also licenses tech to physicians to engage patients who are obese, overweight, or otherwise at risk for Type 2 diabetes. Two years ago, Fruit Street launched a program with CS Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan to help address childhood obesity among patients.

Output: Digital health and telemedicine firm Fruit Street Health has raised $3m in funding in a round led by company board member Dr. Jeremy Tucker. The New York-based outfit uses wearables, mobile apps and virtual visits to monitor patients who are part of its digital diabetes prevention programme, working in partnership with Solera Health. Fruit Street also licenses the technology to doctors wishing to engage with patients at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.


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Input:
Redrow Quality and customer service from Redrow slammed by Garstang homeowners
 Robin Watson reported problems, including flooding, at his home in Clematis Drive

Homeowners in the Canal View development, near to Bonds Lane, have told of picking up the keys to find leaks, gaps in the guttering, rain water inside their homes, gaping holes in their driveways and gardens that are not fit for purpose

In some cases, buyers say they have discovered more than 100 faults in their homes and waited months for a builder to fix them.

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Others say they have paid thousands of pounds out of their own pocket to correct ‘inadequate’ work led by developers Redrow Homes.

The flooding from the garden in Mr Robin Watson's home in Clematis Drive in Garstang, part of the Redrow Canal View development

Beleaguered homeowners today said they have been left in despair as they continue to battle countless problems.

Mum-of-one Sara Miekle, who lives in Primrose Way, said she ‘cannot wait to sell up,’ just a year after moving into her four-bedroom Canterbury-style home.

Sarah and her nine-year-old son moved to Garstang in May 2016 and she estimates spending around £3,000 in external and internal repairs.

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She said: “Some of the problems Redrow did return to fix but I still have broken guttering. If it carries on it will penetrate the walls.

The flooding from the garden in Mr Robin Watson's home in Clematis Drive in Garstang, part of the Redrow Canal View development

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“My concern now is what else is going to crop up next month, in a year.”

Robin and Louise Watson, who moved from Walton-le-Dale, near Preston, had settled for a home in Fulwood but were drawn to Redrow’s Canal View development for the ‘ideal location on an open space’.

They eventually bought a Welwyn property in Clematis Drive.

Ex-banker Mr Watson said: “We settled on a completion date of October 28 but were told this may be delayed by a few days.”

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The Watsons were finally given a move date of December 2, having had to arrange temporary rental accommodation and pay for additional storage for their furniture. But they were unable to access the property, which had a hole in the driveway for a lampost.

They say the property was riddled with a catalogue of problems.

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This week Mr Watson reported rainwater running on the inside walls of the property. They have also experienced flooding in their garden.

Builders have returned on more than one occasion to add further drainage on the site. It is understood a building inspector from the National House Building Council was also invited to the site to give an assessment.

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Mr Watson added: “We have in our lives owned 17 properties, nine of those homes were new and we have previously bought with Redrow. We turned to them again for their high quality delivery but the customer service this time has been shocking to say the least.”

Redrow spokesman Matt Grayson said: “Customer satisfaction is very important to us. When snagging issues are raised, our customer service team will put plans in place to address them.

“We’re aware of a complaint raised by one particular customer in Garstang. However, the customer is in direct correspondence with our company solicitor and we’re unable to comment further.”

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Neighbours in surrounding Leathercote, who had reservations over the expansion of the building, have also shared their anger at Redrow’s response to concerns over the state of repair of the overall development, which they claim has not been properly maintained.

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Output: Homeowners have expressed anger over the quality and poor customer service from Redrow relating to properties in its Canal View development in Garstang. Problems with the new builds are said to range from leaks and gaps in guttering to holes in driveways and flooded gardens. Some have reportedly waited months for "a catalogue of problems" to be fixed, others claim to have carried the cost of fixing "'inadequate’ work" themselves, to the tune of thousands of pounds. After one year in a four-bed Canterbury-style home, one tenant said they "cannot wait to sell up". Another called local Redrow representatives' attitude towards residents "absolutely outrageous. You get zero response."


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Data accidents an increasing cause of cyber losses: Beazley
 Beazley, a cyber and data breach response global insurance provider, released its Beazley Breach Insights findings based on its client data in the first six months of 2017.

Ransomware attacks continued their rise in the first half of 2017, up by 50 percent over the first half of 2016.

Hacking and malware attacks (of which ransomware attacks form a growing part), continue to be the leading cause of breaches, accounting for 32 percent of the 1,330 incidents that Beazley Breach Response Services helped clients handle in the first half of the year.

However, accidental breaches caused by employee error or data breached while controlled by third party suppliers continue to be a major problem, accounting for 30 percent of breaches overall, only slightly behind the level of hacking and malware attacks. In the healthcare sector these accidental breaches represent, by a significant margin, the most common cause of loss at 42 percent of incidents.

This continuing high level of accidental data breaches suggests that organizations are still failing to put in place the robust measures needed to safeguard client data and confidentiality. Since 2014, the number of accidental breaches reported to Beazley’s team has shown no sign of diminishing. As more stringent regulatory environments become the norm, this failure to act puts organizations at greater risk of regulatory sanctions and financial penalties.

In June, the BBR Services team worked closely with insured clients to provide legal and forensics services in response the international NotPetya ransomware attacks. The ability to respond quickly to ransomware attacks is especially critical for healthcare organizations due to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) treating all ransomware attacks as a presumed breach.

2017 Data Breach Trends:

Schoolyard errors

Unintended disclosures caused 26 percent of breaches in 1H 2017 in the higher education sector. While slightly down on the 28 percent recorded in 1H2016, this still represents a quarter of all breaches which could be mitigated through more effective controls and processes. Hacks and malware accounted for nearly half of higher education data breaches in the first six months of 2017 (43 percent), roughly even with the 45 percent of breaches caused by hacking in the same period in 2016. Of these, 41 percent were due to phishing.

