Frates' participation in the challenge helped raise more than $100 million for efforts to fight the disease, according to the New York Times, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Massachusetts, Michigan, and Texas.

• Massachusetts: Peter Frates, a former college baseball player with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who became known for promoting the Ice Bucket Challenge, died on Monday at the age of 34. For the Ice bucket challenge, participants dump buckets of ice water on themselves to promote awareness for ALS and raise money to for ALS research. While Frates didn't start the Ice Bucket Challenge, a July 2014 video of him doing the challenge went viral and started a surge of participation in the challenge, the New York Times reports. Frates' participation in the challenge helped raise more than $100 million for efforts to fight the disease, according to the Times (Bromwich, New York Times, 12/9).
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• Michigan: UnitedHealth Group's Optum announced Monday that it will purchase Diplomat, a specialty pharmacy, for $300 million. (The Daily Briefing is published by Advisory Board, a division of Optum, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.) Optum executives said the purchase will bring "expertise in managing specialty medications that treat patients with complex diseases … and provid[e] specialized infusion therapies offered in convenient and clinically appropriate settings in all 50 states and Washington, D.C" (Jaspen, Forbes, 12/9).
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• Texas: Methodist Health System has named Jim Scoggin as its new CEO. Scoggin has been serving as interim CEO of Methodist since April, following the retirement of Stephen Mansfield. Scoggin first joined Methodist in 1987 as COO of Methodist Hospital in San Antonio (Ajamy, Dallas Business Journal, 12/9).