6 things to know about Biden’s plan to transform vaccine rollout

Hello,

Starting the week typically feels like a sprint, but especially when there’s a major national event on Wednesday. 

Ahead of that, today in healthcare news: What’s inside President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 plan, Aledade’s now valued at $2.2 billion, and Carbon Health’s struggle to show transparent prices for its healthcare services.

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6 things you need to know about Joe Biden’s plan to transform the chaotic COVID vaccine rollout

• President-elect Joe Biden will be taking office on Wednesday just as the US is in the middle of an enormous coronavirus vaccine effort.
• The vaccine rollout so far has been chaotic, and Biden will be in charge of retooling the program, as he takes charge of efforts to pull the US out of the pandemic.
• The plan will no longer go by the Trump administration’s name, “Operation Warp Speed.”

Read the full story from Kimberly Leonard here>> 

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Aledade just raised $100 million in a round that values the primary-care startup at $2.2 billion. Here's the presentation that won over investors.

• Aledade just raised $100 million in a Series D funding round led by Meritech Capital.
• The startup, which is transforming the way independent primary-care practices are paid, is valued at $2.2 billion, according to sources close to the deal.
• The funding round comes after a year of explosive growth for Aledade, despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Read the full story from Shelby Livingston here>>

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A startup that raised $175 million to fix primary and urgent care is still struggling with what its CEO called the 'most complex' problem in healthcare

• Carbon Health cofounder and CEO Eren Bali on Twitter explained why his startup is still struggling with price transparency.
• Bali said his goal is to have doctors and patients decide on treatments and tests based on costs together during a visit.
• The complexity of insurance plans and legacy billing models make it so the automated system to calculate those costs is wrong roughly 40% of the time.

Read the full story from Megan Hernbroth here>>

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More stories we're reading: 

• Billionaire investor Vinod Khosla says healthcare's biggest problems can be solved with AI. Here's his vision for 2030's healthcare system. (Business Insider)
• The vaccine reserve was already up when the Trump administration said it was going to release it (Washington Post) 
• Europe and Canada are facing temporary hits to coronavirus vaccine supply while Pfizer renovates a Belgian plant to eventually produce more doses (Business Insider)
• Eric Lander will serve as Biden's science advisor (Stat News)
• Ancestry is pulling its health DNA test about a year after launch (Bloomberg)

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- Lydia