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(https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/psa-department-health-and-human-services-hiring-health-tech-ai) HHS hiring senior leaders in health tech, AI
Jul 22nd 2024, 13:31

Several employees of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) posted on LinkedIn inviting industry professionals to apply for senior executive roles in the agency to lead initiatives on technology, data and artificial intelligence. 
The open roles include a Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer to “[advance] AI technologies in healthcare while ensuring ethical and equitable AI use,” Chief Technology Officer to “drive innovation and transformation within HHS”, and a Chief Data Officer to “oversee data operations strategy and execution," Steven Posnack, deputy national coordinator at ONC, (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7220149867480760321/) posted on LinkedIn

President Joe Biden called for the appointment of a Chief AI Officer in each agency within 60 days of his October 30, 2023 executive order on AI. National Coordinator for Health IT Micky Tripathi was appointed acting CAIO of HHS in May 2024. 
Tripathi has held multiple high ranking AI roles in the eight months since the Executive Order, including Chair of HHS’ AI Task Force and acting Chief AI Officer. Until recently, Tripathi also served as a non-voting member and federal liaison on the board of the Coalition for Health AI. 
The jobs will be posted on (https://www.usajobs.gov) www.usajobs.gov. HHS will also host a webinar announcement with more information. 


(https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/regulatory/new-senate-healthcare-cybersecurity-bill-appears-redundant-ongoing-mitigation-activities) Most proposals in new Senate cyber bill are already underway
Jul 22nd 2024, 13:31

A bipartisan group of Senators introduced a healthcare cybersecurity bill on July 11 to help prevent cyberattacks on healthcare facilities, which the federal government deems as critical infrastructure.
However, a cybersecurity lawyer said the proposals are redundant with actions the administration is already taking to protect healthcare cybersecurity. 
The massive fallout from this year's Change Healthcare (https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/optums-change-healthcare-responding-cybersecurity-issue) cyberattack has heightened lawmakers' and regulators' attention on cybersecurity. The proposed FY2025 Health and Human Services budget even allocates $800 million to cybersecurity after the major disruptions to healthcare billing this year.

The (https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/4697/text?s=1&r=1&q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22Healthcare+Cybersecurity+Act+of+2024%22%7D) Healthcare Cybersecurity Act was introduced by Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, Todd Young, R-Indiana, and Angus King, I-Maine. It was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. 
“In recent years, hospitals and health care facilities in Indiana have experienced a dramatic increase in cyberattacks. Our bipartisan bill will take critical steps to strengthen cybersecurity infrastructure and better protect patients’ personal data,” Young wrote in a post on X. 
The bill would create a liaison between the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Department of Health and Human Services that would, among other things, provide technical assistance and best practices to healthcare organizations on cybersecurity. They would also act as the coordinator between HHS and CISA in the event of a healthcare cyberattack. 
The bill also requires a report from the CISA liaison to Congress and a Healthcare- and Public Health Sector-specific plan for cybersecurity. The Secretary of HHS would update the plan to include the biggest cybersecurity risks to small, medium and rural healthcare organizations and an assessment of workforce shortages, within one year. 
The bill would also create a list of high-risk covered assets to be updated biannually.
“Cyberattacks are one of the most pressing concerns for our community health centers, which must direct an increasing share of funds away from patient care towards data security,” Nancy Bowen, Chief Executive Officer of the Nevada Primary Care Association, said in a statement. “The Nevada Primary Care Association appreciates Senator Rosen for introducing the Healthcare Cybersecurity Act to direct federal resources to help keep our systems safe and our health centers focused on their primary mission of providing excellent care.”
Steve Cagle, CEO of healthcare cybersecurity firm Clearwater, says the legislation is redundant.

“I think there's multiple groups and multiple entities working on similar initiatives … [and] a lot of those were actually happening before the Change Healthcare attack. And one that happened following the Change Healthcare attack was there's an ongoing effort right now to understand where there is a sector risk and where there are specific vendors or organizations that, like Change, can have a high impact on the rest of the industry," he said.

He cited President Joe Biden’s April 2024 (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/30/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-national-security-memorandum-on-critical-infrastructure/) National Security Memorandum on Critical Infrastructure, Presidential Policy Directive 41, HHS's (https://405d.hhs.gov/) 405d program and cybersecurity training already offered by CISA and HHS as some examples of initiatives that accomplish similar things as what the legislation would require. 
Moreover, he said that the Health Sector Coordinating Council’s (HSC) Cybersecurity Task Force is currently conducting a survey on threats to rural healthcare facilities. 
Cagle also said the legislation is an important step towards more meaningful cybersecurity regulation in the country, even if it lacks teeth. 
“The biggest single problem that smaller organizations [and] hospitals have, [is] they don't have the people, they don't have the expertise, they don't have the knowledge. You can tell them all day long, ‘These are the things you have to do,’ and they're gonna say, ‘I can't do that. Who's going to do this? I've got 2.5 IT people here [and] no dedicated security people and we're barely keeping up with everything else,'" he said.
What healthcare cybersecurity needs, Cagle said, is accountability, email protection, vulnerability management, risk analysis and experienced security staff to guide programs. He pointed to legislation in New York that will require healthcare organizations to have chief information officers. 

