Becker's ASC Review

116 HEALTHCARE NEWS Hospitals seeking billions in remaining relief payouts By Alia Paavola H ospitals are asking the Biden administration to distribute billions of dollars in relief funds allocated to providers last year to cover losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Wall Street Journal. Hospitals say it has been more than three months since the government announced it would be dis- tributing the funds. The last announcement was Dec. 17, when HHS said it would dish out $24.5 billion to 70,000 healthcare providers. Hospital groups say they haven't had any communication about another round of disbursements since. Of the $178 billion initially placed in the fund, $24 bil- lion has yet to be allocated, according to the Journal. Additionally, legislation signed into law this month added $8.5 billion to the fund for rural healthcare providers. Tom Nickels, executive vice president for government relations at the AHA, told the Journal that hospitals are eager to work with HHS on plans for distributing the remainder of the funding. "Congress fortunately provided us a sizable amount of funding for hospitals and providers last year. How- ever, the need continues," Mr. Nickels told the Journal. "There are places where we have surges of COVID patients, and hospitals experiencing lost revenue." n Doctor on Demand, Grand Rounds merge to form multibillion-dollar virtual care company By Jackie Drees T elehealth provider Doctor on Demand and clinical navigation platform Grand Rounds are merging to create a new integrated, multibillion-dollar virtual care company. The new company will combine Grand Rounds' data-driven clinical navigation platform, which helps patients find the right care and expertise for specific conditions, with Doctor on Demand's virtual care offering, according to a March 16 news release. Both Doctor on Demand and Grand Rounds will continue to operate under their existing brands for the time being, and Grand Rounds CEO Owen Tripp will serve as CEO of the new expanded virtual care business. Both companies will continue to operate under their exist- ing brands for the time being. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2021. Grand Rounds was last valued at $1.34 billion in a financing round in mid-2020, while Doctor on Demand was valued at about $820 million, according to SharePost, CNBC reports. No new valuation has been established in the merger since it's an all-stock combination without new capital from outside in- vestors, but the companies claim to have hundreds of millions of dollars in combined annual revenue, according to CNBC. n 'Not on our watch': Atrium CEO tells Senate how his system is tackling health disparities By Hannah Mitchell T he CEO of Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health testified to a U.S. Sen- ate Committee on March 25 that the public and private sector need to collectively adopt a "not on our watch" approach to ad- dressing healthcare disparities. Eugene Woods, the president and CEO of Atrium Health, said he was profoundly dis- tressed to see people of color die dispropor- tionately from COVID-19. "It was extremely personal for me; they could have been members of my own family," Mr. Woods said. In response, Atrium Health has adopted a "not on our watch" approach to focus efforts on vulnerable Charlotte communities. eir approach took them to at-risk communi- ties to deliver 2.6 million free face masks in a collaborative effort with both private and public organizations. Atrium Health also analyzed geographic data to locate the zip codes where there were disparities in testing and treatment. It worked with local pastors and community leaders to deploy mobile medical units into church parking lots, YMCAs and even construction sites. Mr. Woods believes this approach can be ap- plied on a national scale, and the pandemic proved communities, government agencies and businesses need to partner to create real solutions in health equity. "It took us less than a decade to put Neil Armstrong on the moon, and doing so required tremendous collaboration and ingenuity that showed the world who we were as Americans at our very best," Mr. Woods said. "I believe we can apply the same collaboration and ingenuity in these times to eliminate healthcare disparities by 2030, whether in urban or rural communities, if we take this moment to collectively say, 'Not on our watch.' " n

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