JAMA Network: Interstate Telemedicine in the Courtroom – Response and Reply Barak Richman, a professor at the Duke Law School, published a viewpoint analysis in August urging for state medical boards to permanently adopt the pandemic flexibilities that supported interstate telemedicine. Charles Kels, senior attorney at the Department of Homeland Security, published a response, [...]
JAMA Network Open: National Telehealth Contingency Staffing Program and Primary Care Quality in the VHA The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) launched the Clinical Resource Hub (CRH), a national telehealth contingency staffing program, to address primary care staffing shortages and improve veteran access to primary care. The study found veterans receiving primary care services through [...]
Frontiers: Addressing Barriers to Equitable Telehealth for Older Adults Aging is associated with the development of chronic conditions and multimorbidity, which led older adults to incur, on average, $5,277 in medical expenses in 2022. Telehealth is a particularly useful tool in helping manage many chronic conditions, particularly when it can be delivered at lower [...]
ASPE: Medicaid Behavioral Health Providers Delivering Most Behavioral Health Services via Telehealth ASPE released a study, which examined the extent to which Medicaid providers who deliver behavioral health services shifted their practices to mostly tele-behavioral health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study found that the proportion of providers who delivered more than 80% [...]
ASPE: Use of Medicare-Covered Telerehabilitation for PT/OT/SLP Services during the COVID-19 PHE ASPE released a study, which examined the extent therapist practices and nursing homes adopted telehealth services for physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), and speech-language pathology (SLP); explored the major challenges and facilitators in adopting telerehabilitation services, and whether these services were [...]
FAIR Health: Telehealth Utilization Decreased Nationally and in Every US Census Region in September According to FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, telehealth utilization decreased nationally and in every US census region in September 2024. Nationally, telehealth claim lines dropped from 4.96 percent of medical claim lines in August to 4.80 percent in September, a [...]
JAMA Network: Primary Care–Based Digital Health–Enabled Stroke Management Intervention In this long-term follow-up of a cluster randomized clinical trial, the 1-year intervention was associated with significantly reduced systolic BP and stroke recurrence at 5.5 years, providing evidence of long-term health and inequity-reducing benefits and holding promise for scaling up of the intervention in resource-limited [...]
Pediatric Emergency Care: Suicide Prevention and Telehealth in Children's Hospital Emergency Departments Emergency department (ED) visits for mental health concerns are rising, and telehealth is increasingly used to provide emergency mental health care. This study aimed to describe suicide prevention practices and tele-mental health care in children's hospital EDs. The study found approximately half [...]
Concord Monitor: Telehealth Prescriptions Should be Available for More Mental Health and Substance Use Patients The New Hampshire Commission to Study Telehealth Services published a report finding that it should be legal for telehealth providers to prescribe certain medications for mental health and substance use disorders without requiring an in-person visit. Data from 2023 [...]
Pediatric Emergency Care: Use of Emergency Telemedicine Physicians for Telephone Triage Disposition of Pediatric Patients This study evaluated pediatric telephone calls to the May Clinic Health System nurse triage line that were directed to the emergency department telemedicine physician from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019. There were 8559 nurse line calls regarding [...]