September 16 - 18
Telehealth News
- JDSUPRA August 19, 2024 Trending in Telehealth: July 30 – August 12, 2024 Trending in Telehealth highlights state legislative and regulatory developments that impact the healthcare providers, telehealth and digital health companies, pharmacists and technology companies that deliver and facilitate the delivery of virtual care.
- HealthcareITNews August 19, 2024 AI-powered RPM boosts care for chronic conditions while saving costs Artificial intelligence is helping improve remote patient monitoring technology, with especially promising applications focused on diabetes. One CEO discusses the quality and cost-efficiency promise of "the next generation of remote care."
- JDSUPRA August 16, 2024 CMS Rules Propose Changes Regarding the Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program, Refundable Drugs, Skin Supplements and More; Comments Due September 9 On July 31, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published its mammoth proposed rule entitled “Medicare and Medicaid Programs: Calendar Year 2025 Payment Policies under the Physician Fee Schedule and Other Changes to Part B Payment and Coverage Policies; Medicare Shared Savings Program Requirements; Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program; and Medicare Overpayments” (“CY25 PFS Proposed Rule”).
- HealthcareITNews August 16, 2024 Mental health provider drastically reduces chart audit time with help from AI Cerebral has decreased time spent on audits by 78% and has seen an even bigger improvement in meeting critical insurance criteria. The technology offers precise data feedback that could be missed in manual auditing, an exec says.
- HealthcareITNews August 14, 2024 Digital intake and scheduling scores big results for Posterity Health With the digital intake process, 70% of patients now complete their intake forms within 10 minutes. This efficiency has saved staff approximately 10 minutes per appointment, allowing them to focus more on patient care rather than paperwork.
- TechTarget/xtelligent Virtual Healthcare August 14, 2024 Telehealth use spikes with dementia patients during pandemic Telehealth use surged among dementia patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, with various social determinants influencing utilization, per recent research.
- TechTarget/xtelligent Virtual Healthcare August 12, 2024 Deploying telehealth for equitable hypertension management Massachusetts public health officials detail the implementation of a telehealth-based hypertension management program that improves outcomes among underserved groups.
- TechTarget/xtelligent Virtual Healthcare August 8, 2024 Employing telehealth to boost maternal health equity UC Davis Health is using telehealth to improve postpartum visit attendance among Black people, thereby enhancing maternal health equity and closing care gaps.
- TechTarget/xtelligent Virtual Healthcare August 7, 2024 Lack of telehealth services hurts rural hospital finances Rural hospitals are losing patients to urban hospitals that provide telehealth, resulting in negative financial repercussions, a new study shows.
- HealthcareITNews August 6, 2024 The growing practice of prescribing medical devices via telemedicine UpScriptHealth specializes in this approach to virtual care, including for female pelvic health and opioid withdrawal symptoms. Its founder talks about how this form of telehealth can boost outcomes and help fill gaps caused by specialist shortages.
- TechTarget/xtelligent Virtual Healthcare August 1, 2024 Telehealth offsets primary care visit declines but not equally Telehealth's ability to offset primary care visit declines varied across patient characteristics, with some groups still experiencing large drops in visit volumes.
- CCHP July 30, 2024 Interstate Licensure Compacts: Updates & Overview On July 16, 2024, at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) National Telehealth Conference, a new investment into the multi-state social work licensure compact was announced.
- TechTarget July 30, 2024 GP digital tools could cause patients harm, says report Investigation by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body finds some online tools used in general practices could cause risk to patient safety and impact GP workload.
- TechTarget July 29, 2024 NIH study reveals pitfalls of AI in clinical decision-making GPT-4V scored highly on the 'New England Journal of Medicine's' Image Challenge, but made mistakes when tasked with explaining its reasoning and describing medical images.
- Foley & Lardner LLP July 29, 2024 Substance Use Disorder Treatment Services: 2025 Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule Would Expand Access and Medicare Coverage On July 10, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule (Proposed Rule) for the calendar year 2025. The Proposed Rule would implement certain provisions of the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act (SUPPORT Act) and proposes new payment policies relating to Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) treatment. Since enactment of the SUPPORT Act in 2018, CMS has consistently implemented reforms and added covered substance use disorder (SUD) treatment services through its annual update to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
- TechTarget July 25, 2024 HHS reorganizes for coordination across health data policy The HHS reorganization aims to improve coordination for strategy and policy across health data, cybersecurity, AI and technology as digital health transformation progresses.
