PYMNTS: Digital Healthcare Use Surged 2.9% in December 2021 on Fears of Omicron According to a survey conducted by PYMNTS, 2.1 million more consumers accessed health care products and services online in December 2021 than they did just one month earlier. Additionally, 2.8 million fewer consumers attended in-person medical appointments in December than in November. [...]
Fierce Healthcare: Cigna Study – Virtual care can reduce unnecessary ER, urgent care visits by 19 percent According to a new study by Cigna, integrating virtual care can save the health care system significant amounts of money and avoid unnecessary visits to the emergency department or urgent care centers. The study found that patients who saw virtual [...]
mHealth Intelligence: ASCO Releases Standards on Using Telehealth for Cancer Care The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) released a series of standards and guidelines on employing virtual care in the oncology setting. The use of telehealth in cancer care increased during the pandemic. As such, ASCO identified the need for detailed oncology-based telehealth standards to ensure [...]
Letter to Congressional Leaders Stresses Urgency of Reinstating Telehealth Safe Harbor Washington, DC – UPDATED - January 21, 2022 – Today, more than 125 organizations sent a letter to Congress to urge policymakers to reinstate the telehealth safe harbor enacted in the CARES Act that enabled employers and health plans to provide pre-deductible coverage [...]
Tufts News: Telehealth Might Be Best as a Supplement to Office Visits, Not a Replacement A new study by Tufts researchers found that, for many older and chronically ill patients, telehealth appointments may be most effective when they augment in-person health care visits rather than fully replacing them. Patients of color disproportionately suffer from chronic kidney [...]
Becker’s Hospital Review: Telehealth increased Black patients’ follow-up visits, study shows According to a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the adoption of telehealth in the beginning of the pandemic led to an increase in Black patients’ completion rates for follow-up visits after hospitalizations. The study found that Black patients’ follow-up completion rates went from 52 [...]
mHealth Intelligence: Telehealth Use Among Medical Groups Peaked in First Half of 2020 According to the 2021 Medical Group Telehealth Survey by AMGA, telehealth utilization peaked in the first half of 2020 and decreased as the year came to a close, with providers predicting that virtual care use would continue to decline in upcoming years. Telehealth utilization [...]
American Medical Association: Three key insights to understand telehealth’s value, and its future The American Medical Association (AMA), in collaboration with Manatt Health, developed the “Return on Health” framework to help organizations realize the value of virtual care beyond the dollars and cents. The framework consists of six value streams that demonstrate ways virtual care [...]