Mistakes in healthcare

Unintended disclosure – such as misdirected faxes and emails or the improper release of discharge papers – continued to drive the majority of healthcare losses, leading to 42 percent of industry breaches in 1H 2017 equal to the proportion of these breaches in the industry in 1H 2016. Hacks and malware accounted for only 18% of healthcare data breaches in 1H 2017, compared to 17 percent in 1H 2016.

Unintended disclosures among financial services firms

Unintended disclosure – sending bank account details or personal information to the incorrect recipient – grew to 29 percent in H1 2017 from 25 percent in H1 2016, a level that has remained consistent since 2014. Hacks and malware were on a downward trend representing 37 percent of breaches in 1H 2017compared to 46 percent of breaches in H1 2016.

Professional services on the wrong track

At first glance, professional services firms appear to have greater internal controls in place with unintended breaches accounting for 14 percent of all incidents, well below the average for the period in question. However, the trend is tracking adversely, up from 9 percent in H1 2016. Firms in the sector were not immune to hacking and malware attacks, with these incidents accounting for 44 percent of breaches in the time period compared to 53 percent in 1H 2016. Social engineering scams, including W2 fraud and requests for fraudulent wire transfers, were a large driver of attacks at the beginning of 2017.

“Unintended breaches account for one-third of all data breach incidents reported to Beazley and show no signs of abating,” said Katherine Keefe, global head of BBR Services. “They are a persistent threat and expose organizations to greater risks of regulatory sanctions and financial penalties. Yet, they can be much more easily controlled and mitigated than external threats. We urge organizations not to ignore this significant risk and to put more robust systems and procedures in place.”

Source: Beazley Group

Output: Accidental breaches of cyber security accounted for almost as many incidents as hacking and malware attacks, according to a study by cyber insurance specialists Beazley. Criminal breaches made up 32% of the 1,330 incidents Beazley responded to during H1 2017, where 30% were unintentional breaches. The study also found 42% of accidental disclosures were in the healthcare sector, compared with 26% in higher education, while professional firms made up 14%. The figures demonstrate that companies needed to implement more robust defences, Beazley said.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
TalkTalk Post Office adds 60,000 customers as Fuel Broadband deal completes
 The Post Office has today completed its acquisition of ISP Fuel Broadband, adding 60,000 customers to its UK network.

Prior to the migration, Blighty's Post Office had about 460,000 telecoms customers. ISP Review has reported that 180,000 of those are broadband subscribers. It did not disclose how much cash was splashed on the deal.

Fuel and the Post Office already use a wholesale service from TalkTalk.

At the end of last year the Mirai botnet affected hundreds of thousands of TalkTalk and Post Office broadband customers.

Meredith Sharples, director of telecoms at Post Office, said: "The acquisition demonstrates our commitment to further growth in the telecoms business."

The Post Office said the acquisition demonstrates its transformation into "a sustainable and relevant business for UK communities".

In 2012 Fujitsu, alongside Capita, signed a five-year deal with the Post Office to provide its "next-generation network (NGN) broadband experience combined with enhanced customer care and billing solutions".

Under the deal, said to be worth up to £500m, Fujitsu also partnered with TalkTalk to deliver its network and with MDS for advanced consumer billing.

However, Capita was booted off the deal two years early after insiders said it missed a number of service-level agreements. ®

Output: The Post Office has added 60,000 customers to its 460,000-strong UK telecoms customer base with the completion of its Fuel Broadband acquisition. Ahead of the deal, ISP Review reported that 180,000 of the Post Office's telecoms customers were broadband subscribers. The Post Office and Fuel already use a wholesale service from TalkTalk, which partnered with Fujitsu in 2012 under a five-year deal reportedly worth £500m signed by the Post Office that included the provision of a next-gen broadband network and other services such as customer management and billing from MDS. Terms of the Fuel deal were not disclosed.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
myOwn claims Australian first with health-life insurance product
 AIA and GMHBA launch new brand: myOwn.

myOwn is a first-of-its-kind product in the Australian insurance market, offering customers a health insurance policy bundled with the AIA Vitality health and wellness program.

The brand is the product of an alliance between the life insurance company AIA Australia and health fund GMHBA.

The innovative myOwn brand will actively reward members who stay healthy by participating in the AIA Vitality program.

“With myOwn offering health insurance with AIA Vitality, we support people to know their health, improve their health and enjoy the rewards,” said Damien Mu, CEO of AIA Australia & New Zealand .

The best part is that these rewards are more than just a sense of feeling good. Those who take out health insurance with myOwn can get an upfront 5% discount on their premiums by gaining AIA Vitality Silver status.

The benefits don't stop there. Members can earn themselves Woolworths vouchers and Hoyts cinema tickets, get discounts on flights and cash back from some of Australia's biggest gyms.

“We believe that myOwn and AIA Vitality can help consumers get healthier and provide them with more value for money,” Mu said.

Earning rewards with AIA Vitality is relatively straightforward. All members need to do is participate in approved activities that are beneficial for their health, such as eating well, preventive screenings and physical activities.

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[/fin_hide]

Output: Life insurance company AIA Australia and health insurance not-for-profit fund GMHBA have partnered to launch what they claim is a first-of-its-kind product: insurance cover combined with the AIA Vitality health and wellness programme. Named myOwn, it offers subscribers an initial 5% discount on premiums by gaining AIA Vitality Silver status, and offers a range of earned rewards, including flight discounts and cinema tickets, to those who participate in "approved activities" that are beneficial for their health.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Anthem’s Retreat Leaves Californians With Fewer Choices, More Worries
 About Capitol Desk Capitol Desk delivers the latest in health care policy and politics from Sacramento and around the state. Have an idea? Let us know.

Bill Daitchman got some bad news this week: His insurer is breaking up with him.

Daitchman and his wife, who own a graphic design business in Santa Cruz County, each pay $350 a month for a health insurance plan from Anthem Blue Cross on the Covered California exchange. But Anthem announced Tuesday it’s pulling out of most of the state’s individual markets, citing the uncertainty swirling around the Affordable Care Act.

