In a year when many people have very few resources, it is important for healthcare organizations to strategically identify areas of concern on a unique and broader spectrum. Healthcare business owners and clinicians, from the front desk to the C-suite, should at a minimum conduct a risk assessment of these areas and ultimately have policies […]
Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 — dubbed “escape variants” for their immune evasiveness — now account for 49.7 percent of U.S. COVID-19 cases, according to the CDC’s COVID-19 data tracker weekly review published Nov. 18. Ten findings: Variants Based on projections for the week ending Nov. 19, the CDC estimates that BQ.1 accounts for 25.5 […]
Using telemedicine for primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic did not hurt quality of care for patients, according to a new study. Researchers examined 16 measures of primary care quality and found patients using telemedicine had outcomes as good or better than those making in-office visits, according to the study published in JAMA Network Open. […]
In addition to healthcare spending reductions, Commonwealth Fund also reports that a COVID-19 booster vaccination campaign would also prevent over 75K deaths and 745K hospitalizations. A COVID-19 boost vaccination campaign could seriously impact potential healthcare spending this fall and winter, according to a new analysis from the Commonwealth Fund. The private think tank recently examined […]
Healthcare consumerism is on the rise , as patients report the desire to use telehealth and contactless payment options post-COVID-19. However there are disconnects between payer, provider, and consumer expectations, according to the eleventh annual Trends in Healthcare Payments Report from InstaMed. The report explores how COVID-19 has accelerated many trends that have improved the consumer experience […]
The coronavirus pandemic will reshape where and how organizations invest moving forward, according to industry leaders at the Value-Based Care Summit | Telehealth20: Virtual Series. The coronavirus created an unprecedented rise in telehealth across the industry. Projects that would take years to implement were switched on in a matter of days in order to fit the growing […]
For several years, we’ve seen Medicare and the American Medical Association’s Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) manual slowly approach the age of telehealth. Despite a lot of discussion and many headlines during each of the past few years, the codes and coverage embracing the modern age of medicine have lagged far behind the technology. This isn’t […]
As an effort to understand what changes hospitals are making in response to COVID-19, HBI is currently surveying revenue cycle professionals on how their organizations have altered, might alter, or will not alter revenue cycle processes. The following are highlights of HBI survey results as of April 3, 2020. We will continue to update these […]
The 2019-2020 influenza season is winding down, so now is a good time to start preparing for the 2020-2021 influenza season. Let’s start with a new CPT® code for the flu vaccine. Flu Activity Report The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that viral activity is decreasing in the United States. According to […]
Roughly 50,000 attendees from around the world are expecting to come to Orlando, Fla., the week of March 9 to discuss healthcare technology. But so far, the talk of the conference has been focused on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and what the conference is doing about it. To complicate matters, President Donald Trump is expected to speak […]