Telehealth News and Market Developments
The Washington Post: As Student Mental Health Needs Soar, Schools Turn to Telehealth (12/9) - A growing number of public schools across the country are turning to telehealth therapy for students when the demand for aid has spiked and the supply of practitioners has not. To pay for these remote services, some schools are using federal COVID relief money, as studies show rising depression, anxiety, and suspected suicide attempts among adolescents. The big question for some districts is what to do when their federal relief money runs out in the next couple of years — and whether they will find other dollars for telehealth.
Health Leaders: New Program to Use Telehealth Platform for Cancer Care Management (12/8) - Alliance for Connected Care Advisory Board member Cancer Support Community is partnering with Equiva Health on a program to equip rural residents living with cancer with a cellular-enabled tablet that gives them access to resources and care providers. Rural residents living with cancer have a higher mortality rate than those living in urban areas, according to research, often because they can't easily access health care. The project is one of many using digital health and telehealth to improve care management for people living with cancer, especially those in underserved locations or communities.
Forbes: How Remote Primary Care Can Close the Home Health Care Delivery Gap (12/8) - Virtual care has made strides toward public adoption, accelerated by COVID-19 when remote care suddenly became an attractive, and sometimes the only, option for receiving care in the most convenient, desirable location – the home. But while virtual care technology exists and is widely known, there is a major delivery gap between how virtual health care is being deployed and utilized in the home and how it should be used to help health care organizations meet their goals of reducing the cost of care while delivering the best possible care for patients. Health plans and providers should look for solutions that enable them to facilitate comparable care to in-person care.
The Cheyenne Post: Telehealth Training to Provide Job Opportunities in Growing Sector (12/8) - Laramie County Community College has created a Telehealth Coordinator Training course, which prepares students to lead the implementation of telehealth services in health care. The training is a 16-week online course that results in certification, will provide a comprehensive review of the clinical, operational, regulatory and ethics of telehealth service delivery. Students will learn core concepts to support the implementation of telehealth projects and engage in the use of telehealth technologies for health care delivery.
Healthline: Telehealth Programs Combine Coaching with Semaglutide for Greater Success (12/8) - Calibrate, a telehealth company, has devised a program addressing the physical and mental aspects of sustainable weight loss. The company takes a multi-pronged approach to weight loss by offering one-to-one coaching sessions with an obesity doctor and a weight loss coach, and prescribing GLP-1s, a kind of medication that’s said to curb cravings and make you feel fuller faster.
Politico Pro: Telehealth Access for Some Insurance Plan Subscribers Could Get More Expensive in January (12/7) - Efforts to extend a law expanding access to telehealth for the more than 30 million Americans with high-deductible health plans coupled with a health savings account (HDHP-HSAs) have hit a snag in the House Ways and Means Committee. If Congress doesn’t act, health plans and employers wouldn’t be able to cover telehealth visits before patients with these plans hit their deductibles after December 31, 2022. Congress first allowed insurers to cover pre-deductible virtual visits in the March 2020 via the CARES Act to help people see their doctors during the pandemic. Democrats view extending the policy as a Republican ask and want new funding for climate-change resiliency for health care institutions in return. Telehealth policy advocates are now asking lawmakers to sign a letter endorsing the extension to build pressure for extending the policy.
Mount Sinai Health System New Mount Sinai Program Offers Telehealth for Non-Urgent Ambulance Calls (12/7) - Mount Sinai Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is leading new program that will provide telehealth options for patients who make 911 ambulance calls for non-urgent medical conditions. The new telehealth program, part of the federal Emergency Triage, Treat, and Transport (ET3) pilot, aims to provide an alternative solution through telehealth. Under the Mount Sinai ET3 telehealth program, the initial steps will take place as usual. This involves a patient calling 911, followed by emergency medical technicians (EMTs) arriving and performing a patient assessment. If they conclude there is no need for emergency care, EMTs will remain on site and use tablets to connect to the command center. Then the patient will be connected virtually with an emergency medicine provider. For additional information, see mHealth Intelligence.
Medical Economics: Medical Groups Make Push for Primary Care in Washington (12/7) - Alliance Advisory Board member the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and six medical organizations are making final pushes on matters that would help primary care next year, including telehealth. In this interview, AAFP President Tochi Iroku-Malize discussed critical legislation and policies before next year. Specifically, AAFP recommends Congress extend current Medicare telehealth flexibilities though at least December 31, 2024, including coverage for audio-only services. Additionally, they call for additional studies of telehealth utilization to assess how the policy changes that have occurred during the pandemic have impacted access to clinical care.
Healthcare IT News: At Children’s Mercy, Telemedicine Boosts Access to Highly Sought-After Subspecialists (12/7) - Children's Mercy Kansas City has been improving outcomes and saving costs on care across a vast rural landscape. Because of the distance barrier to care and recognizing that the value telemedicine can help achieve the Triple Aim goals of improving specialist access, quality of care and affordability, Children's Mercy Kansas City began to identify telemedicine and technology options to treat patients across the regions served. BSN and RN tele-facilitators trained in multiple specialty assessments support the patients in person and the providers located in Kansas City to ensure that the standards of care are met (up to level 5 clinical encounters) for these complex appointments.
PR Newswire: U.S. Health Care Price Index Shows Medical Care Prices Have Dropped for Fifth Consecutive Month (12/7) - The latest U.S. Health Care Price Index report shows that nationally, the price for a primary care telehealth visit decreased by 8.1 percent from July to November. The report also found that the price of a mental health consult in America had been rising steadily since May 2022 and reached its peak in September 2022. In just two months' time (October-November 2022), national average prices for mental health services decreased by 8 percent, making it more affordable for Americans to seek treatment, at just $44.36 for an appointment in November.
Healthcare IT News: University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Proves Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) Virtual Sitting is as Effective as In-Person Care (12/6) - UMass Memorial Health has leveraged technology as a means of augmenting in-person care at the bedside. Launched in 2006, its tele-ICU program remotely monitors more than 150 adult critical care beds across Central Massachusetts. With the experience gained and quality outcomes demonstrated, the health system decided to take a similar approach in lower-acuity care settings that still required direct, continuous observation of at-risk patients via RPM. Staff initially started with a three-to-one patient ratio and gradually increased to six-to-one, ultimately with an additional six patients monitored as backup for another virtual sitter. In the first year of operation, the remote team logged more than 100,000 interventions through the iObserver system.
PR Newswire: New Telemedicine Partnership Provides Revolutionary Health Care Access to People with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities (IDD) (12/5) - People with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities (IDD) tend to have more complex medical needs, are subject to significant health disparities, and experience poorer health outcomes. Traditionally, they've required more emergency care and are more likely than the general population to experience adverse complications or death while hospitalized. To combat this, IntellectAbility has partnered with StationMD to use its Health Risk Screening Tool (HRST) to provide specialized, remote care to people with IDD by empowering providers with vital health risk management data.
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