Precision BioSciences +3.2% on bullish Stifel start

Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ:DTIL) is up 3.2% postmarket after an initiation at Buy by Stifel.

Analyst Benjamin Burnett set a price target of $21, implying 159% upside from the $8.11 close.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3548839-precision-biosciencesplus-3_2-on-bullish-stifel-start

Uber Health targets provider pain points with revamped platform

• Uber Health is attempting to address provider gripes with its non-emergency medical transportation platform through a handful of new features that began rolling out late last year, the San Francisco-based rideshare company said Wednesday.
• Providers can now select specific pickup and drop-off sites at large hospitals, similar to how the app is used in airports, and people can receive details of their ride like driver name, make and model of car and time of arrival over a landline phone, instead of just text messages.
• Uber Health has grown 300% year over year since its launch in 2018 and plans to double the size of its team this year.

The new suite of services, slated to become widely available by April, also allows clinical staff to message drivers directly on the driver app so the driver doesn’t need to toggle between SMS notifications and the app to read pickup and patient information. Patients can elect to receive pickup notifications in 44 different languages, and providers can request round-trip rides for patients to and from their appointments, instead of having to order two separate journeys.
“The core Uber app serves its own audience. But within health, you’re serving almost an even wider set of demographics” from young to old, from the tech-savvy to people who don’t own a smartphone, from consistent rideshare users to people who have never heard of it, Akarshan Kumar, product lead at Uber Health, told Healthcare Dive. “It’s a situation where you can’t just copy-paste what exists on the Uber app and make that work.”
Uber is seeing some early success with the offerings. A fourth of Uber patients in Miami use Spanish as their primary language, and as a result, their appointment adherence has improved, Kumar said. The product leader declined to share what percentage of Uber’s patients use landlines, but said it was “significant” and only likely to grow as the NEMT-reliant Medicaid population increases.
Uber has doubled down in healthcare, saying it’s committed to growth in the multi-billion dollar NEMT market following a lackluster IPO in May. Some 3.6 million people miss appointments due to a lack of transportation annually, resulting in downstream costs of roughly $150 billion.
Lyft and Uber are both aiming to lure providers seeking to reduce patient no-shows and recapture lost revenue, and clinch some themselves. It’s fertile ground as NEMT, already a mainstay of Medicaid, is increasingly included in commercial and Medicare Advantage health insurance plans.
Uber generally focuses on the provider and employer spaces for growth, while Lyft has targeted the government and payer spaces. Like Uber, Lyft doesn’t disclose specific numbers, but told Healthcare Dive last year it’s netted “thousands” of partnerships in the industry since it jumped into NEMT in 2016.
“We’re here and we’re here to stay,” Kumar said. “This is not like a side experiment that the company is doing and seeing if it works out or not. It’s something that the full weight of the leadership is behind.”
Uber has more than 1,000 partnerships in the healthcare industry, including providers like BayCare Health System, Boston Medical Center, Yale New Haven, MedStar Health and the Cleveland Clinic, and access to thousands of additional systems through an October integration with Cerner’s EHR. Many of these providers worked with Uber to formulate the functions aimed to be more consumer friendly.
https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/uber-health-targets-provider-pain-points-with-revamped-platform/573177/

CMS inspections to prioritize infection control amid coronavirus outbreak

CMS on March 4 instructed state agencies and accrediting organizations to almost exclusively focus on infection control compliance during hospital and nursing home inspections to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Until further notice, these stakeholders will prioritize infection control issues and other serious safety threats — such as abuse allegations or immediate jeopardy complaints —during inspections, CMS said.
As such, the agency is asking all healthcare organizations nationwide to immediately review their infection control procedures and ensure compliance with all federal guidelines.
CMS also issued two memoranda answering frequently asked questions about COVID-19, including how to screen for the illness and how to transfer a coronavirus patient from a nursing home to the hospital.
The agency deployed an infection prevention specialist to the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta to help develop coronavirus-related guidance in real time.
As of March 4 at 4:20 p.m., more than 150 Americans have contracted COVID-19, and 11 have died.
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/infection-control/cms-inspections-to-prioritize-infection-control-amid-coronavirus-outbreak.html

California, Washington state deaths bring U.S. coronavirus toll to 11

Two more people have died of the new coronavirus in the United States, bringing the toll to 11, and new confirmed cases were reported on Wednesday around the two most populous cities, New York and Los Angeles.