And that vexes Daitchman, 59. First, there’s the possibility that a new insurer will charge more for coverage. Second, he has kidney disease. Will he lose the doctors who know him and his needs? He’s especially reliant on the nephrologist he’s seen since 2006.

“Invariably when you lose policies, you lose those relationships,” said Daitchman. “You get what’s available at that point. You get the doctors they offer.”

The move by Anthem, the nation’s second-largest health insurer, means about 153,000 Californians like Daitchman, who buy insurance on the California exchange, must look for new plans for 2018. That’s more than 10 percent of Covered California’s total enrollment of 1.4 million. Fewer than half of Anthem policyholders on the exchange — about 108,000 customers in the California marketplace — will be able to renew their Anthem policies.

The insurer’s decision marks a significant turnabout.

Anthem led the state exchange in enrollment during its first two years, starting in 2014 with 30 percent of enrollees. Now its share of the market has dwindled to 19 percent, state officials said Tuesday, and that could plummet to single digits next year as exchange policies are canceled.

Anthem had long sold policies across the state, from large markets such as Los Angeles to rural, mountainous counties like Inyo and Mono, which often had few insurers to choose from.

But next year, Anthem will sell to individuals only in about half of California’s counties, including Santa Clara, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Tulare, and most of the region north of Sacramento up to the Oregon border. Many of these markets are the least populous, limiting the insurer’s financial risk.

“This was not an easy decision for us,” Brian Ternan, president of Anthem Blue Cross in California, said in a message posted online.

“The market for these plans has become unstable,” Ternan wrote. “And with federal rules and guidance changing, it’s no longer possible for us to offer some of those plans.”

In an email, company spokesperson Tony Felts explained that planning and pricing affordable health plans “has become increasingly difficult” amid uncertainty about such things as the availability of cost-sharing subsidies for low-income marketplace enrollees.

Anthem’s pullback also affects approximately 144,000 individual policyholders outside the state exchange, who will have to find new plans next year — unless they were grandfathered into a plan they bought before the Affordable Care Act was implemented. But the retreat does not touch the company’s other insurance customers, such as people with Medi-Cal, Medicare or employer-based plans.

Many Wall Street analysts and investors cheered Anthem’s retreat in California. Ana Gupte, a health care analyst at Leerink Partners, said these “surgical extractions” minimize the risk that potential losses from exchange plans drag down overall profits. Big insurers also increasingly sense more opportunity and growth in other government markets, such as Medicaid managed care and Medicare Advantage plans.

Kathy Hempstead, director of health coverage issues at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said even well-functioning state exchanges like California’s are not immune from the contentious debate over the federal health law.

“In general, the national commercial carriers have all but completely left the ACA-compliant individual market this year,” she said. “The returns are not that great and they have better opportunities elsewhere. It is probably too much aggravation for what they can make.”

Anthem’s two biggest competitors, UnitedHealth and Aetna, had already announced their exits from most Obamacare marketplaces nationwide.

Anthem has been making similar moves in other states. The company has already announced it will exit the ACA exchanges next year in Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin, three of the 14 states where it sells exchange plans. The insurer also plans to reduce its exchange presence in Nevada. In some states, the company gives the same reasons for pulling back: changing federal rules, a shrinking market for individual insurance and an overall lack of marketplace predictability.

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Even with Anthem’s retrenchment in California, the Golden State will remain more competitive than many others. For 2018, Covered California said more than 82 percent of consumers will have more than three plans to choose from and 96 percent will have at least two insurers to pick from.

Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee said the state exchange “played a very active role” in encouraging Anthem to stay in three of California’s 19 insurance regions.

Lee said the insurer must be able to make money to stay in the marketplace in the long run.

“Anthem was in a position … to pause and take a step back,” said Lee. “We hope they’ll step back forward in future years.”

Lee emphasized that California’s marketplace is still “viable and competitive,” with all 11 insurance carriers this year set to participate next year, if not to the same extent as before.

Covered California staff members will help Anthem enrollees find new plans, Lee said, and some may be able to keep their doctors. Eighty-four percent of Anthem’s providers are available through other insurance products, he said.

Health insurance expert Shana Alex Charles noted that the areas where Anthem is pulling out have a lot of competition. Some have six or more health insurance carriers.

“It is just another reminder that we are dealing with for-profit businesses,” said Charles, assistant professor in the health science department at California State University-Fullerton. “Businesses want less competition. They want to be the only players in the market.”

Robert Laszewski, a Virginia-based health care consultant, said Anthem was turning its back on longtime customers in California and other key states despite making repeated commitments to regulators over the years about its staying power.

“It’s all quite puzzling,” he said. “If Anthem was under financial stress and needed to do it that would be one thing. But they are making incredible amounts of money.”

Last month, Anthem reported a second-quarter profit of $855.3 million, up 10 percent over the same period a year ago.

This story has been updated.

Output: Bill Daitchman got some bad news this week: His insurer is breaking up with him. Daitchman and his wife, who own a graphic design business in Santa Cruz County, each pay $350 a month for a health insurance plan from Anthem Blue Cross on the Covered California exchange. But Anthem announced Tuesday it’s pulling out of most of the state’s individual markets, citing the uncertainty swirling around the Affordable Care Act.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
More providers looking into home care programs
 Dive Brief:

As providers look for ways to boost quality while reducing costs under value-based reimbursement, many see home-based care as one solution.

On Tuesday, the Home Centered Care Institute launched the HCCI Centers of Excellence for Home-Based Primary Care to bring high-quality primary care to more Americans. Participants include Cleveland Clinic and Mount Sinai.

Meanwhile, Mount Sinai Health System is teaming up with Contessa Health to expand Mount Sinai’s hospital-level care at home program, Mobile Acute Care Team (MACT), to new markets.

