Daily Business Report: Tuesday, June 22, 2021
California fought Texas over Obamacare
and won; Here’s why it matters
By Ana B. Ibarra | CalMatters
California has wholeheartedly embraced the Affordable Care Act — it advertises it, it invests in it, it protects it.
It even went to court for it. And won.
In a 7-2 decision in California et al. v. Texas, the Supreme Court on June 17 voted to reject the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act. Meaning Obamacare stays.
“Now, 20+ million Americans can keep their health care coverage. And those with pre-existing conditions can take a deep sigh of relief,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a tweet following the Supreme Court’s decision.
While not all states embraced the law, California implemented it fully — and built on it. The Golden State had the most at stake.
How the Law Benefits California
The Affordable Care Act was signed into law in March 2020 and was fully implemented in 2014. The law did several things, among them:
• Prohibited insurance companies from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions.
• Required that insurers cover young adults on their parents’ plans up to age 26.
• Eliminated annual and lifetime limits on coverage.
PHOTO courtesy of MissionBox
Researchers translate a bird’s brain activity into song
Study demonstrates the possibilities of a future speech prosthesis for humans
By Liezel Labios and Inga Kiderra| UC San Diego
It is possible to re-create a bird’s song by reading only its brain activity, according to a first proof-of-concept study from the University of California San Diego. The researchers were able to reproduce the songbird’s complex vocalizations down to the pitch, volume and timbre of the original.
Published June 16 in Current Biology, the study lays the foundation for building vocal prostheses for individuals who have lost the ability to speak.
“The current state of the art in communication prosthetics is implantable devices that allow you to generate textual output, writing up to 20 words per minute,” said senior author Timothy Gentner, a professor of psychology and neurobiology at UC San Diego. “Now imagine a vocal prosthesis that enables you to communicate naturally with speech, saying out loud what you’re thinking nearly as you’re thinking it. That is our ultimate goal, and it is the next frontier in functional recovery.”
The approach that Gentner and colleagues are using involves songbirds such as the zebra finch. The connection to vocal prostheses for humans might not be obvious, but in fact, a songbird’s vocalizations are similar to human speech in various ways. They are complex, and they are learned behaviors.
Select Medical, Scripps Health and UC San Diego
Health enter joint venture partnership
Select Medical, Scripps Health and UC San Diego Health have entered a joint venture partnership to serve the unmet post-acute critical illness recovery care needs of San Diego and surrounding communities. For Select Medical and UC San Diego Health, the agreement is an extension of an existing joint venture formed in 2018.
As part of the deal, Scripps Health and UC San Diego Health both purchased interests in Select Medical’s existing critical illness recovery hospital, Select Specialty Hospital – San Diego, which is licensed as long-term acute care. Select Medical will retain majority ownership and management of the 110-bed facility.
“Since opening Select Specialty Hospital – San Diego in 2019, there has been a steady increase in the need for specialty care among the region’s aging population facing chronic, critical illness,” said Tom Mullin, executive vice president and chief operating officer of specialty hospitals at Select Medical. “We look forward to partnering with Scripps Health, as well as expanding our relationship with UC San Diego Health, to continue providing world-class post-acute care to Southern California.”
Public health program at Cal State San Marcos
to become Department of Public Health
The public health program at Cal State San Marcos has been approved to become a department within the College of Education, Health and Human Services, effective July 1. The change was approved by Carl Kemnitz, CSUSM’s provost.
As part of the department designation, public health will be moving from the School of Nursing, where it has resided since 2016, to the School of Health Sciences and Human Services. It will become the fifth department in that school, joining human development, kinesiology, social work and speech-language pathology.
The final step for public health to be designated a department was the news this spring that the program has achieved accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit schools of public health and public health programs. The accreditation term is for five years, extending to July 1, 2026.
Christina Holub has been serving as interim director of the program and, starting this summer, she will be the chair of the new Department of Public Health.
Courtney Pendleton named public relations and
community manager for Mission Fed Credit Union
Mission Fed Credit Union has named Courtney Pendleton as public relations and community manager, an action that the organization says emphasizes the credit union’s commitment to continuously serving the greater San Diego community, supporting financial wellness and financial inclusion.
