Foley & Lardner LLP: 2024 50-State Telehealth Survey Foley & Lardner LLP released the third edition of its 50-State Survey of Telehealth Insurance Laws, which provides a detailed report on each state’s telehealth commercial insurance coverage and payment/reimbursement laws and compares these laws before and after the Public Health Emergency (PHE). Notable changes from pre-PHE to post-PHE include: Additional restrictions on exclusive telehealth platform arrangements allow clinics and hospitals to make individual decisions that best suit their patients; Audio-only, or phone call, coverage becomes a permanent fixture, helping people in rural areas to receive care; Payment parity (reimbursing at [...]

HealthAffairs: Remote Physiologic Monitoring Use Among Medicaid Population Increased, 2019–21 Remote physiologic monitoring use increased more than 1,300 percent from 2019 to 2021, and use varied by state. Remote physiologic monitoring facilitates the use of technologies, including wearable devices and mobile applications, to transmit health data such as heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen levels directly to providers. Asynchronous remote monitoring may be particularly beneficial to patients who are at high risk for complex medical problems, who have significant barriers to accessing in-person care, or who have greater disease burden. The findings suggest that states with documented remote physiologic monitoring [...]

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): Behavioral Health Among Older Adults SAMHSA released an infographic report highlighting substance use and mental health indicators among older adults aged 60 or older in the United States. Notably, the report includes telehealth in SAMHSA’s definitions of substance use treatment and mental health treatment.

Harvard Medical School: What Are the Most Popular Video-Based Medical Visits? Researchers analyzed more than 277 million visits within the Veterans Affairs Health Care System from January 2019 to August 2023. Scientists found that video-based visits remain close to the peak pandemic level of about 12 percent, which is a 2,300 percent increase from the prepandemic level. As of August 2023, video appointments made up about 4 percent of specialist visits, 4 percent of primary care visits, and 35 percent of mental health care encounters.

Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Improving Cardiovascular Health in Rural United States: Role of Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) Telemedicine enables patients to connect with clinicians without driving to a physical location, an attractive option for rural patients with long travel distances. Telemedicine offers the potential for rural residents to receive specialized care from cardiologists and other subspecialists that would otherwise not be available. AMCs and other major health systems have the resources to collaborate with rural health systems to implement telemedicine on a wider scale than each could do individually. Researchers call to action for AMCs and large [...]