Dive Insight:

Under the HCCI initiative, participating institutions will train clinicians and practice managers using a home-based primary care curriculum developed by a cadre of nationally recognized thought leaders. The curriculum covers foundational principles, economics, operations and clinical care. The goal is to increase the home-based primary care workforce by 5,000 over the next five years.

Centers of excellence and house call programs that participate in the training will be asked to contribute to a data registry of best clinical and operational practices compiled by HCCI.

HCCI has identified eight COEs for the program:

Cleveland Clinic;

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai;

MedStar Health’s Medical House Call Program;

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine;

Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania;

University of Arizona Center on Aging;

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; ans

University of California, San Francisco.

By partnering with Contessa, Mount Sinai plans to extend its MACT program — currently limited to Medicare patients with specific acute medical conditions who would otherwise require inpatient care — to patients with other forms of health coverage and additional conditions. The health system is also looking at adding a postsurgical care at home option.

MACT has treated 600 patients since the program launched in November 2014.

The interest in home-based care comes as new technologies, from remote sensors and monitors to connected scales and blood pressure cuffs and telemedicine are allowing the elderly and others with chronic conditions to remain in their homes.

For example, New York-based Hometeam leverages a mobile care management technology platform to bring trained professional caregivers to seniors and other needing home care. The platform automates scheduling, caregiver/client matching, billing and payroll. “Our overhead is 80% lower than the rest of the industry, and we invest the savings in higher salaries for our caregivers,” Ashish Prashar, director of policy at Hometeam, told Healthcare Dive earlier this year.

Hospitals are also using palliative care teams to reduce avoidable costs and rationalize end-of-life care so that patients get only the care they want and need. Through a comprehensive assessment, teams can determine an appropriate care plan and align it with the patient’s and family’s needs. Such teams also do home assessments ensure continued treatment after the patient leaves the hospital.

Output: Under the HCCI initiative, participating institutions will train clinicians and practice managers using a home-based primary care curriculum developed by a cadre of nationally recognized thought leaders. The curriculum covers foundational principles, economics, operations and clinical care. The goal is to increase the home-based primary care workforce by 5,000 over the next five years.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
ONC focuses on creating interoperability between health systems
 Interoperability (pronounced IHN- tuhr -AHP- uhr -uh-BIHL- ih -tee) is the ability of different systems, devices, applications or products to connect and communicate in a coordinated way, without effort from the end user. Functions of interoperable components include data access, data transmission and cross-organizational collaboration regardless of its developer or origin. Similar to compatibility, interoperability helps organizations achieve higher efficiency and a more holistic view of information.

Interconnected systems can vary in degree of interoperability. Types of interoperability include:

Syntactic interoperability: Systems that can communicate successfully through compatible formats and protocols. Tools that facilitate syntactic interoperability are recognized formatting standards, such as XML and SQL. This is also sometimes referred to as structural interoperability.

Semantic interoperability : This is the ability of systems to exchange and accurately interpret information automatically. Semantic interoperability is achieved when the structure and codification of data is uniform among all systems involved.

: This is the ability of systems to exchange and accurately interpret information automatically. Semantic interoperability is achieved when the structure and codification of data is uniform among all systems involved. Cross-domain or cross-organization interoperability: This refers to the standardization of practices, policies, foundations and requirements of disparate systems. Rather than relating to the mechanisms behind data exchange, this type only focuses on the non-technical aspects of an interoperable organization.

Data exchange between applications, databases and IT systems is crucial for the growth of modern technology, such as the IoT. Approaches to improving or achieving interoperability include conducting compatibility tests, engineering products with a common standard and using the same technology, coding language or syntax across multiple systems when appropriate.

Interoperability by industry

Healthcare: Within the healthcare ecosystem, interoperability is used to optimize and standardize the quality of medical care. This industry relies on multiple sources of information, such as laboratories, clinics, pharmacies, hospitals and primary care providers, which use multiple systems to record this information. Therefore, health information technology systems should be interoperable to allow the relevant exchange of electronic health records (EHR) and more comprehensive healthcare to patients.

Telecommunications: In telecommunications, interoperability is when different services are able to operate effectively and accept services from other systems. Components of telecommunication compatibility are typically signal availability, scale of the network, frequencies and equipment coverage. For example, interoperability is needed for successful communication of two-way radios. ITU-T is the standard used in international telecommunications to achieve interoperability.

Software: Interoperability in software refers to the functionality of different programs to exchange information, share files and use the same protocols. Java is often considered a highly interoperable programming language for software as it can run and execute on any program with a Java virtual machine (JVM).

Search: Search interoperability allows users to accurately collect information from multiple sources using only one query. This allows organizations to make more effective use of large amounts of data and supports data mining.

Military and public safety: In this setting, interoperability is defined as the ability for multiple sectors of law enforcement to communicate effectively during emergencies, standardize training efforts or coordinate the execution of tasks.

Government: Exchange of electronic data between multiple government organizations across the world can be difficult. Interoperability helps close the gap created by language barriers and varying format specifications to help public administrations collaborate.

Benefits of interoperability

Output: Efforts to create interoperability between health systems and stop data blocking have been going on for some time now. Although there are some isolated examples of interoperability in healthcare, in general, experts agree it still is not widely happening.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Regus WeWork's 'sky high' valuation may be supported by diversified base: CBInsights
 WeWork just became the 6th most valuable startup in the world. Though its $20B valuation looks sky-high, it could be justifiable if the unicorn's projected revenue targets and ambitious expansion plans come to fruition this year.

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With WeWork‘s latest funding mega-round bringing the unicorn to a whopping $20B valuation with $2.76B in total funding to-date, investors have long been speculating whether the company merits such a high valuation. We’ve examined previous unicorn valuations including Dropbox, Airbnb, and Blue Apron and compared WeWork’s current and projected valuation data, using CB Insights’ Enhanced Valuation capability, against those posted by a few of its public-market counterparts. Specifically, we looked at Boston Properties, Vornado, and IWG plc (dba Regus).

