Henry Schein names Brad Connett as president, U.S. Medical Group
Henry Schein Inc (Melville, NY) named Brad Connett as president of Henry Schein’s U.S. Medical Group. Connett was previously president of the company’s Commercial Group for U.S. Medical. In this new, expanded role, Connett will lead the medical group’s strategic direction, management, and business performance. He will also be responsible for the group’s sales, marketing, operations, business development, and technology solutions.
Walmart partners with New England Baptist Hospital on bundled payments
Walmart selected New England Baptist Hospital (Boston, MA), which specializes in orthopedic care, as a center of excellence for Walmart employees needing hip and knee replacement procedures. Under the agreement, eligible Walmart medical plan enrollees who undergo joint replacement surgery at NEBH will have their care, travel, and lodging fully covered. NEBH will offer the procedure at a fixed price for a bundled care episode. NEBH has similar arrangements with UniCare and General Electric. This action builds upon Walmart teaming up in April with Emory Healthcare (Atlanta, GA) for an ACO and a bundled payment program for spine surgeries and joint replacements.
PTS Diagnostics announces new global headquarters
PTS Diagnostics, a U.S.-based manufacturer of point-of-care biometric testing devices, announced that it is expanding operations in Indianapolis and building a new global headquarters. In order to support continued rapid growth, the company is investing in additional manufacturing and office space, and moving its global headquarters to Whitestown, Indiana. The company continues to grow much faster than the rate of industry growth, and this expansion will bring jobs in the finance, marketing, chemistry, engineering, and manufacturing sectors, among others.
Amazon is building a health, wellness team around Alexa
Amazon has built a team within its Alexa voice-assistant division called “health & wellness,” according to CNBC. The team includes over a dozen people and is being led by Rachel Jiang, who has spent the last five years at Amazon in various roles, including advertising and video. The team’s main job is to make Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant more useful in the healthcare field, an effort that requires working through regulations and data privacy requirements laid out by HIPAA, according to people familiar with the matter. The group is targeting areas like diabetes management, care for mothers and infants, and aging, said the people. Other key members include Missy Krasner, who joined Amazon last year after leading industry initiatives at Box and Google, and Larry Ockene, a 10-year veteran engineer at Amazon. Yvonne Chou, who has worked at Amazon for eight years across Prime, fashion and retail, is one of the three managers under Jiang. Within the Alexa unit, the team falls under a group called Alexa Domains, according to the internal document