The first California death from the virus was announced by health officials as an elderly adult with underlying health conditions. It was the first coronavirus fatality in the United States outside of Washington state, where 10 have died.
Placer County’s public health department said in a statement that the patient tested presumptively positive on Tuesday at a California lab and was likely exposed between Feb. 11 and 21 on a Princess cruise ship to Mexico from San Francisco.

“Preliminary understanding from the contact investigation is that this patient had minimal community exposure between returning from the cruise and arriving at the hospital by ambulance on Feb. 27,” the statement said.
The person was the second confirmed case of the respiratory disease called COVID-19 in Placer County in Northern California.
In the greater Seattle area, the total number of coronavirus cases climbed to 39, up from 27 cases and nine deaths a day earlier, the Washington State Health Department announced.
The Seattle area has the largest concentration of coronavirus cases detected to date in the United States. Several cases were connected to a long-term care facility for the elderly in the Pacific Northwest state.
In New York state, the number of cases rose to 10 on Wednesday. Three family members and a neighbor of a lawyer who was previously identified as infected tested positive.
The neighbor’s wife and three of his children have also contracted the virus, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
About 1,000 people in the New York City suburb of Westchester County, where the two families live, were under self-quarantine orders because of possible exposure, Cuomo said.

“We are, if anything, being overcautious,” he said.
Los Angeles officials announced six new confirmed travel-related cases in Los Angeles County, including three people who had been to Northern Italy, one of the areas hardest hit in the global outbreak.
Of the six, only one has been hospitalized. The other five are recovering in home isolation.
Los Angeles County declared a local emergency and a public health emergency intended to expand and hasten preparedness efforts.

EMERGENCY FUNDS

In Washington, D.C., U.S. lawmakers reached bipartisan agreement on an $8.3 billion emergency bill to help fund efforts to contain the virus. The bill garnered enough votes to pass in the House of Representatives.
The Senate is expected to act quickly so President Donald Trump can sign the measure into law, putting funds into the pipeline to fight the virus.
More than $3 billion would be devoted to research and development of coronavirus vaccines, test kits and therapeutics. There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the fast-spreading illness.

In a bid to also help control the spread of the virus outside the United States, $1.25 billion would be set for international efforts, the aide said.
The administration is working to allow laboratories to develop their own coronavirus tests without seeking regulatory approval first, U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar said.
The latest data here from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) listed 129 confirmed and presumed cases in the United States, up from the previous 108. They were 80 reported by public health authorities in 13 states plus 49 among people repatriated from abroad, according to the CDC website.
Those figures do not necessarily reflect Wednesday’s updates from three states.
The infected New York lawyer had not traveled to countries with large numbers of cases. The outbreak began in China in December and is now present in nearly 80 countries and territories, killing more than 3,000 people. The first New York case, reported last week, was in a woman who had returned from Iran, where at least 92 people have died.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa/california-washington-state-deaths-add-to-u-s-coronavirus-toll-idUSKBN20R28H

