Progressive Policy Institute and Americans for Prosperity: Telehealth Saves Money And Lives: Lessons From The Covid-19 Pandemic Using aggregated, de-identified data from FAIR Health, the organizations’ study found that while telehealth patients’ costs started higher than in-person patients’ costs, the average telehealth patients’ health care costs fell 61%, from $1,099 per month to $425 per [...]
National Association of Community Health Centers: Health Centers Benefit from Pandemic-Era Medicaid Flexibilities As part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act passed last March, states began receiving a 6.2% bump to the federal Medicaid match rate. In exchange for the higher federal funding, states are not allowed to disenroll any beneficiaries from Medicaid during [...]
Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF): 2021 Employer Health Benefits Survey The Kaiser Family Foundation released the 2021 Employer Health Benefits Survey, finding that premiums on employer-sponsored plans rose 4% this year and found significant changes in the provision of telehealth and mental health services by employers. Among firms with at least 50 workers that offer health benefits, [...]
Morning Consult: On-Demand Telehealth Is Booming Even as a Fierce Competitor Remains: the Doctor’s Office A new Morning Consult polling indicates that for now, most adults who use telehealth are sticking with virtual care from their doctors over on-demand services. “People are using their own doctors, and there aren’t these fly-by-night operations setting up to [...]
The Alliance for Connected Care submitted a letter to the Senate Finance Committee providing input into the development of bipartisan legislation to enhance behavioral health and substance use disorder care for all Americans. Our letter includes recommendations to answer the following questions: What policies would encourage greater behavioral health care provider participation in these federal [...]
On November 2, 2021, CMS issued the final Calendar Year 2022 (CY2022) Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), which makes payment and policy changes under Medicare Part B. View a summary produced by the Alliance for Connected Care here. Additional links are provided below: Fact Sheet Final Rule MDPP Fact Sheet CMS Summary Overview of Major Policies [...]
R Street Institute: An Analysis of State and Federal Telehealth Reforms During and Beyond Covid-19 R Street Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization issued a report of the changing trends in telehealth policies during the pandemic and recommends solidifying flexibilities related to audio-only telemedicine services, store-and-forward data services and medical licensure. This report echoes [...]
JAMA: Analysis of Clinician and Patient Factors and Completion of Telemedicine Appointments Using Video – A new research article published by JAMA Network Open, examines the results of a quality improvement study of more than 130,000 scheduled video visits at an academic health system between March 1 and Dec. 31, 2020. Patient characteristics including older age [...]
Center for Connected Health Policy: State Telehealth Laws and Reimbursement Policies – At a Glance (Fall 2021) The Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) released its fall 2021 State Telehealth Laws and Reimbursement Policies At a Glance document, which highlighted several trends in telehealth at the state level over the last several months. All 50 [...]