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VALUATION TIMELINE

Throughout its funding history, WeWork has only seen uprounds with multiple leaps in its valuation. WeWork first gained its unicorn status in Q1’14 with a $1.59B valuation after raising a $157M Series C round from notable investors including Benchmark Capital and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. WeWork’s valuation has continued to rise with their most recent valuation of $20B (as noted by the dashed line in the chart below), after a Series G – II round from Japan-based SoftBank Group and undisclosed investors in Q3’17. These funding rounds position the company to expand into Asia, specifically Japan and most recently China. WeWork also just opened their first India office and announced ambitious expansion plans for Latin America.

This latest valuation also ties WeWork with Palantir as the 6th most valuable startup in the world, after SpaceX, Airbnb, Xiaomi, Didi Chuxing, and Uber.

This latest valuation ranks WeWork just above real estate incumbents Boston Properties, Vornado, and Regus (not pictured on the below graph). WeWork surpasses Vornado’s market cap of $17.8B (as of 07/17/17) by over 12%. Boston Properties, which trades at a valuation around $18B, trails second to WeWork.

Boston Properties reportedly has 43.7 million total square feet in-service and 164 total properties while CEO Adam Neumann has stated that WeWork has 180 buildings globally for WeWork and 2 buildings for WeLive. WeWork has not reported how much square footage the company controls, but it’s been estimated to be around 3 million in New York City alone.

PRICE/SALES MULTIPLE

We examined multiples of WeWork, Boston Properties, Vornado, and Regus. With a $20B valuation based on its latest Q3’17 round of financing and projected annual revenue of $1B for 2017, we calculated a 20x price-to-sales multiple. Its multiple would be well over twice the size of Boston Properties, which has a price-to-sales ratio of 7.37. WeWork’s multiple is nearly 18x the size of co-working incumbent Regus, WeWork’s most similar competitor.

Though WeWork’s multiple may seem inflated (for reference, Blue Apron’s was 2.51 at the time of its IPO), its revenue growth dramatically exceeds that of its public competitors. With an estimated revenue of $532M for 2016 and $1B projected revenue for 2017, we calculated 88% year-over-year growth.

In comparison, WeWork’s public counterparts have seen little revenue growth. Vornado has seen less than 1% revenue growth while both Boston Properties’ and Regus’ revenue are decreasing. Obviously, though, WeWork’s revenue is a fraction of public real estate companies’ revenue, with competitors bringing in $2.5B or more. Additionally, WeWork’s revenue growth is dependent on whether the company hits its projected $1B revenue target for 2017.

WEWORK VALUATION CRITIQUE

Below, for context, we outline some of the more common reasons investors argue that WeWork is over-valued:

Real estate, not tech: WeWork is funded as if it were a tech company, but many real estate incumbents and investors believe that WeWork is simply occupying a niche within the real estate market of “space-as-a-service.” Though many have doubted the merit of its frequent mega-rounds, WeWork has been growing like a tech company and similarly to other highly valued tech companies, WeWork has attracted funding based on its promise of future growth over their current earnings. WeWork’s CEO Adam Neumann has historically refrained from placing the company within tech or real estate and has instead referred to WeWork as a “community company,” a categorization which the company is now reconsidering.

WeWork is funded as if it were a tech company, but many real estate incumbents and investors believe that WeWork is simply occupying a niche within the real estate market of “space-as-a-service.” Though many have doubted the merit of its frequent mega-rounds, WeWork has been growing like a tech company and similarly to other highly valued tech companies, WeWork has attracted funding based on its promise of future growth over their current earnings. WeWork’s CEO Adam Neumann has historically refrained from placing the company within tech or real estate and has instead referred to WeWork as a “community company,” a categorization which the company is now reconsidering. Heavy market dependencies: WeWork’s success is dependent on the health of both the tech and real estate industries. While the company’s flexible contracts may be ideal for small companies, WeWork would inevitably face trouble leasing their spaces if startups began to dry up or if the real estate market experiences a downturn similar to the 2008 financial crisis. However, the historical precedent set by public competitor Regus’ strong performance in 2009 suggests that co-working spaces actually perform well during economic downturns, as firms tend to be wary of making large overhead commitments and thus prefer short-term leases. Additionally, WeWork has expanded its client base from small startups to large corporates like IBM, thus mitigating potential risks of being unable to sustain rental agreements.

WeWork’s success is dependent on the health of both the tech and real estate industries. While the company’s flexible contracts may be ideal for small companies, WeWork would inevitably face trouble leasing their spaces if startups began to dry up or if the real estate market experiences a downturn similar to the 2008 financial crisis. However, the historical precedent set by public competitor Regus’ strong performance in 2009 suggests that co-working spaces actually perform well during economic downturns, as firms tend to be wary of making large overhead commitments and thus prefer short-term leases. Additionally, WeWork has expanded its client base from small startups to large corporates like IBM, thus mitigating potential risks of being unable to sustain rental agreements. Lack of tangible assets: WeWork does not currently own any property; the company takes long-term leases and rents those properties out at a higher value than their lease payments by adding rental and office management fees (cleaning, internet, events, etc.) begging the question how a company with such a high valuation doesn’t own any tangible assets. However, the company recently raised several hundred million for a real estate investment fund, and has announced its intention to buy buildings where they are leasing space.

WeWork does not currently own any property; the company takes long-term leases and rents those properties out at a higher value than their lease payments by adding rental and office management fees (cleaning, internet, events, etc.) begging the question how a company with such a high valuation doesn’t own any tangible assets. However, the company recently raised several hundred million for a real estate investment fund, and has announced its intention to buy buildings where they are leasing space. Ultimately not disruptive: Many WeWork skeptics believe that the company is not truly creating a new business model and may end up following the normal ups and downs of the economy. Regus, for example, has been in the co-working space for years and shares a very similar business model with WeWork. However, the company has been pursuing massive revenue opportunities beyond the traditional co-working model. If WeWork can demonstrate substantial revenue from new areas such as WeLive and facilities management and even fitness, which are presumably estimated in their 2017 $1B revenue run-rate, they would be disrupting the traditional co-working model and differentiating themselves from incumbents such as Regus or other private co-working companies such as Chinese co-working unicorn UrWork.

