A new executive order from the White House is pushing to expand telehealth coverage and infrastructure, as well as make health care in rural communities more accessible beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services vastly expanded its Medicare coverage for telehealth visits as part of the White House’s March 13 COVID-19 national […]
President Trump issued an Executive Order (the “Order”) on August 3, 2020, to improve rural health and telehealth access. The Order tasks several federal agencies with developing new programs and plans to address longstanding federal barriers to fuller telehealth access in rural areas, including payments, infrastructure, and policy. According to the Order, the Centers for Medicare and […]
Federal efforts to expand Medicare’s telehealth coverage during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic “played a critical role in helping to maintain access to primary care services,” says a new report from the Health and Human Services Department. The issue brief, released on Tuesday by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and […]
The Secretary of Health and Human Services announced a renewal of the nationwide public health emergency (“PHE”) late on Thursday, July 23, 2020. The announcement came just two days before the then-current PHE designation was set to expire, and will extend the PHE for an additional ninety-day period. The PHE declaration, along with the Stafford […]
It’s hard to find a silver lining in a pandemic. But one of the few may be the rapid rise of telemedicine. With people stuck at home, doctors retooled their practices to see patients via videoconference. Insurance companies and regulators expanded the number of services available via telemedicine—and made reimbursement for telehealth consultations on par […]
Lots of industry groups want to see the temporary government waivers enacted early on during the COVID-19 public health emergency – the ones enabling the vast expansion of telehealth and remote patient monitoring over the past four months – to be made permanent once the storm has subsided. And some legislators do too. But many, […]
Chronic disease management is a health care issue that continues to grow in relevance and importance for patients and their health care providers. An estimated 6 in 10 adults in the U.S. have a chronic disease, and 4 in 10 adults in the U.S. have two or more chronic diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and […]
As most are aware, the telehealth industry has experienced a major expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic. The volume of telehealth claim lines in April 2020 alone reportedly increased more than 8,000% versus April of 2019, based on privately-billed medical and dental claim records alone. In anticipation of this surge and to accommodate it, Congress, the U.S. Department of Health […]
A new task force aims to shine the spotlight on the role that consumer-facing mHealth and telehealth technology can play in tackling pandemics. The Consumer Technology Association today announced the launch of the Public Health Tech Initiative, a collective of more than a dozen healthcare providers and companies – many with a significant connected health footprint […]
Kristine Barrows felt anxious about her visits to Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) in Chicago. Even with a family member behind the wheel, the four-hour round trip from Barrows’ home in Ingalls, Indiana, on top of medical exams and consultations with multiple specialists, left Barrows physically and mentally exhausted. Her anxiety mounted after the […]
THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC has significantly altered the way Massachusetts residents live and work. Our healthcare system also changed nearly overnight as traditional medical groups scrambled to develop capacity to see patients remotely via phone and video visits. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts reported a hundredfold increase in telehealth visits within the first six weeks of the health […]
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alexander Azar renewed the COVID-19 national public health emergency declaration. Azar posted a picture of himself on Twitter signing the renewal July 23 and said that the Trump administration will continue its “whole-of-America” response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. This is good news for primary care physicians who worried […]
As COVID-19 swab (PCR) and blood (antibody) testing continue to occur in greater numbers and diverse settings, it is important to recognize that the results of such tests are subject to HIPAA privacy and security compliance rules. There is a common public misconception that the declaration of a public health emergency has created a broad […]
COVID-19 has dramatically changed the way healthcare is delivered. Providers were forced to pivot quickly from total reliance on “in-person” visits to total reliance on alternative delivery methods. Between early March 2020 and early April 2020, the number of visits to ambulatory practices declined by nearly 60%. [1] While ambulatory visits are starting to rebound, […]
To build upon temporary legislative efforts to address telehealth coverage for COVID-19, multiple states have recently passed or proposed permanent legislation to require broader telehealth reimbursement by both private and public payers to extend beyond the public health emergency. State actions have varied widely in scope and duration, but a major focus of legislation has […]