Pendleton’s responsibilities include overseeing the organization’s PR strategy, managing press and community-related content, building relationships with new and existing nonprofits and local businesses, serving as part of the organization’s team of media spokespeople, and building thought leadership programming. In her role she is responsible for evolving the organization’s community relations strategy, which is centered around advancing health and well-being, serving the underserved and partnering with values-based community organizations.
Pendleton brings more than 18 years of experience that includes extensive strategy, counsel, and execution of marketing communications programs; media relations; crisis and issues management; digital/social media strategy and execution; and material development in the nonprofit, consumer, and corporate sectors.
She comes to Mission Fed from the YMCA of San Diego County where she spent nearly five years developing and directing the PR and communications strategy and reputation initiatives for the largest YMCA association in the country.
La Jolla Institute launches new global
cancer immunology resource
Researchers are about to welcome a new one-stop shop for crucial information on how the immune system targets cancers. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health has granted over $4.2 million to launch the Cancer Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (CEDAR), led by La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Professors Alessandro Sette and Bjoern Peters.
“We are grateful that the National Cancer Institute has recognized the need for this kind of infrastructure to fuel research in the field,” said Peters.
Cancer immunotherapies, which consist of vaccines or checkpoint blockade inhibitors, unleash the immune system’s T cells to find and kill cancer cells. The strategy has proven effective in some patients, but many cancers still evade therapies.
Importantly, any scientist in the world will be able to contribute their data, which will be curated by a dedicated LJI team.
For the National Cancer Institute, CEDAR is a significant milestone for the Informatics Technology for Cancer Research program, an effort launched in 2012.
Viasat named to Bloomberg Government’s
BGOV200 list of top federal contractors
Viasat, a global communications company, has been named one of the top 200 federal contractors according to Bloomberg Government in the 10th annual BGOV200, based on fiscal year 2020 data for unclassified, prime contracts awarded across all U.S. federal government agencies. Viasat ranked #106, up 15 spots from the previous year.
The BGOV200 report is a premier source for government contract practitioners evaluating the competitive landscape. Bloomberg Government’s analysis found that fiscal 2020 marked the fifth straight year of increased government contract spending, with contracting dollars having increased by $83 billion compared with fiscal 2019.
Looking at Viasat’s fiscal year 2020 performance, ending March 31, 2020, the company’s Government Systems business achieved record revenues of more than $1.1 billion. Fiscal year 2020 marked the first year Viasat’s government business achieved over $1 billion in revenue and the second consecutive fiscal year it reached more than $1 billion in contract awards.
Viasat also announced fiscal year 2021 results, ending March 31, 2021, and noted its Government Systems segment again achieved revenues over $1 billion, and closed the year with over $1.2 billion in contract awards, an 11 percent increase year-over-year.
Researchers dig deeper into how cells
transport their waste for recycling
Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys have gained a deeper insight into the intricacies of autophagy, the process in which cells degrade and recycle cellular components. The findings, published in Current Biology, describe how the “trash bags” in a cell—called autophagosomes—are tagged to direct their movement to the cellular “recycling plants” where waste is processed. The research opens new paths to understanding the relationship between autophagy and age-related diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders.
Registration open for Virtual 2021 Vital Aging Conference
One of the county’s most popular events for older adults, the Vital Aging Conference, is back this year after a 2020 hiatus due to COVID-19.
The theme of this year’s Vital Aging Conference is Resilient and Ready. The event is free and will be entirely online this coming Thursday, June 24 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The conference will feature demonstrations, discussions and speakers who will share resources that will help older adults live healthier and safer lives. Participants can explore what they can do to re-energize their lives so they can thrive again after spending much of the last year at home.
Sessions will focus on increasing social connections as we emerge from a time of physical distancing, making the most of the internet and other technology, and understanding the importance of intergenerational activities to improve social ties and quality of life.
This year’s keynote speaker is Henry Winkler. Winkler is a best-selling author and Emmy Award-winning actor, director, and producer. He is best known for his role as Arthur Fonzarelli, aka “The Fonz,” on the TV show Happy Days.
You can register for the virtual conference online or by calling 619-881-6262.