Defenders of WeWork’s rich valuation note that the company is bringing in revenue by providing core services and community benefits, growing their enterprise sales (which account for 30% of new business), expanding globally, and diversifying their revenue streams as previously mentioned. Though not time-bound, Neumann has indicated that WeWork has eventual plans to IPO, as echoed by the company’s recent restructuring. WeWork’s 2017 performance and revenue growth will likely dictate the timing of their decision to go public.

Regardless of whether its valuation is fair, it’s clear that WeWork has captured deep investor and public interest. As the Trends chart below shows, “WeWork” exceeds that of its public competitors in news mentions. The company’s news mentions spiked to an all-time high of 48 in June 2017.

If WeWork can manage to hit its $1B projected revenue target for 2017, continue increasing enterprise sales, and successfully diversify its revenue streams locally and abroad, the company definitely has a shot to justify its $20B valuation.

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Output: CBInsights suggests WeWork could disrupt the co-working model if it pulls off its 2017 $1bn revenue run-rate, which presumably factors in a more diversified base than competitors like Regus, whose revenues are cited as falling. The report refers to WeWork's diversification into other areas with WeLive, facilities management, and fitness, plus the fact that it has established a real estate investment fund with the intention of buying some of the properties it inhabits. If these areas can help it to make its projection, CBInsights believes WeWork could justify its "sky high" $20bn valuation, which make it currently the sixth most valuable start-up behind SpaceX, Airbnb, Xiaomi, Didi Chuxing, and Uber.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Capitol Shocker: Democrats and Republicans Start Working Together on Health Care
 Something unusual and important is happening in Congress: Republicans and Democrats are working together to improve the health care system. And they’re doing so in defiance of President Trump, who appears determined to sabotage the Affordable Care Act and the health insurance of millions of people.

This surprising if modest burst of bipartisanship comes just days after the Senate failed to pass a Republican bill to repeal important provisions of the A.C.A., or Obamacare. On Monday 43 members of the House outlined a proposal to strengthen the insurance marketplaces created by the 2010 law. On Tuesday Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said they would hold hearings and introduce a bill to cut premiums and encourage insurers to sell policies on the marketplaces for 2018.

It is, of course, impossible to know if such efforts will succeed. Even if they result in legislation, Republican leaders could refuse to bring it to the floor for a vote. Having treated Obamacare as a political piñata for seven years, Republicans might find it hard to actually help the program. Another danger is that Mr. Trump and his health and human services secretary, Tom Price, could try to pre-emptively weaken the marketplaces through administrative measures. Still, it’s good to see politicians actually doing their jobs. The sight of members of both parties working together in the public interest is uplifting, especially after the long partisan campaign to take insurance away from so many Americans.

Contrary to Mr. Trump’s tweets, Obamacare is not collapsing. But it needs work, and some insurance markets are in trouble. Insurers have said they will no longer sell policies in 20 counties in Indiana, Nevada and Ohio, and many are proposing to raise premiums because of the uncertainty created by Mr. Trump’s threats. Experts say insurers could withdraw from even more counties, especially in rural and suburban areas, if the president sabotages the law.

Output: Something unusual and important is happening in Congress: Republicans and Democrats are working together to improve the health care system. And they’re doing so in defiance of President Trump, who appears determined to sabotage the Affordable Care Act and the health insurance of millions of people


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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White House Increasingly at Odds With Republicans on Health Care
 Congressional Republicans have shifted from discussing repeal of the Affordable Care Act to talking about how to bolster the 2010 law — but the Trump administration continues to flirt with undermining it.

The White House, still reeling from Senate Republicans’ failure last week to undo former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement, on Wednesday again raised the possibility of not making key Obamacare payments that are owed to insurers, known as cost-sharing reductions. President Donald Trump hasn’t publicly said whether he would continue the payments or cut them off this month.

“The president’s attitude is fairly simple: If people are suffering, and they are, and they will continue to suffer because we have not repealed or replaced Obamacare, why shouldn’t insurance companies similarly suffer? That’s his point,” Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on CNN. “I don’t think that’s an unfair or unreasonable position for the president of the United States to take.”

By taking a hard-line approach, Trump is going up against industry groups, governors, Democrats and senior members of his own party. They all want Trump to stop threatening to cut off the payments, which help insurers reduce the financial burden of health care for low-income enrollees.

Trump’s views are also at odds with the electorate, with most voters opposing his calls to “let Obamacare fail.” Fifty-nine percent said they would rather have both parties work together to make Obamacare better, compared with twenty-five percent of voters who back Trump’s strategy, according to a July 20-24 Morning Consult poll. GOP voters were more evenly split, with 42 percent saying Republicans in Congress should let the ACA fail, while 43 percent said they should work to make it better.

Insurers warn that ceasing CSR payments would force them to flee the exchanges — or at the very least hike premiums significantly. For instance, California announced Tuesday that premiums for its ACA plans are projected to rise by an average of 12.5 percent next year, an increase that state officials blamed in part on uncertainty caused by the Trump administration’s policies.

On Wednesday, governors of both parties urged the administration to reverse course and commit to funding the insurer payments in the future to stave off any more rate hikes.

“It is critically important to provide insurers and states with certainty that CSRs will be funded,” the National Governors Association said in a statement. “Governors urge immediate action to stabilize the individual marketplace, protect consumers from rising premiums and prevent additional insurers from exiting the market.”

Still, some hard-liners in Congress are wary of continuing the CSR payments.

