This is the first of two blogs about the telemedicine provisions in the draft CY2019 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule published last week by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). I’ve summarized below what CMS is proposing, and I will follow up with some thoughts about the implications for telehealth coverage and adoption. Each [...]
Politico | July 16, 2018 Excerpt: The rule won't open the floodgates for telemedicine reimbursement by Medicare. It requires doctors to have a prior relationship with the patient, a limitation criticized by Krista Drobac, executive director of the Alliance for Connected Care. She noted that all states — and the AMA — allow relationships to [...]
Healthcare Informatics | July 16, 2018 Excerpt: The CMS proposal brought a mix of enthusiasm and concerns from groups advocating for greater usage of telehealth. “What they have done is creative and brilliant, and it goes further than CMS has ever gone previously to ensure that seniors have services everyone else in the marketplace has,” [...]
Medical Therapy for Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction: The CHAMP-HF Registry Background: Guidelines strongly recommend patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) be treated with multiple medications proven to improve clinical outcomes, as tolerated. The degree to which gaps in medication use and dosing persist in contemporary outpatient practice is unclear. Objectives: [...]
Over the past several weeks, the House of Representatives passed 58 opioid-related bills. The Senate is in the midst of considering their own legislation. The intent of congressional leaders in both chambers is to reconcile these legislative packages and send a final bill to the President this year. This effort is key to solving a [...]
BMC Health Serv Res: The impact of telehealth remote patient monitoring on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials Background: There is a growing body of evidence to support the use of telehealth in monitoring HbA1c levels in people living with type 2 diabetes. However, [...]
Older adults with complex care needs want to live as independently as they can for as long as they can, and limit stress on family caregivers. Telehealth strategies offer the potential to improve access to care and the quality of care, while reducing strain on family caregivers. For health care systems, home telehealth may help [...]
A trends report analyzing place of service found that telehealth service use increased substantially from 2011 to 2016. For example, telehealth use increased 960% in rural areas, 629% in urban areas and 643% nationally. The results also showed that mental health was the number one telehealth-related diagnostic category and accounted for 31% of telehealth claim line distribution [...]