- CCHP July 23, 2024 POS 10 Non-Facility Rate: Payment & Modifiers Clarification Given the robust amount of content provided in the CCHP newsletter last week (July 16, 2024 edition), some readers may have missed a Change Request to the CMS Manual System issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in June that went into effect July 8, 2024. Change Request 13582, Billing and Payment for Telehealth Services with Place of Service (POS) 10 was directed at the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC).
- CCHP July 18, 2024 Proposed CY 2025 Physician Fee Schedule On July 10, 2024, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released their proposed Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) for CY 2025. Each year the PFS contains new or updated policies which CMS will be adopting for Medicare in the following year. Generally, each PFS contains items that will impact telehealth, and with December 31, 2024 as the current end date to the COVID-19 telehealth policy waivers (see CCHP’s Medicare 101 page), many have been waiting to see what the agency will be proposing for 2025. At this time, these are only proposals. The public has until 5:00 pm (no time zone given) September 9, 2024 to provide comments to CMS regarding these proposed policies.
- POLITICO July 17, 2024 The cost of Congress’ telehealth waffling Congress is taking its time to decide whether Medicare should permanently pay for telehealth. The Bipartisan Policy Center says that’s a mistake. The think tank’s new policy report advises legislators to adopt a long-term Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement strategy that gives providers reason to invest in the service.
- POLITICO July 17, 2024 The cost of Congress’ telehealth waffling Congress is taking its time to decide whether Medicare should permanently pay for telehealth. The Bipartisan Policy Center says that’s a mistake. The think tank’s new policy report advises legislators to adopt a long-term Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement strategy that gives providers reason to invest in the service.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE July 16, 2024 Out-of-pocket payment deters telemental healthcare use New study results imply that if the HDHP exemption enabling predeductible telehealth coverage expires at the end of the year, telemental health use may decline.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE July 16, 2024 Telehealth use rose 2.7% nationally in April but fell in 3 US regions Even as telehealth use fluctuates, telemental healthcare remains popular, with mental health conditions encompassing 69 percent of telehealth claim lines nationally.
- JDSUPRA July 16, 2024 CMS Proposes to Extend Virtual Direct Supervision On July 10, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed to extend virtual direct supervision—i.e., the ability to provide direct supervision through real-time, audio-visual technology (rather than in-person presence)—through December 31, 2025, and to permanently allow virtual direction supervision for a subset of “incident to” services.
- HeathcareITNews July 15, 2024 Remote patient monitoring reduces blood pressure for patients in New York State Erie County Medical Center Corporation's RPM initiative has been successful in "improving health outcomes and reducing the risks associated with hypertension," says its VP of population health.
- JDSUPRA July 12, 2024 Trending in Telehealth: July 2 – 8, 2024 Trending in Telehealth highlights state legislative and regulatory developments that impact the healthcare providers, telehealth and digital health companies, pharmacists and technology companies that deliver and facilitate the delivery of virtual care.
- FIERCEHealthcare July 11, 2024 CMS proposes new payments for digital health under CY2025 PFS draft rule The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS') proposed calendar year 2025 physician fee schedule rule, out Wednesday, proposed an assortment of new payments and coverage for digital health services, including digital therapeutics, telehealth and audio-only telehealth services. It did not, however, address the bulk of Medicare telehealth waivers expiring at the end of the year, which need to be extended by Congress.
- FORBES July 11, 2024 The Vital Need To Extend Pandemic-Era Telemedicine Waivers The pandemic catalyzed a shift in healthcare delivery, rapidly expanding telemedicine services to ensure patients could access essential care safely. While the pandemic has waned and public emergency declarations have ended, telemedicine waivers have survived, and it has become urgent to maintain them.
- FIERCEHealthcare July 10, 2024 CMS' proposed 2.8% physician pay decrease for CY2025 earns quick condemnation from docs The Biden administration is proposing a 2.8% decrease to physician payments in its newly released pay proposal for physicians, drawing near-immediate protest from the industry.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE July 10, 2024 Telemental health service availability declined post-PHE After the public health emergency ended in May 2023, the proportion of mental health facilities offering telehealth services fell, new research reveals.
- FIERCEHealthcare July 9, 2024 Telemental health visits decline when cost-sharing returns, new study finds In a study published in JAMA Network Open on Tuesday, Included Health and Harvard Medical School found that patients in high deductible health plans are less likely to seek virtual behavioral healthcare when costs are re-introduced.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE July 9, 2024 Americans embrace hospital-at-home care & associated caregiving tasks Survey results show that more than half of US adults find hospital-at-home care effective and safe, and most said they can perform the caregiving tasks required.
