Hospital Can Live With Third Party on Home Care

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Marina Del Rey Hospital discharges hundreds of patients each year who could use a little help getting around, cooking meals or managing medications once they get home. Given that the medical center was already referring these people to home care providers and that hospitals are now encouraged to reduce patient stays – while being penalized for high readmission rates – it made perfect sense for Marina Del Rey to launch its own service.

But rather than go through the hassle of creating an agency from scratch, the hospital enlisted El Segundo’s 24Hr HomeCare to handle the operations for the new Marina Homecare division it launched last week.

“We want to know that the quality of care the patient got in the hospital is extended on into the home,” said Mark Miller, the hospital’s chief information officer, noting they were also losing potential revenue. “With the evolution of health care, we felt that 24Hr HomeCare would be a great extension for our hospital.”

The surgical hospital, which focuses on spine and minimally invasive procedures, was recently acquired by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center but still operates as an independent affiliate.

Miller said discharged patients using the home care service could be anyone from the elderly to professional athletes who’ve had back or neck surgery and need help for a few days or a few weeks at home.

“It fits perfectly with what we’re trying to do as a concierge boutique hospital on the Westside of L.A.,” Miller said.

Providing services under the hospital’s private label also represents a growing business line for 24Hr HomeCare. The firm already has deals in place with three other health care groups. Marina Del Rey is its first hospital client, though the firm has another deal in the works with an Orange County medical center, said 24Hr HomeCare owner Ryan Iwamoto.

“This type of partnership with hospitals is very rare right now,” Iwamoto said. “But as the climate is changing, you see it happening more and more.”

The hospital splits revenue from the service with 24Hr HomeCare.

The agency, which launched in 2008, started a Hospital to Your Home service in 2012, advertising its nonmedical home care services as a way to ease patients’ transitions after being hospitalized. It has since grown to 3,000 employees with operations in California, Arizona and Texas, and revenue of $39 million last year.

Data Deluge

Pasadena biopharmaceutical firm Arrowhead Research Corp. last week inundated investors and analysts with a flood of significant new data on its most advanced lead drug candidate.

Study results said that ARC-520, meant to treat chronic hepatitis B infections by quieting the genes that cause them, had greatly reduced the disease in humans and chimpanzees.

The data demonstrated that human patients treated with a single dose of ARC-520 in a phase-2a study had shown up to a 98 percent reduction in the circulation of a viral protein produced by infected cells. In the long-term study of chimps, the animals saw an 81 percent to 99 percent reduction in viral proteins from infected cells.

“It validated the technology for us, which was very important,” Arrowhead Chief Operating Officer Dr. Bruce Given said while discussing the human results during a Sept. 24 presentation. He added that the firm was really gratified to see there hadn’t been any issues from a safety perspective.

“I think we’ve demonstrated the DPC platform works in humans,” Chief Executive Christopher Anzalone said of the firm’s drug delivery system.

ARC-520 could see $4.5 billion in peak annual sales, New York-based Jefferies analyst Eun K. Yang wrote in an April research note.

After the Sept. 24 data release, Arrowhead shares soared more than 44 percent to $9.97 in premarket trading. But the stock ended the day up a more modest 6.7 percent at $7.19.

Checkups

Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong’s Culver City immunotherapy maker NantKwest Inc. has built out its management team with three additions: Dr. Andreas Niethammer as executive medical director, Dvorit Samid as senior vice president of medical affairs and Dr. Jerel A. Banks as senior vice president of mergers and acquisitions. … Santa Monica pharmaceutical firm Kite Pharma Inc. increased its board to nine members in order to accommodate the appointment of Dr. Franz B. Humer, former chairman and chief executive of Basel, Switzerland’s Roche Holding AG. … Inglewood immune imaging firm ImaginAb Inc. has appointed Jeff Bailey to its board. … Urologic surgeon Vito Imbasciani, director of governmental relations at Pasadena’s Southern California Permanente Medical Group, has been appointed secretary of the California Department of Veteran Affairs by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Staff reporter Marni Usheroff can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 229.

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