New Medicare head boosts ACOs (Morning Read)

Highlights of the important and interesting in the world of healthcare:

ACOs boosted by new Medicare head. Newly installed Medicare chief Donald Berwick is moving quickly behind the scenes to seed the U.S. health care system with up to 300 accountable care organization (ACO) sites to test new models of caring for patients, according to the Boston Globe.

What does a CEO do? Set vision and strategy, and communicate them broadly; recruit, hire and retain top talent; and make sure there’s enough cash in the bank, writes A VC blog.

My kingdom for a stylus. Young pre-med students often are the scribes who enter patient information into complex electronic medical record systems, enabling doctors to focus on doctoring, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Michigan raises $50M for fund-of-funds. Michigan’s top companies have ponied up $50 million for the Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, a fund that invests in other funds, like Arboretum Ventures in Ann Arbor, that invest in Michigan businesses, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Push, pull for stem cell stocks. When President Obama signed his executive order expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research last year, stem cell stocks soared on the news. And on August 23rd when a federal court judge reversed the decision, stem cell stocks sank, according to Zacks Investment Research.

Omnicare to buy Walgreens’ long-term care pharmacy. Covington, Kentucky’s Omnicare Inc. is buying the long-term care pharmacy business from Walgreen Co., according to the Cincinnati Business Journal.

King of the hill? Swiss drug maker Roche is planning to slash thousands of jobs worldwide as it tries to figure out how to come out on top of a series of pipeline setbacks, writes FierceBiotech.