“The path to lowering premiums is more competition, more choices, more options, more consumer freedom,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told reporters Wednesday. “The answer is not millions more dollars of subsidies for insurance companies.”

The deadline for insurers to file premium prices is Aug. 16, and insurers must decide whether to participate in the Obamacare exchanges by Sept. 27.

The uncertainty surrounding the payments is only furthering momentum in Congress for a bipartisan fix on health care.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee plans to begin a series of hearings starting the week of Sept. 4 in an effort to hash out a bipartisan bill to stabilize the ACA exchanges. Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander hopes the resulting legislation will include at least a one-year extension of the insurer payments. During a hearing on Tuesday, the Tennessee Republican urged Trump to agree to make the CSR payments in August and September, giving Congress a window to pass the legislation.

In the House, a bipartisan group of more than 30 lawmakers, known as the “Problem Solvers Caucus,” has also outlined a plan to give Congress authority over the CSRs.

More than half of voters (54 percent) want federal funding to continue for the ACA — rather than cutting off funding and risking a negative impact to health insurance markets, according to the poll from last week. Twenty-seven percent disagreed.

Output: Congressional Republicans have shifted from discussing repeal of the Affordable Care Act to talking about how to bolster the 2010 law — but the Trump administration continues to flirt with undermining it.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Medicare savings program fails to improve medication use, adherence
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This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Medicare savings program fails to improve medication use, adherence

Source/Disclosures Published by: Source: McWilliams JM, et al. JAMA Cardiol. 2017;doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2017.2172. ADD TOPIC TO EMAIL ALERTS Receive an email when new articles are posted on . Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on Subscribe ADDED TO EMAIL ALERTS You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

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Exposure to the Medicare Shared Savings Program was not associated with increased medication use or adherence among patients with CVD and diabetes, according to recent findings.

“Accountable care organizations (ACOs) in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) are eligible for shared-savings bonuses if spending for their patient population falls below a financial benchmark,” J. Michael McWilliams, MD, PhD, of the department of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues wrote. “Improving medication use and adherence may be additionally attractive to ACOs as a strategy to achieve savings because the MSSP does not include Part D prescription drug spending in an ACO’s spending or benchmark. Thus, increasing patients’ use of prescription drugs to improve performance on quality measures or to lessen the need for nondrug services may support greater shared-savings bonuses than other quality improvement efforts or substitutions that require increases in certain nondrug services.”

McWilliams and colleagues used fee-for-service Medicare claims from 2009 to 2014 as a comparison for the for the cohorts of ACOs entering into the MSSP in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Depending on drug class, the person-years analyzed ranged from about 4.5 million to 10.8 million.

The researchers assessed drug use (at least one prescription filled) and adherence (proportion of days covered) for six drug classes: statins, ACE inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers, beta-blockers, thiazide diuretics, calcium channel blockers and metformin.

Compared with non-ACO participants, there were no significant changes in medication use for participants in MSSP ACOs except for a slight differential increase in the use of thiazides for hypertension in the 2013 entry cohort (adjusted differential change, 0.5 percentage points; 95% CI, 0.1-0.8; P = .01).

There were no significant changes in proportion of days covered, except for beta-blockers in the 2012 ACO cohort (adjusted differential change, 0.3 percentage points; 95% CI, 0.1-0.5; P = .003) and for metformin in the 2012 and 2013 ACO cohorts (adjusted differential change, 0.5 percentage points; 95% CI, 0.1-0.9; P = .01 for both).

“Through its third year of operation, the MSSP has been associated with minimal increases in the use of or adherence to common antihypertensive, lipid-lowering and hypoglycemic medications that improve [CV] outcomes,” the researchers wrote. “We could not analyze the effects of the MSSP on [BP], cholesterol or glucose levels directly because performance on disease control measures is reported only for ACOs and only after the start of ACO contracts, but our findings suggest that reported improvements in disease control among ACOs may reflect ongoing trends due to factors other than ACO contract incentives.” – by Cassie Homer

Disclosures: McWilliams reports being a paid consultant to Abt Associates in an evaluation of the ACO Investment Model. Two other authors report ties to CVS Health.

Output: Exposure to the Medicare Shared Savings Program was not associated with increased medication use or adherence among patients with CVD and diabetes, according to recent findings.


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Inappropriate med use high in cognitively impaired seniors
 (HealthDay)—Many nursing home residents with cognitive impairment or dementia have potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) use, with PIM use more likely among frail individuals, according to a study published online July 28 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Laura C. Maclagan, from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study using data for 41,351 individuals with cognitive impairment or dementia aged 66+ years who were newly admitted to a nursing home between 2011 and 2014. Medication information was obtained at admission to nursing home and in the subsequent 180 days, and the prevalence of PIM use was estimated.

The researchers found that 44 percent of residents with cognitive impairment or dementia were on a PIM and there was variation in prevalence by frailty (38.7, 42.8, and 48.1 percent for non-frail, pre-frail, and frail, respectively; P < 0.001). Many residents discontinued PIMs following admission; however, PIMs were also introduced, with 10.9, 10.1, 6.6, and 1.2 percent newly started on antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, anticholinergics, and H 2 -receptor antagonists, respectively. Frail residents had a similar risk of PIM discontinuation as non-frail residents for anticholinergics, but they were more likely to be newly prescribed benzodiazepines, antipsychotics, and anticholinergics, after adjustment for other characteristics.

"Interventions to support deprescribing of PIMs should be implemented targeting frail individuals during the transition to nursing home," the authors write.

Copyright © 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Output: Many nursing home residents with cognitive impairment or dementia have potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) use, with PIM use more likely among frail individuals, according to a study published online July 28 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.


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Satchel Health adds another $1.5M for its post-acute-focused telemedicine platform
 Nashville, Tennessee-based Satchel Health has picked up another $1.5 million in funding, less than a year after its million-dollar angel round. Existing investor NueCura Partners contributed along with an unnamed group of local investors. This brings the company's total funding to about $2.5 million.

