The Alliance for Connected Care joined a letter this week to Senate HELP Chair Murray and Ranking Member Blunt requesting funding support for the Telehealth Resource Centers (TRC) program in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This increase in funding would provide a critical [...]
American Medical Association: Survey shows video telehealth’s broad reach 6 months into pandemic The AMA Physician Practice Benchmark Survey—which focuses on practice arrangements and payment methodologies of post-residency physicians found that telehealth use by physicians skyrocketed from 25 percent in 2018 to almost 80 percent in 2020. Furthermore, almost 85 percent of psychiatrists connected with the [...]
The Alliance for Connected Care submitted comments on the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Proposed Rule for calendar year (CY) 2022, which includes several important reforms with respect to telehealth. The Alliance applauds the proposal to retain all Category 3 telehealth codes through the end of Calendar Year (CY) 2023 to provide an opportunity [...]
University of Michigan: Tele-psychiatry a resounding success in 5-year trial A five-year study published in JAMA Psychiatry found that telepsychiatry in rural, federally qualified health centers was a resounding success for patients who had screened positive for bipolar disorder and/or post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly known as PTSD. The trial, called The Study to Promote Innovation in Rural [...]
Mercer: 2021 Health on Demand Delivering the benefits employees want now A new report from employee benefits consultancy Mercer finds 73 percent of employees used telemedicine or other digital health solutions. Furthermore, more than three-quarters (77%) of individuals who used telemedicine or digital healthcare for the first time said they intent to keep using it, and 84 [...]
Healthcare Dive: Telehealth claims drop to lowest level since before pandemic, Fair Health finds According to new data from Fair Health, telehealth claim lines as a percentage of all medical claims dropped 10 percent from May to June, despite a month of stability. Virtual care claims fell from five percent of all medical claims in May to [...]
University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation: An evaluation of telehealth use by Medicare beneficiaries in 2020 This policy brief examined national Medicare claims data to better understand whether the use of telehealth led to an increase in the overall volume of outpatient evaluation and management (E&M) services delivered to Medicare beneficiaries. The [...]
mHealth Intelligence: Mayo Clinic RPM Model Improves Outcomes for Acute COVID-19 Treatment According to a study by Mayo Clinic, remote patient monitoring programs are safe, feasible, and yield positive health outcomes for acute COVID-19 treatment. The health system expanded its multi-state RPM program during the pandemic to treat patients with the virus at home, adapting an original RPM [...]
Healthcare Dive: Hospital telehealth leveling off at one-fifth of medical appointments, research finds A new survey from KLAS Research and the Center for Connected Medicine found that the use of telehealth for patient visits seems to have leveled off at 20 percent or fewer of all appointments. Over 80 percent of hospital executive respondents to the survey, [...]