Another CVS departure. As Glenview Capital taps its feet waiting for CVS financials to improve, Mike Pykosz, appointed less than a year ago to head up their Health Care Delivery unit, is departing. His replacement is Dr. Sreekanth Chaguturu. Unsurprisingly, Dr. Chaguturu will be working two jobs–president of Health Care Delivery as well as EVP and chief medical officer of CVS Health, saving an executive salary. This may be the capper of a two-month 52-card pickup that started with rumors of a breakup that would split off Aetna, replacement of CEO Karen Lynch, a new head of Aetna, and four new board seats given to Glenview. [TTA 19 Nov]
No date was given for Mr. Pykosz’s departure, but the wording in the release made it appear that it was effective immediately. His LinkedIn post from last Tuesday indicated that he was moving on by end of November, this week. According to new CEO David Joyner, Pykosz had informed management earlier in the year that he was planning to depart and had worked to ensure a smooth transition. Mike Pykosz had previously been CEO and co-founder of Oak Street Health, acquired by CVS for $10 billion in May 2023. In the following months, OSH integrated with elements of Signify Health, in-store Minute Clinics, and grew from 170 units to 250 locations. Whether any of them are profitable is not disclosed and likely not probable, though CVS made much of OSH’s and Signify’s 36% increase in quarterly revenue versus prior year. There is also no disclosure of Mr. Pykosz’s future plans though his LinkedIn post mentions that he was “excited to be able to dedicate time to investing in, advising, and supporting innovative healthcare companies, helping them meet their strategic goals and build better healthcare solutions as well as spend more time with family and friends.” including coaching grade 3 basketball. Bet on hearing from Mr. Pykosz after what is likely a prolonged non-compete agreement and a good rest. Healthcare Dive
Elon Musk’s brain-computer implant, Neuralink, to enter a clinical trial with Health Canada. This is the first outside-US trial for Neuralink. It comprises the N1 brain implant and R1 robot, which is used to place the 64-thread implant into the brain. The study will be performed by the University Health Network (UHN) hospital at its Toronto Western Hospital. The “Canadian Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface” (CAN-PRIME) subjects will be Canadian-resident patients with tetraparesis or tetraplegia resulting from cervical spinal cord injury or the neurological disease ALS who also have a life expectancy of at least 12 months. Earlier this year, an American implant patient moved a mouse by thought [TTA 21 Feb] and is now playing video games and online chess. Neuralink received approval last month for Blindsight, an implant for sight restoration. Mobihealthnews
VA service improvement bill manages to omit Oracle EHR oversight measures. The bipartisan omnibus bill titled ‘The Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act” (H.R. 8371) passed the House last week. It introduced many benefits to VA healthcare workers and to veterans, but managed to pass the House without the ‘guardrails’ that the House Veterans Affairs committee deemed necessary to continue the Oracle EHR rollout, replacing the obsolete VistA system. The committee spokesman, Mark Takano, D-Calif., attributed the omission of requirements included under the EHR Program RESET Act to “a lack of political viability in both the House and Senate”. The chair of the Technology subcommittee, Matt Rosendale (R-Montana), went considerably further and voted against the entire bill. Both blamed Oracle: Takano attributed it to “the army of lobbyists that Oracle unleashed to kill it” and Rosendale stated that “Oracle Cerner bought and bullied their way into getting this bill passed without their company being scrutinized.” The bill now goes to the Senate in the minimal time before the ending of the 118th Congress next month.
The requirements in the omitted RESET Act included most of what has been discussed in both Senate and House to remedy Oracle Cerner Millenium’s stopped-dead implementation in the VA.
- Increased Congressional oversight of EHR deployments, ensuring that each implementation of the new EHR “met or exceeded” pre-deployment efficiencies before moving to the next one
- Requiring VA to provide lawmakers with quarterly reports with additional data “on user adoption and employee satisfaction” with the Oracle Cerner system
- Requiring VA to supply data on “employee retention and turnover at medical facilities where such electronic health record system is in use.”
Rep. Rosendale issued a press release blasting H.R. 8371. “…this bill ignored years of bipartisan work focused on requiring Oracle Cerner to fix its EHR System, that has resulted in veteran deaths, before it could be expanded to new VA Medical Centers and the company can continue to collect on its multibillion-dollar contract.” Omnibus bills like this are always shotgunned together as well. “The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee ignored regular order with this legislation which, by uniparty design, prohibited scrutiny and debate on the final product. That decision spearheaded a bad process for passing this bill which resulted in an unacceptable final product for our veterans. When a uniparty agreement comes together overnight, like it did with the Dole Act, it means a small group of individuals negotiated it and the American people – and in this case our nation’s heroes – get the short straw.”
(Editor’s note: Senator Elizabeth Dole, who is still with us at 88, was a single-term Senator from North Carolina 2002-2006, but Cabinet member in two prior administrations as well as the widow of Senator Bob Dole from Kansas.)
Signs of life at 23andMe? The troubled genetic data company, which earlier this month shuttered what remained of its drug therapeutics unit and laid off 40% of its remaining employees, announced this week a research partnership with Mirador Therapeutics, a precision medicine company focused on immunology and inflammation. Mirador is using a targeted set of aggregated, de-identified genetic and phenotypic data from the 23andMe research database to combine with its Mirador 360 development “engine”. Most of the release is boilerplate with the requisite quote from the Mirador CEO, mixed with copy hyping previous 23andMe collaborations and their patient privacy policy which carefully omits the fact that you, personally, can withdraw from the research program, but your genetic data and limited identifiers cannot [TTA 8 Nov]. No financials or agreement duration are disclosed. 23andMe release, Endpoints News (paywalled)
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