How COVID-19 has sparked innovation in health care

Good morning.

COVID-19 has exposed multiple problems in the U.S. health care system–the lack of surge capacity, the fragility of the financial model, and the vagaries of the payment system, to name a few. But it also has sparked remarkable innovation. Fortune yesterday assembled some of the brightest minds in the field for a virtual conversation about how the health system will be changed by the crisis, as part of the run-up to our big event in July: Fortune Brainstorm Health. My takeaways:

1) Telemedicine is here to stay…but in some places more than others.

“Forty-five percent of our visits are telehealth visits. The horse is out of the barn. Everybody has to do it. That has changed dramatically. There is no going back.”
–Dr. Steven Corwin, CEO, NewYork-Presbyterian

“Telemedicine is enabling people to bring that health care much closer to them.”
–Dr. Vivian Lee, author of The Long Fix

“In New York, there was an 11X increase in telehealth.” But in some Southern and rural states “there were much smaller increases.”
–Dr. Arif Nathoo, CEO, Komodo Health

2) The pandemic will increase the demands for reform in the payment system.

“We really need to fundamentally change the model of health care,” providing reward for driving value, rather than fee for service. “That will naturally drive us to make the right investments in prevention.”
–Lee

“I think payment for value is going to become an irreversible trend, because the payment model is broken.”
–Corwin

3) Inequities in health care will have to be addressed.

“We have seen the inequities of the health care system play out. The question is can we build a more equitable future that is built on technology.”
–Nathoo

“COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter are inseparable in terms of what they mean in terms of [health] outcomes. We don’t have a choice as a country. [This] means much greater interest on health equity as a piece of social justice.”
–Corwin

And while we are on social justice, both Twitter and Square have decided to make “Juneteenth” (June 19) a company holiday. The day marks the end of slavery in the U.S. CEO Daily wants to know: Are there other companies that have made, or are considering making, June 19 a holiday?

More news below. And an odd health care tidbit that Fortune discovered yesterday: the dentistry business seems to be leading the move to reopen. More here.

Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com

Many companies are speaking out against racial injustices right now. But how do they fare in their own workplaces? Black employees in the corporate world, we want to hear from you: Please submit your anonymous thoughts and anecdotes here.

TOP NEWS

Cases up

COVID-19 rates are going up in nine states, including a bunch in the South plus Utah. The biggest increase is in Texas, one of the first states to lift pandemic restrictions—it reported 1,945 new cases on Tuesday, compared with 1,053 new cases a couple weeks earlier. Meanwhile, new research has found that widespread mask adoption allows for less strict lockdown measures and could prevent further waves of infection. Fortune

Stocks down

Stocks have fallen around the world following the Federal Reserve's cautious outlook on the U.S. economic recovery, and as investors take note of the rising case rates mentioned above. After the DJIA dropped 1% yesterday, the Nikkei 225 dropped 2.8%, the Hang Seng 2.3% and the Stoxx Europe 600 2.3%. At the time of writing, Dow futures suggest an opening fall of around 1.8%. Wall Street Journal

Lufthansa cuts

Lufthansa Group is instituting what seems to be the heaviest round of job cuts—so far—in the aviation industry's coronavirus nightmare. A massive 22,000 jobs will go, half of them in Germany, and Lufthansa will end up operating 100 fewer craft after the crisis. Meanwhile, the New Economic Forum warns that up to 70,000 jobs in the sector are at immediate risk. Yahoo Finance

Facial recognition

A couple days after IBM pulled out of the facial recognition game over racial-bias and surveillance fears, Amazon said it will block police use of its facial recognition systems for one year. The "A.I." in such systems misidentifies dark-skinned faces more often than it does light-skinned faces—however, Amazon has contested criticism of its Rekognition system on this basis. The company's moratorium on police use is more to do with giving Congress times to implement "appropriate rules" around deployment. Reuters

AROUND THE WATER COOLER

Unilever reorganization

Unilever-watchers may be forgiven for feelings of dizziness: the company has now decided to merge its Dutch entity into its British arm, rather than the other way round as it abortively planned to do a couple years ago. Under the new plan, shareholders in the consumer goods giant's Dutch entity will own 55% of the combined operation, while British shareholders get 45%. Unilever says it will be easier to make equity-based acquisitions or demergers now. Financial Times

HSBC in crossfire

HSBC, which raised eyebrows when it recently expressed support for the imposition of a Chinese national security law in Hong Kong, keeps getting caught up in geopolitics. It was subsequently reported that HSBC had warned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson of potential punishment for the bank if the U.K. government decided to ban Huawei from British 5G networks. Now U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the U.S. "stands with our allies and partners" against Beijing's "coercive bullying tactics." Fortune

Confederate flags

A couple days after driver Bubba Wallace urged NASCAR to ban Confederate flags from its events, the auto racing body agreed to do so. "The presence of the Confederate flag at NASCAR events runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry," it said in a statement. NASCAR had previously asked fans not to bring the flags to its races, but Wallace called for more—yesterday he applauded the definitive ban, saying "Props to NASCAR and everybody involved." CNN

Bankruptcy trap

A lot of small business owners are set to declare bankruptcy, but many could face a devastating trap: in some states, the bankruptcy code could force them to give up their homes in order to settle their business debts. As Fortune's David Z. Morris explains: "Many small businesses are unincorporated sole proprietorships, meaning the businesses’ debts aren’t legally separate from the owners’ personal finances…Compounding that reality is the fact that many states have very low caps on the so-called homestead exemption allowed by their bankruptcy codes." Fortune

This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.