“The board’s decision to seek an additional round of funding is a result of an increasing need for better, more convenient care options, particularly in the post-acute care space,” CEO Lanson Hyde, who just took over a few months ago, said in a statement. “This latest investment round validates the work Satchel Health has done to develop a solution to meet these needs, and ensures we will continue to the have the necessary means to further evolve our care platform to address ongoing changes in healthcare delivery.”

Satchel Health is a provider-facing telemedicine company that connects clinicians to patients in nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, or at home. It uses two-way video as well as connected stethoscopes, pulse oximeters, EKGs, and dermatoscopes. The company also tracks the use of the system and analyzes that data to improve efficiencies and eliminate waste.

When a patient at a post-acute care facility needs immediate care, a nurse logs into the system and completes a dynamic questionnaire. A dispatcher uses that information to select the best clinician for the encounter based on specialty and availability. Then the patient can immediately begin a telemedicine visit with the doctor, using the suite of connected tools to better inform the visit.

The company, which launched in 2015, is deployed in a number of post-acute care sites across the country. It originally operated under the name Octovis and was working on a Google Glass-based offering, but the company pivoted after the leadership realized the limitations of the technology and discovered how ripe the post-acute care space was for innovation, according to a profile in the Nashville Business Journal.

Output: Satchel Health is a provider-facing telemedicine company that connects clinicians to patients in nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, or at home. It uses two-way video as well as connected stethoscopes, pulse oximeters, EKGs, and dermatoscopes. The company also tracks the use of the system and analyzes that data to improve efficiencies and eliminate waste.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Medicare Proposal to Better Align Payments Deserves Broad Support
 When it comes to health care services, many Americans assume that the government pays for health care the same way consumers pay for products in the retail setting. A consumer buying a bag of chips at Grocery Store A would expect to pay a comparable price for that exact same bag of chips at Grocery Story B three blocks away. In most cases, this would be true.

The same cannot be said for America’s health care system. Under current payment policies, a Medicare patient pays dramatically different costs for the exact same outpatient procedures delivered in different settings. For the administration of chemotherapy drugs, for example, the current Medicare payment to a hospital outpatient facility is more than double the rate paid to a community cancer clinic ($137 vs. $281). And, since Medicare patients are responsible for a portion of these charges, this disparity results in higher out of pocket costs for Medicare patients.

This has long been the case in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule policy under which providers are reimbursed for outpatient care services. The current system pays hospital outpatient departments (HOPD) more than their physician-owned counterparts for the exact same services, allowing hospitals to rake in higher profits. This illogical cost differential is due to hospital payment rules that HOPDs are permitted to follow despite their off-campus, often distant locations from the hospitals themselves.

This may not seem like a big deal to those of us in urban and suburban areas, where a plethora of care options exist. But imagine being a Medicare patient in a more rural place, where there are no private physician practices nearby offering more affordable options — only a hospital outpatient department. As a result, both taxpayers and Medicare patients are stuck paying higher prices for the same services urban beneficiaries are getting for a lower cost.

To address these disparities, the Alliance for Site Neutral Payment Reform (the Alliance) has been advocating for payment parity across the Medicare program, calling for payment reforms that make the site of service a nonfactor in the cost of care. It shouldn’t matter where a patient decides to receive medical services, pricing should be affordable and reimbursement comparable across all settings.Fortunately, CMS’s recently proposed PFS rule for FY2018 recognizes the importance of this, addressing the issue head on with a new proposed payment rule that promotes fairer competition between the two options and makes hospital outpatient services more affordable for taxpayers and patients.

Fortunately, CMS’s recently proposed PFS rule for fiscal year 2018 recognizes the importance of this, addressing the issue head on with a new proposed payment rule that promotes fairer competition between the two options and makes hospital outpatient services more affordable for taxpayers and patients.

Under current Medicare policy, newly built or acquired HOPDs are reimbursed at a rate based on 50 percent of the Outpatient Prospective Payment System rate, which still provides a much higher payment than the same care offered in the physician practice setting. CMS’s proposed PFS rule for 2018 would change that. The proposed rule for next year would reduce the PFS rate for new hospital outpatient care services by half, reimbursing HOPDs at 25 percent of the OPPS rate. This would better align payments with the physician-office setting and reduce out of pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries.

The proposed rule for next year would reduce the PFS rate for new hospital outpatient care services by half, reimbursing HOPDs at 25 percent of the OPPS rate. This would better align payments with the physician-office setting and reduce out of pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries. Further, it would help calm an alarming trend in health care marketplace consolidation that is reducing patient access to community-based services. Because HOPDs currently receive higher reimbursement for services, they are economically incentivized to scoop up struggling independent practices and fold them into their hospital system where they can receive higher reimbursement rates.

Further, it would help calm an alarming trend in health care marketplace consolidation that is reducing patient access to community-based services. Because HOPDs currently receive higher reimbursement for services, they are economically incentivized to scoop up struggling independent practices and fold them into their hospital system where they can receive higher reimbursement rates.

The Alliance commends CMS for their efforts to lower patient out-of-pocket costs, decrease Medicare spending and better align reimbursement for care in different settings. We feel that the same services should be paid for in the same way, regardless of where the patient happens to seek treatment. We are pleased to see CMS and lawmakers recognizing site neutral payment as an easy, common sense reform that protects patients and reduces spending.

Randy Broun is the president and chairman of the board of directors for Oncology Hematology Care Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Morning Consult welcomes op-ed submissions on policy, politics and business strategy in our coverage areas. Updated submission guidelines can be found here.

Output: When it comes to health care services, many Americans assume that the government pays for health care the same way consumers pay for products in the retail setting. A consumer buying a bag of chips at Grocery Store A would expect to pay a comparable price for that exact same bag of chips at Grocery Story B three blocks away. In most cases, this would be true.