medicare

JAMA Network Open: Utilization and Spending on Mental Health Services Among Children and Youths With Commercial Insurance Pediatric telehealth for mental health needs filled a critical deficit in the immediate period following the emergence of COVID-19, and continues to account for a substantial portion of pediatric mental health service utilization. Supported by evidence that telehealth [...]

JD Power: Telehealth Mobile Apps: Preferred Channel for Virtual Care Delivery Telehealth continues to enjoy elevated popularity thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth received higher marks for satisfaction with the clinicians patients interact with and for patients feeling their needs are met during a visit. The study found that ease of access is the primary reason [...]

KeyCare: Consumers Prefer Telehealth Over In-office Visits for Routine Care, Medication Refills & Behavioral Health According to a survey from KeyCare, consumers continue to express a strong preference for telehealth over in-office care for several types of visits. the majority reported participating in multiple telehealth visits over the prior year and shared that their favorite aspects [...]

Peterson-KFF: Private Insurer Payments for Telehealth and In-Person During the Pandemic Telehealth use surged with the COVID-19 pandemic as patients sought access to services while providers implemented social distancing protocols. Early in the pandemic, many payers eased restrictions on the use of telehealth and increased reimbursement rates to encourage its use. Among providers who offered [...]

Milbank Memorial Fund: Assessing the Impact of Medicaid Telehealth Policy Change on Equitable Access to Telehealth Services in North Carolina  Telehealth offer rates and use in North Carolina Medicaid varied by race and ethnicity during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic despite more flexible policies and digital infrastructure investments in rural areas. Improving equitable [...]

The Permanente Journal: Benefits and Challenges of Remote Patient Monitoring as Perceived by Health Care Practitioners: A Systematic Review  Remote patient monitoring (RPM), or telemonitoring, offers ways for health care practitioners to gather real-time information on the physiological conditions of patients. As telemedicine, and thus telemonitoring, is becoming increasingly relevant in today’s society, understanding the [...]

Kaiser Permanente: Most Telehealth Users Are Interested in Using It Again  A survey of 1,000 Kaiser Permanente Northern California patients who used a phone or video visit to see their primary care doctor in 2020 found that most were satisfied with their visit, and two-thirds are interested in using telemedicine again. The survey, published in [...]

Vermont Department of Health: Suicide Data-Linkage Project The Vermont Department of Health released a report, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which documented the statistics and put forward recommendations for trying to reduce the upward trend of suicide in Vermont. About 76 percent had health insurance and had seen a [...]

California Health Care Foundation: Telehealth Use and Experiences Among California Adults  California’s Medi-Cal program is leveraging telehealth to meet patient needs. Many of the telehealth coverage and reimbursement flexibilities enacted during the pandemic were made permanent in 2022, including payment parity for services provided in person or by telehealth. This issue brief uses data from [...]

FAIR Health: Nationwide Telehealth Use Held Steady in June According to Fair Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, telehealth sessions comprised 5.4 percent of claim lines in June, the same amount as the prior month. Mental health conditions continued to top the list of Fair Health’s five most common telehealth diagnoses for June. The median allowed amount [...]