Cagle also said that making HHS' voluntary cybersecurity performance goals (CPGs) mandatory would be effective. The CPGs offer specific controls and practices that are reasonable and appropriate, Cagle said. 
“I think the health industry cybersecurity practices guide is the reasonable and appropriate roadmap or way of achieving the cybersecurity performance goals and HHS would agree with that,” Cagle said.
The roadmap links back to the NIST cybersecurity framework and outlines steps for small, medium and large organizations to take to mitigate cybersecurity risks. 
“The practical approach is … let's get the basic security controls in place. Let's get risk analysis to find residual risk [and] focus on the high risks,” Cagle explained. “Provide enough resources [for] these small organizations that have never planned for this kind of attack … The current … reimbursement structure just doesn't give them enough funding to pay for all these things.”
The recent repeal of the Chevron doctrine also makes healthcare cybersecurity regulation more complicated, Cagle said. 
While it's long been speculated that the CPGs could become mandatory in the falI update to the HIPAA Security Rule, some advocates were discussing separate regulations that could put the standards into effect in a matter of months. It was speculated that cybersecurity standards could be tied to CMS reimbursement.
Cagle said that now, because the Supreme Court’s Chevron decision affects how much leeway federal agencies have to interpret laws, HHS is unlikely to pursue separate regulations for cybersecurity.
More likely is that the CPGs get folded into the fall update to the HIPAA Security Rule, which the agency definitely has the Congressional authority to do. However, the finalization of the updated HIPAA Security Rule could take years, Cagle said.

(https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/telehealth/new-found-ceo-embargoed) Weight health company Found taps Luca Ranaldi as CEO
Jul 22nd 2024, 13:31

Telehealth weight care company Found has hired Luca Ranaldi as its new chief executive officer effective.
Ranaldi formerly held the position of chief operating officer at Spring Health, a mental health solution for employers and health plans. Found's former CEO Sarah Jones Simmer stepped down from the position in March.
Found launched in 2019 to provide medically-guided weight loss programs combined with consumer tech to drive behavior change. The company has raised $132 million from investors to date. In late 2021, the company (https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/health-tech-funding-snapshot-1) pocketed $100 million in series B funding to fuel its growth.

A majority of Americans (70%) are overweight or obese, but just 1% of doctors specialize in obesity medicine. As the demand for weight loss solutions grows, Found has expanded its services and capabilities. In May 2023, Found (https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/found-launches-new-program-assist-employers-managing-obesity-care-including-glp-1-drugs) launched a new platform, Found for Business, that aims to help employers manage services and costs for workers struggling with weight, including GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.
Last fall, the company unveiled  Found Assistant, a generative AI tool within the Found app that offers users personalized guidance. In February, Found added MetabolicPrint as a digital diagnostic support tool that uses biological and behavioral assessments to create a personalized weight health profile.
Found has served more than 200,000 patients in its direct-to-consumer outreach, according to executives. Its care model combines the powers of 13 different medications, including GLP-1 products when appropriate, to offer over 60 care paths based on what the patient needs.
Ranaldi engaged in an email Q&A with Fierce Healthcare. Here’s the conversation. 
Fierce Healthcare: What was your role before joining Found, and how did it prepare you for this leadership position? 


(Found)

Luca Ranaldi: I have been working on user-centric innovation and growth management for two decades. I spent the last 12 years scaling startups across B2B2C and B2C in healthcare, e-commerce and tech-enabled services. During my time at Hello Fresh and Breather, I found a passion for revolutionizing industries that were in need of innovation.

Most recently, I served as chief commercial and strategy Officer at Spring Health, a leading next-generation mental health solution for employers. As one of the very early team members, I worked across a multitude of business areas, from go-to-market with employers, to product and service expansion, and the internationalization of health plan partnerships, ultimately helping the business achieve unicorn status. I’m excited to bring this expertise to Found, which has a similarly broad range of audiences.
During my time at Spring Health, I also became uniquely aware of how stigma in our healthcare system and society can affect access to care. Mental health has had an incredible coming of age in popular culture, but the healthcare system has been slow to provide solutions. Companies like Spring Health aim to make it easier to access mental health services, and Found is doing the same for weight care – an area of our healthcare system that’s undergoing a significant transformation. I’m excited to bring my expertise to challenge the stigma around weight care by providing the most effective and accessible solution through Found. 
FH: Why are you excited to be assuming the CEO role at Found?
LR: Found is uniquely equipped to meet the current need for accessible and clinically effective care, offering the best of consumer-friendly telehealth, the broadest set of medications and support from specialized providers and coaches, and comprehensive plans that are personalized for the patient’s needs. Continuing to build on this is of the utmost importance to me.
Obesity is a complex and nuanced condition that does not have a one-size-fits-all solution. I’m excited to be joining Found at this exciting growth moment as the company continues to stay at the forefront of leveraging emerging research on obesity, GLP-1 medications, and more.
FH: How do you hope to grow the business as CEO? 
LR: We must continue to meet the needs of our members, first and foremost. I’ll be focused on supporting Dr. Rekha Kumar, our chief medical officer, and the wider clinical team as they continue to build and refine the most effective program for weight management and metabolic health on the market. 
We know we’ve developed a product that is delivering significant value for everyone in the healthcare ecosystem. Patients, health plans and employers alike are currently clamoring for cost-effective, sustainable weight care that actually works. As we continue to scale, our challenge will be ensuring that we’re delivering on the right combination of creating a product that works and getting it in the right hands via go-to-market channels that appreciate the clinically rigorous approach we’re taking.
FH: How does Found manage GLP-1 costs for patients and health plans? 
LR: Branded GLP-1s are not a cost-effective solution right now—patients, employers and health plans alike are in need of more affordable solutions. First of all, GLP-1s are not clinically appropriate for everyone, so we include a wide number of medications in our formulary to be able to meet a range of clinical needs while still maintaining financial viability. We’re also managing cost by personalizing care with diagnostic tools including our MetabolicPrint, which allows our clinicians to create a weight health profile, or “fingerprint,” that ensures we’re tailoring care to individual patients based on their biology—by doing this, we increase precision and improve outcomes.