- CCHP July 9, 2024 The Latest in Licensure Provider licensure exceptions particular to the use of telehealth across state lines continues to be a popular issue area for those reaching out to CCHP for technical assistance. Questions are received from providers and patients alike, and often providers ask for a list of specific states that currently allow out-of-state providers to deliver care via telehealth to in-state patients for their specific profession. In this week’s write up, we would like to drill down on this area of telehealth policy in the hopes of painting a clearer picture.
- HeathcareITNews July 8, 2024 How AI transcription, integrated with telehealth tools, can boost care quality A CEO who specializes in this combination reveals how artificial intelligence has the ability to help analyze and summarize key virtual care consultation points, detect patterns in patient data to deliver more personalized care, and much more.
- HeathcareITNews July 5, 2024 Queensland Virtual Hospital to offer emergency care and more briefs Also, My Emergency Doctor has adopted InterSystems' cloud-based integration engine to offer improved systems interoperability.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE July 3, 2024 Telehealth abortions without in-person ultrasound is safe, effective Research highlights the safety and efficacy of telehealth abortions, where patients do not receive an in-person ultrasound and get their medications via the mail.
- FOLEY & LARDNER, LLP July 2, 2024 HIPAA: Amendments to Protect Reproductive Health Care Information Can Now be Implemented with OCR’s Final Rule HIPAA regulated entities may now begin implementing the amendments to the HIPAA Privacy Rule to provide additional protections for reproductive health care information issued by the Office for Civil Rights Department of Health and Human Services (OCR) earlier this year. HIPAA regulated entities are not required to comply with the new requirements until December 23, 2024 (with a later compliance date for the required changes to the Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP)). However, the message from OCR is that HIPAA regulated entities are encouraged to begin implementing the changes on June 25, 2024, the effective date of the final rule.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE July 2, 2024 Home heart hospital linked to enhanced outcomes, lower costs Hospital-level care provided at home reduced hospitalizations, lengths of stay, and costs among high-need cardiovascular disease patients, research shows.
- HeathcareITNews July 1, 2024 Emory Healthcare scores with an 'Uber app' for at-home PT Patients who otherwise wouldn't have used the health system's physical therapy services because of geographic distance are now staying in-network. The technology also has boosted Emory's value-based care efforts.
- HealthcareITNews June 27, 2024 'When in doubt, include the nursing informatics team' That's the advice of CoxHealth Chief Nursing Information Officer Summer Blackerby, RN, who discusses the value of nursing IT experts, and highlights technologies that provide care beyond the bedside, streamline nursing workflows and more.
- HealthcareITNews June 27, 2024 MBS review wants to retain first video telehealth consult with specialists The committee also suggested bringing back subsidized GP telephone consultations for chronic disease management and patient end-support.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE June 26, 2024 Teleneurology acceptable among veterans with varying conditions New research reveals teleneurology was acceptable among veterans regardless of neurological condition, with higher comorbidity linked to higher acceptability.
- CCHP June 25, 2024 FRAUD IS FRAUD So, Don’t Blame Telehealth On June 13th the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a federal health care fraud indictment against the founder and CEO of Done Global Inc., as well as the company’s clinical president, alleging the individuals were conspiring to commit health care fraud, amongst other charges.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE June 25, 2024 Cancer patient safety, satisfaction high with virtual radiation care Research reveals that telehealth-enabled radiation oncology treatment resulted in high patient satisfaction and bolstered patient safety.
- HealthcareITNews June 24, 2024 OSF deploys care transition program, reduces readmission rate from 29% to 9% The sophisticated program employing patient monitoring, patient tracking and reporting technologies also has enhanced patient follow-up and engagement and yielded a big win on overall healthcare delivery.
- CCHP June 18, 2024 THE AFFORDABLE CONNECTIVITY PROGRAM Access Continues to be Problematic: The End of ACP On May 31, 2024, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) which provided subsidies to households for broadband connectivity ended due to lack of additional funding. Under the program, eligible households received up to $30 per month for internet services and $75 per month for households on Tribal lands.
- FIERCEHealthcare June 17, 2024 Carter optimistic House committees will come to agreement on telehealth extension negotiation The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health voted to pass a two-year Medicare telehealth extension on Thursday along with other legislation that expands reimbursement for health tech.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE June 14, 2024 Nurse phone calls enhance home BP telemonitoring for minority groups Home telemonitoring was more effective in reducing BP among low-income racial minority groups when nurse care management was added, research shows.
