Latest news with #Verily
Business Insider
07-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Verily CEO tells staff the sale of its insurance business is a 'strategic win' as the deal closes
Elevance Health's acquisition of Verily's insurance business has closed. Verily's CEO told staff in a memo that the sale will strengthen the company's financial position. Verily has been on a mission to shed projects and pivot to AI as it eyes life beyond Google's walls. In an April 30 memo to staff, which was seen by Business Insider, Verily CEO Stephen Gillett said Elevance's acquisition of its stop-loss insurance subsidiary, Granular, had officially closed. "This acquisition represents a strategic win for Elevance Health, Granular, and Verily," Gillett wrote in a note to staff. "On our end, this sale strengthens Verily's financial position and allows us to reinvest the proceeds towards Verily's strategic priorities," he later added. BI first reported in February that Verily had entered an agreement to sell Granular to insurance provider Elevance Health. A Verily spokesperson referred BI to a previous statement confirming the company's agreement to sell Granular. Companies sometimes take out top-loss insurance to pay their employees' medical bills and limit their financial exposure, potentially protecting them from sharp increases in spending. Granular launched in 2020 and used "proprietary technology" for its services, the company said. With its insurance business sold, Verily has shed another project as it aims to further streamline itself and refocus its strategy around AI. Verily sits among the "other bets" owned by Alphabet but live outside Google. It started out in Google's moonshot lab in 2015 and focused on an array of projects, including wearables and surgical robots. It has been criticized for entertaining too many bets and lacking a clear focus. The unit completely pivoted to COVID-19 screening and testing during the pandemic. Last year, Verily announced a new AI-powered chronic care product named Lightpath, designed to help patients living with conditions such as diabetes and obesity. Verily is also eyeing a future beyond Alphabet's walls. In January, the life sciences group separated some of its internal systems from Google's, such as certain employee benefit systems. Last year, Verily issued employees new laptops, office badges, and email addresses that are no longer aliases of the Google email domain, multiple people familiar with the matter told BI.
Business Insider
07-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Verily CEO tells staff the sale of its insurance business is a 'strategic win' as the deal closes
Alphabet life sciences unit Verily has officially sold its insurance business to Elevance Health, its CEO told employees last week, as the company continues to shed projects and focus on AI. In an April 30 memo to staff, which was seen by Business Insider, Verily CEO Stephen Gillett said Elevance's acquisition of its stop-loss insurance subsidiary, Granular, had officially closed. "This acquisition represents a strategic win for Elevance Health, Granular, and Verily," Gillett wrote in a note to staff. "On our end, this sale strengthens Verily's financial position and allows us to reinvest the proceeds towards Verily's strategic priorities," he later added. BI first reported in February that Verily had entered an agreement to sell Granular to insurance provider Elevance Health. A Verily spokesperson referred BI to a previous statement confirming the company's agreement to sell Granular. Companies sometimes take out top-loss insurance to pay their employees' medical bills and limit their financial exposure, potentially protecting them from sharp increases in spending. Granular launched in 2020 and used "proprietary technology" for its services, the company said. With its insurance business sold, Verily has shed another project as it aims to further streamline itself and refocus its strategy around AI. Verily sits among the "other bets" owned by Alphabet but live outside Google. It started out in Google's moonshot lab in 2015 and focused on an array of projects, including wearables and surgical robots. It has been criticized for entertaining too many bets and lacking a clear focus. The unit completely pivoted to COVID-19 screening and testing during the pandemic. Last year, Verily announced a new AI-powered chronic care product named Lightpath, designed to help patients living with conditions such as diabetes and obesity. Verily is also eyeing a future beyond Alphabet's walls. In January, the life sciences group separated some of its internal systems from Google's, such as certain employee benefit systems. Last year, Verily issued employees new laptops, office badges, and email addresses that are no longer aliases of the Google email domain, multiple people familiar with the matter told BI. Verily is also looking to raise another round of capital in the next few months, BI previously reported.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
CDC's cruise inspectors laid off as ship arrives in Florida with a norovirus outbreak
All full-time employees in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vessel Sanitation Program were laid off this week, even as a cruise ship arrived in Miami with another norovirus outbreak among passengers and crew. The CDC employees whose jobs were cut were responsible for monitoring, tracking and assisting with gastrointestinal outbreaks on cruise ships. The epidemiologist tasked with leading the federal agency's outbreak response on cruise ships also was included in the layoffs, CDC officials told CBS News. The cuts are problematic for Florida, where passengers disembark from cruise ships with gastrointestinal viruses and often travel through airports. The CDC documented a dozen outbreaks on ships in just the first four months of 2025, mostly from norovirus. Ten of those ships departed from, or docked in, Florida or both. The outbreaks involved as many as hundreds of passengers and crew members falling ill with symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps. On Wednesday, Seaborn Cruise Lines Encore arrived in Miami after a 3½-week voyage. Thirty-five of the roughly 800 people on board had become ill with norovirus. The cruise line reported that it consulted with Vessel Sanitation Program officials about sanitation cleaning procedures. 'VSP remotely monitored the situation, including review of the ship's outbreak response and sanitation procedures,' the CDC website says. Employees in the Vessel Sanitation Program were cut as part of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s major layoffs in public health. A CDC spokesperson told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, 'Critical programs in the CDC will continue under Secretary Kennedy's vision to streamline HHS to better serve Americans.' The spokesperson also said that unannounced sanitation inspections, monitoring and assisting with gastrointestinal outbreaks and tracking and reporting illnesses on cruise ships has not stopped and the work will now be done by U.S. Public Health Service officers. CBS reported that only one epidemiologist remains on the Vessel Sanitation Program's team to investigate outbreaks and that individual is still in the early stages of training. Florida and many areas of the U.S. have been battling a record surge of norovirus in recent months, driven mainly by a new strain of the gastrointestinal virus. Wastewater samples throughout Florida — home to seven major cruise ports — show high levels of norovirus as of April 7. Verily's wastewater program provides surveillance of norovirus and other pathogens at 11 sites in Florida, including two in Miami-Dade County and one in Jupiter. Wastewater testing at all three tracked high levels of norovirus. 'In all three South Florida wastewater treatment facilities in which Verily monitors pathogens, we've seen persistently high levels of Norovirus GII since November/December 2024,' said Amy Lockwood, Verily's Public Health Partnerships Lead. 'While an uptick during this season is expected, the levels we are seeing are significantly higher than the same time period in 2024 and 2023.' Also, high levels of norovirus were reported in three of the four Central Florida (Orange County) wastewater sites. The fourth has a medium level. The site closest to Port Canaveral, which hosts multiple Disney cruises, has a high level. 'These early warning signs help officials get ahead of outbreaks, and right now, the data suggests an increased transmission risk as travelers come and go,' Lockwood said. South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@