(https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/industry-voices-embracing-complexity-lived-experiences-healthcare) Industry Voices—Embrace complexity of lived experiences in care
Jul 22nd 2024, 13:31

Growing up, neither of us could have imagined that our lived experiences would resonate in our work in such a profound way.
One of us, Monica, a Harvard-educated physician leader, realized through her screening program for health-related social needs that she would have screened positive for housing insecurity while growing up. For Shruti, ensuring that her aging mother has consistent access to high-quality care while moving in and out of Medicaid eligibility has remained a challenge, despite Shruti having a deep understanding of the healthcare industry gained through her experiences working in roles across the healthcare ecosystem.  
For both of us, these experiences expose that our nation’s healthcare system does not always account for the complex realities of individuals’ needs. It’s unexpected that a Harvard student would have profound housing insecurity, or that a healthcare leader’s family member would struggle to navigate the healthcare system due to income. Too often, we have preconceived notions about who might face challenges like health-related social needs and low health literacy.

However, as we have so keenly experienced, these issues are common and broadly felt. When our healthcare system has a limited understanding of who is affected, we not only fail to provide adequate services for people whose needs are going unidentified but also stigmatize the need for these services, further hindering the ability to connect people to care. 
Our lived experiences reveal an opportunity to embrace a new approach to care that anticipates the unexpected and closes the gaps in our healthcare system that so many fall through. This change would require that we reconsider the foundations of our healthcare system, minimizing the artificial segmentation that underserves patients by failing to account for the complexity of their lives. In the meantime, we must take the initial steps toward this transformation, using tools like auto-enrollment, payment reform and data sharing, which can be powerful levers to drive change.
Like Shruti’s mother, thousands of Californians move between Medicaid and other types of coverage each year. Bureaucracy and barriers cause people to fall out of the system. Some health insurance marketplaces have begun to automatically enroll people when they lose eligibility for Medicaid to fix this issue. This approach recognizes that seamless, integrated experiences are what we all need and deserve.  
Primary care plays a critical role in breaking down silos in our system of care by identifying unmet needs and connecting people to services, including for health-related social needs. To increase investment and strengthen our primary care system, select payers are embracing a modern approach to collaboration: (https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/iiJPCOYzGRfNk8pGHEfVtGy0MO?domain=ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) co-opetition, in which competing entities collaborate to maximize impact to expand the benefit. These competing payers are currently aligning under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to advance the (https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/5kVoCPNAG8f0nwKlu0hwtxUaS2?domain=pbgh.org/) California Advanced Primary Care Initiative, led by Purchaser Business Group on Health and the Integrated Health Care Association. Through this co-opetitive approach, these payers are able to do far more together than they could individually to strengthen and scale a primary care model that emphasizes comprehensive, person-focused care.

Data sharing is at the heart of building a more connected system of care. In California, the Data Exchange Framework, which facilitates the secure exchange of health and social services information, has been transformative in its role to ensure that healthcare and social service providers have the information they need to deliver coordinated, whole person care. To support its implementation, the Connecting for Better Health coalition has emerged.
Bringing together stakeholders including payers, providers, social service leaders and technology partners, Connecting for Better Health advocates for data-sharing policies, collaborates on best practices and supports the more than 3,500 entities that have now agreed to share patient information safely across the state on an unprecedented scale. 

Healthcare is complex, presenting challenges even for those of us deeply connected to it. As individuals whose personal and family needs have been overlooked by traditional healthcare and social service systems, we look forward to a future in which healthcare’s foundational approach is purpose-built to be a more connected, holistic system of care.
Monica Soni, M.D., is chief medical officer of Covered California. Shruti Kothari is the director of industry initiatives at Blue Shield of California.
Editor's note: Covered California and Blue Shield of California are participants in the Purchaser Business Group of Health. Blue Shield of California is also a participant in Connecting for Better Health.

Forwarded by:
Michael Reeder LCPC
Baltimore, MD

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