Opponents of the loosened interstate telehealth restrictions that were instituted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic argued that it would result in out-of-state doctors luring patients away from their current physicians. But a new study finds that most out-of-state telehealth is used for continuity of care, not acquiring new patients. The study compares interstate […]
Healthcare provider organizations and clinicians are fortunate that telehealth has gone mainstream as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth opens up many new avenues to expand access to care, streamline the delivery of care, create new workflows and improve patient outcomes. Hopefully the Congress and state legislatures will act soon to ensure the temporary […]
Make sure your facility is aware of all the Medicare policy changes that permit payment for expanded services. Telehealth as a healthcare delivery platform has been in existence since the late 1960s. It was first introduced through projects initiated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Nebraska Psychology Institute. The declaration of […]
Coming soon is the possible end of the PHE. Will it be extended? How does the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 impact the PHE, and where does telehealth fit into all of this? The COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) is slated to end this week on Thursday, April 14. But the signs are pointing to […]
The U.S. Government Accountability Office is asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to gauge the effect that an increase in telehealth utilization is having on the care quality experienced by Medicaid beneficiaries. The GAO cited statistics showing usage continues to rise. GAO culled data from five states – Arizona, California, Maine, Mississippi and […]
Office visits represented 48 percent of all telehealth services used in the first year of the pandemic, making it the service most accessed via telehealth, federal data shows. Medicare beneficiaries most often used telehealth for office visits in 2020, receiving 54.5 million virtual office visits in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to […]
Not only has Medicaid ensured care access for enrollees during the pandemic, but its coverage of telehealth services has proved a boon to Medicaid providers in California. Increased use of telehealth services by Medicaid beneficiaries in California is leading to positive financial outcomes for providers in the state. CLOSEDLOOP.AI TOPS EPIC, CERNER FOR AI PLATFORM […]
There are barriers to telehealth adoption that physicians must overcome to realize the technology’s promise. Telehealth clearly has crossed a threshold of acceptance and now is viewed by physicians, payers and patients as an essential part of healthcare. It’s no surprise Fortune Business Insights predicts the telehealth market will reach $636.4 billion by 2027. That’s […]
Most patients, including those with chronic illnesses, wanted to be notified via call or text that their virtual visit was about to begin rather than stand by in a virtual waiting room, per a new poll. Though patients have previously made their preference for virtual waiting rooms over traditional ones known, new survey results show […]
On Monday, February 7, 2022, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, and Todd Young, R-Indiana, introduced the Telehealth Extension and Evaluation Act, which if passed, would extend several of the telehealth waivers for two years after the end of the federal public health emergency (PHE). See our previous coverage of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. […]