- FIERCEHealthcare June 14, 2024 Drug Enforcement Administration sends second attempt at a telehealth prescribing rule to executive budget office The Drug Enforcement Administration’s long-awaited second attempt at a telemedicine prescribing rule has been handed off to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE June 13, 2024 84% of US adults would participate in hospital-at-home programs A new survey shows that most Americans are open to hospital-at-home programs, citing the convenience and comfort of being at home as the reason for participating.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE June 13, 2024 84% of US adults would participate in hospital-at-home programs A new survey shows that most Americans are open to hospital-at-home programs, citing the convenience and comfort of being at home as the reason for participating.
- Congresswoman Michelle Steel June 12, 2024 Steel Proposal to Reduce Health Care Barriers Passes Energy and Commerce Committee WASHINGTON, D.C.-The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has passed Rep. Michelle Steel’s Supporting Patient Education and Knowledge (SPEAK) Act, which directs the Department of Health and Human Services to develop best practices for removing barriers to telehealth for patients with limited English proficiency. The SPEAK passed with wide bipartisan support and will now move to the House floor for passage.
- CCHP June 11, 2024 Senate Finance Committee Weighs Telehealth Solutions to Combat Fentanyl Crisis and Improve Behavioral Health Services The Senate Committee on Finance recently convened a hearing to discuss measures to combat the fentanyl crisis, with a significant focus on the role of telehealth in behavioral health services. Committee members and witnesses emphasized the benefits of telehealth for addiction treatment and advocated for policies that support its integration into mainstream healthcare.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE June 7, 2024 Virtual-first cardiometabolic programs improve clinical outcomes New research reveals that virtual-first programs improved cardiometabolic health metrics, estimating thousands in cost savings if the improvements are sustained.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE June 6, 2024 43% of mental health visits occurred via telehealth in 2021 Mental healthcare remained a top use case for telehealth in 2021, even as telehealth utilization declined from pandemic highs, new research shows.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE June 5, 2024 Digital engagement approach lowers healthcare worker anxiety, depression The digital strategy reminded healthcare workers about the availability of a mental health platform, which helped improve depression and anxiety, a study shows.
- CCHP June 4, 2024 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TELETHERAPY AND PLATFORM THERAPY A recent Data & Society research report titled, “Doing the Work: The Future of Therapeutic Labor, Teletherapy, and the Platformization of Mental Health Care”, provides interesting insights from the provider perspective regarding direct-to-consumer (DTC) telehealth, or as referred to in the report, platform therapy.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE June 4, 2024 Telehealth curbs cancer care-related greenhouse gas emissions New research shows that telehealth can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with cancer care, including driving to in-person clinic appointments.
- HealthcareITNews June 3, 2024 How to navigate the risks of remote patient monitoring A risk management expert offers perspective on shoring up data security, preventing misdiagnosis and avoiding overreliance on RPM.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 31, 2024 Virtual consults boost PCP comfort in providing gender-affirming care Consultive support provided via virtual care modalities made pediatric primary care physicians more comfortable caring for gender-diverse youth.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 30, 2024 Rural-urban telehealth divide evident among privately insured Americans Telehealth use increased significantly among Americans with private insurance after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the rural-urban divide remained.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 30, 2024 RPM use soars by more than 1,300% within Medicaid population The meteoric rise in RPM use among Medicaid patients during the pandemic was due to a small number of providers and female and chronic disease patients.
- HealthcareITNews May 24, 2024 By outfitting police with telehealth iPads, mental health program saves government $62M Officers in Oklahoma can contact mental health professionals from their vehicles, avoiding ER visits and other risks. In the counties served by the virtual care program, there has been a 93.1% reduction in hospitalizations for mental health crises.
- HealthcareITNews May 24, 2024 HIMSSCast: Home health challenges offset by creating patient and caregiver communities One technology that's reduced both loneliness and hospitalizations has been the creation of an interactive TV studio.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 23, 2024 Telehealth may increase Medicare patient hospitalizations, costs New research shows Medicare patient outcomes, including potentially preventable hospitalizations and total care costs, may worsen with higher telehealth use.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 20, 2024 Audio-only telehealth use on the decline among Medicare patients Audio-only telehealth utilization has declined among Medicare beneficiaries, but underserved groups remain frequent users of the modality, new research shows.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 20, 2024 Most patients prefer physician’s office backgrounds during video visits Video visit patients indicated a strong preference for physician’s office backgrounds over kitchen and bedroom backgrounds, research shows.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 16, 2024 Telehealth-enabled acute care does not drive in-person follow-ups Research shows that synchronous telehealth services for acute care needs did not result in high rates of in-person follow-ups in the month after the virtual visit.