Starbucks Steps Up Cafe Cleaning Due to Coronavirus Outbreak

Starbucks Corp. has instructed employees to step up cleaning at its thousands of U.S. cafes, as a domestic restaurant industry already working against stagnant demand reacts to a new threat to sales and public health.
The coffee giant and McDonald’s Corp. are among restaurant chains adjusting operations and stepping up cleaning as the coronavirus epidemic gains ground in the U.S. More than 130 cases of the new coronavirus had been diagnosed across the U.S. as of Wednesday.
Sales at U.S. restaurants could fall this year as the epidemic expands domestically and more customers avoid public places, analysts say. Fitch Ratings said the epidemic poses a greater risk to restaurants than other sectors of the economy, exacerbating pressure on an industry already working to reverse stagnant traffic. Same-store traffic at U.S. restaurant chains fell 3.1% last year, according to industry firm Black Box Intelligence.
Starbucks earlier this week sent a memo to store employees instructing them to clean cafes more often and thoroughly. Employees were told to regularly sanitize door handles, chairs, tables and coffee bars, according to the memo, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Workers were told to sanitize bathrooms and ordering machines frequently, and employees were told to regularly wash their hands.
“We want to do whatever we can to support our partners and customers,” the memo states.
McDonald’s said it had advised its U.S. operators to sanitize door handles, order kiosks, counters, tables and restrooms more frequently. The burger giant also recommended stores provide hand sanitizer to customers and workers in lobbies and behind the front counter. Workers should use hand sanitizer to supplement frequent hand washing, the company said, adding that it created an internal group in January to assess the daily impact of the epidemic on its operations around the globe.
Starbucks said the more intensive cleaning regimen should take about 30 minutes a day and should be performed during peak times. The company recommended that managers add up to 1% to their planned employee hours to handle the work.
The company also told workers to stay home if they are ill, keep their fingernails short and limit the amount of jewelry they wear. The chain offers paid sick leave for workers, a rarity among big retail and restaurant chains.
Starbucks runs 8,870 cafes in the U.S. and licenses 6,320 more to outside operators.
The coffee giant said in a letter Wednesday it was restricting customers from bringing in their own cups for refills for now, but would continue to give 10-cent discounts to customers who do.
The company said it restricted all business-related travel through March 31, and has postponed large meetings.
The chain has been in regular contact with stores, including licensees across the globe, the company said.
“We are navigating this situation with nimbleness, learning and adapting as new information is made available,” said Rossann Williams, Starbucks president for U.S. company-operated business and Canada, in the letter to be distributed to employees and customers.
The epidemic could benefit chains that have invested in delivery and mobile-pay options, analysts said, while hurting those that haven’t. In China, where the new coronavirus emerged late last year, restaurant food delivery rose 20% after the epidemic hit while customer visits dropped overall, according to market-research firm NPD Group Inc.
Restaurant chains such as Yum Brands Inc. sought to curb the loss of sales in China by offering more delivery to people staying home.
Starbucks closed more than 2,000 of its stores in China, its second-biggest market, during the peak of the outbreak there. The company said last week that about 85% of those stores had reopened.
The company also said Wednesday that it was no longer holding, due to the epidemic, its annual shareholders meeting in person that was scheduled to take place March 18 at a theater in downtown Seattle, where it has its headquarters. The company said it would hold the meeting virtually instead. Target Corp. on Monday broadcast its annual investors meeting online rather than hold it in person in New York City as originally planned.
Washington state is among the places in the U.S. hardest hit by the epidemic. Ten of the 11 deaths resulting from confirmed cases of the new virus have been in Washington. An Amazon Inc. worker in Seattle tested posted for coronavirus Wednesday.

https://www.marketscreener.com/STARBUCKS-CORPORATION-4905/news/Starbucks-Steps-Up-Cafe-Cleaning-Due-to-Coronavirus-Outbreak-2nd-Update-30109704/

U.S. Airlines Struggle to Collect Better Data on Passengers Amid Coronavirus

U.S. airlines are pressured to provide more detailed information about passengers flying into the country to help officials contain the spread of the coronavirus, but are struggling with requests they say are beyond their capabilities.
Carriers have been expected to help keep people with the Covid-19 disease from entering the U.S. They have had to assist in funneling travelers who have been in China or Iran recently into designated airports where they can undergo additional screening, often relying on passengers to disclose where they have been.
Airlines say they are now being asked to provide primary and secondary phone numbers, email addresses and locations where passengers will be staying while in the U.S. — information they say they don’t easily have at hand.
Top executives from American Airlines Group Inc., United Airlines Holdings Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., Alaska Air Group Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. met with President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday to discuss how airlines are dealing with the impact of the coronavirus.
Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said the additional data would help the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services and others identify people who enter the country and contact them if necessary.
One issue is that about half of travel tickets are booked through travel agencies rather than directly with airlines. While members of frequent-flier programs generally have phone numbers and email addresses on file with carriers, many passengers don’t. They can choose to share contact information with airlines, but sometimes don’t.
“We don’t have this information — we simply don’t — on many passengers, ” said Sharon Pinkerton, senior vice president for legislative and regulatory policy at Airlines for America, a trade group. It could take as long as a year to reprogram systems to ensure that all this data is collected, she added.
Airlines for America suggested that HHS set up a website for inbound international travelers, where they can input their own data, similar to something that has been set up in South Korea.
Nick Calio, Airlines for America’s chief executive, said that Wednesday’s meeting was constructive and that the group would continue to work with federal agencies to help contain the spread of the virus.
The U.S. death toll from the new coronavirus grew to 11 on Wednesday, with California announcing its first fatality linked to the viral infection.

https://www.marketscreener.com/AMERICAN-AIRLINES-GROUP-I-15171667/news/U-S-Airlines-Struggle-to-Collect-Better-Data-on-Passengers-Amid-Coronavirus-30109811/

Assembly Biosciences EPS beats by $0.03, beats on revenue

Assembly Biosciences (NASDAQ:ASMB): FY GAAP EPS of -$3.72 beats by $0.03.

Revenue of $15.96M (+7.8% Y/Y) beats by $1.15M.

Press Release

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3548765-assembly-biosciences-eps-beats-0_03-beats-on-revenue