Telehealth News and Market Developments
mHealth Intelligence: Cincinnati Children’s Integrates Telehealth Into Suicide Prevention Study (7/2) – Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center are using a nearly $8 million in funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to examine how connected health tools and platforms might be used to enhance or improve treatment options for adolescents with suicidal thoughts.
Politico: Virtual care becomes a common cause in a divided Congress (6/30) – Lawmakers are lining up to decide what Medicare will pay for after the pandemic is over, with sponsors of a leading Senate plan confident they have the votes to include it in a must-pass piece of legislation this year. Telehealth lobbyists so far have failed to get extensions into Covid relief packages, in part due to concern over how they could drive up health spending and potentially invite fraud. “We've gone from the point where if I talked about telehealth to someone their eyes would start to glaze over,” Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said. “Now when I start to talk about telehealth, their head nods vigorously up and down.” Advocates have said the legislation would be a win for patient access and medical care and point to support from numerous provider groups such as the American Medical Association.
Healthcare IT News: Metro Health's telehealth and RPM program is helping patients avoid hospital stays (6/29) – Metro Health, an osteopathic teaching hospital serving more than 250,000 patients per year throughout western Michigan, has been using telehealth and RPM to monitor COVID-19 patients by using biometric and symptom monitoring, medication and monitoring reminders, patient communication through voice calling and virtual visits, and a COVID-19 care plan. Results have been dramatic – Metro Health recorded a 95% patient satisfaction rate among COVID-19 patients enrolled in the telehealth and RPM program. Furthermore, the organization achieved a 90% adherence rate across the biometrics, meaning that, while enrolled, 90% of patients were recording their biometrics daily.
mHealth Intelligence: Florida Research Project Tackles Low Telehealth Access in Minority Populations (6/29) – The University of North Florida is launching a project with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to examine how social determinants of health may be driving low telehealth access in underserved communities. Researchers will “examine cross-cultural factors, gender differences and other social factors that contribute to inequities in access and health outcomes,” according to a press release around the launch. The research will help inform interventions to promote equity in technology-enabled health care among minority populations.
HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): Asking the Hard Questions About Telehealth (6/28) – AHRQ Acting Director Meyers issued a blog noting that questions remain about the use, quality and appropriateness of telehealth. He states that the time is now to create the evidence to ensure telehealth drives improvements in quality, safety, equity, access and value. This work has been helpful. But we can, and must, do more. We no longer can ask “Should healthcare delivery embrace telehealth?” but instead ask “How can we learn from the use of telehealth today to ensure care is better tomorrow?” Stakeholders across the healthcare landscape—payers, policymakers, clinical professionals, and patients—need reliable information about the ways telehealth can best be integrated into healthcare delivery to drive quality, safety, equity, and value.
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