- FIERCEHealthcare May 15, 2025 House Energy and Commerce Committee presents own 2-year telehealth extension, with more rural health wins The House Energy and Commerce Committee released telehealth extension legislation today that will be voted on during a health subcommittee markup Thursday. The markup will also include bills to change billing requirements for remote patient monitoring, expand the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program to virtual-only providers and to prevent fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 15, 2024 Telehealth accounted for nearly 1 in 5 abortions in December 2023 Despite total and near-total abortion bans in several states, abortions remain consistently elevated due in part to an increase in telehealth abortions, data shows.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 14, 2024 State adoption of telehealth payment parity has grown but still varies The House Energy and Commerce Committee released telehealth extension legislation today that will be voted on during a health subcommittee markup Thursday. The markup will also include bills to change billing requirements for remote patient monitoring, expand the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program to virtual-only providers and to prevent fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 13, 2024 Limited English proficiency patients have worse video visit experiences Patients with limited English proficiency are less likely to report telehealth use and more likely to rate video visits as worse than in-person care, research shows.
- FIERCEHealthcare May 13, 2024 Survey: Here's how the legal landscape for telehealth insurance coverage has changed since 2019 Popular digital health law firm Foley & Lardner released a new state survey of telehealth insurance laws that tracks the changes in the legal landscape from 2019, before the COVID-19 public health emergency, until April 2024.
- HealthcareITNews May 13, 2024 How teleradiology can spur innovative new treatments while helping with the staffing crisis A physician expert offers a look at the role virtual imaging can play in helping advance nuclear medicine expertise, driving progress in radiopharmaceuticals and enabling an expected surge in the medical isotope market driven by targeted cancer treatment.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 10, 2024 Healthcare organizations plan to expand telespecialty, virtual sitting In a KLAS report, health organizations described the virtual care solutions with the broadest use cases across their enterprises and the areas they plan to expand.
- HealthcareITNews May 10, 2024 Attendees report in on 'next chapter in virtual care' at ATA conferences Four telehealth experts discuss the roles of AI, collaboration, hybrid care, regulation and more as presented at this week's American Telemedicine Association annual conference.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 9, 2024 House committee advances bill extending telehealth, HaH flexibilities The House Ways and Means Committee marked up a bill that would extend virtual care flexibilities for two years past its current expiration date.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 7,2024 Text, phone-based virtual care boosts maternal mental health screening New research reveals that a text message and telephone-based virtual care approach can improve rates of screening, identification, and treatment of maternal mental health conditions.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 3,2024 House reps introduce bills to make telehealth flexibilities permanent Two bills recently introduced in the House aim to permanently extend rural telehealth access and expand the list of practitioners able to provide virtual care.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE May 1, 2024 Telehealth interventions enhance post-abdominal surgery outcomes A systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 studies revealed that telehealth interventions can reduce readmissions and ED visits.
- HealthcareITNews May 1, 2024 Telemedicine, enabled with responsible AI, can improve the patient experience By using artificial intelligence to analyze patient data and provide targeted recommendations, health systems can build a more intuitive, user-friendly experience that empowers patients to make informed decisions about their care, one expert says.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE April 16, 2024 VR therapy mitigates pain for hospitalized cancer patients New research reveals that an immersive VR experience reduced cancer-related pain more significantly than a two-dimensional experience provided via a tablet.
- MedCityNews April 16, 2024 AHIP, AMA, NAACOS Release Playbook for Value-Based Care AHIP, the AMA and NAACOS released a playbook last week that provides the best practices for value-based care. It is based on experiences from physicians, value-based care entities and payers.
- mHEALTHINTELLIGENCE April 16, 2024 Mental health conditions remain top telehealth diagnosis nationwide FAIR Health data shows that mental health conditions topped the telehealth diagnosis list in January, accounting for 66.3 percent of telehealth claim lines
- CCHP April 16, 2024 An update on NEW JERSEY TELEMEDICINE LICENSURE COURT CASE In the January 23, 2024 edition of CCHP’s In Focus, we reported on a lawsuit filed late last year in the US District Court for New Jersey