Faced with the need to improve patient satisfaction and reduce unnecessary delays in care, hospitals and medical practices are using telehealth and mHealth tools to create a virtual waiting room. With the COVID-19 crisis putting the kibosh on crowds, hospitals are turning to telehealth and mHealth to take the wait out of healthcare. The crowded, […]
A group of Senators is asking CMS to expand coverage for telehealth services delivered by home health care providers. With Congress and the government still haggling over how to extend telehealth coverage beyond the coronavirus pandemic, a group of Senators is pushing for additional flexibilities for home health care providers. In a letter to the heads […]
Last week, the White House hosted a virtual “Roundtable Discussion on Embracing Technology and Telehealth” with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma, Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and Deputy Assistant to the President Brad Smith, and healthcare leaders from across the country. At the event, the White […]
With the rapid use of telehealth resulting from the pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a new toolkit to help the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) accelerate their adoption of telehealth coverage during this time. The toolkit is designed to walk states through identifying policies that they will need to address […]
The impact of COVID-19 on the healthcare industry’s ability to innovate has been stunning. We have seen FDA emergency authorizations and relaxed regulatory guidelines enable the development of radical new ventilator ideas, accelerated timelines for vaccine development, and an extraordinary transition to telehealth services. Many of these actions were a response to the exposure of weak spots […]
The Draft Consumer Privacy Framework for Health Data aims to set standards for the collection, use and protection of health data on smartwatches, fitness bands, mHealth apps and other consumer-facing technology. Two digital health organizations have joined forces to develop guidelines to protect health information gathered by consumer-facing mHealth devices. The Draft Consumer Privacy Framework […]
For a person living with a rare disease, it can take five years or longer to receive an accurate diagnosis. With more than 40% of patients initially misdiagnosed, this “diagnostic odyssey” can have serious and long-term health consequences for the 300 million individuals affected by rare diseases and their families. It is also incredibly frustrating. A key factor contributing to […]
The grants are part of a two-year program launched by HHS’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to help states and Tribal organizations use telehealth and other resource to tackle the opioid abuse crisis. Federal officials are issuing roughly $1.5 billion to healthcare providers and other organizations to help them use telehealth and […]
SEPTEMBER 9, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic, and the corresponding need for social distancing, has catapulted telehealth into the mainstream. According to some estimates, the proportion of ambulatory patient visits using telehealth (video, phone, or e-visit) increased from 10 percent before the pandemic to more than 90 percent during the pandemic. These shifts have been buttressed by temporary […]
Kimberly Sanders was recovering from a heroin addiction when the coronavirus struck. She had been homeless before and struggled to commute long distances for treatments. But because of her failure to attend several appointments, her previous doctors stopped seeing her. Years later, in a bid to get clean, she moved to Estes Park, Colorado, and began attending […]
Other major challenges include remote patient monitoring, interoperability, real-time data analytics, work-from-home resources and patient surveillance, according to a new KLAS report. A new report from research firm KLAS found that nearly half of the 19 healthcare executives surveyed say that either telehealth functionality or capacity has been their primary problem to solve during the early stages […]
In the year ahead, nearly one-fourth of healthcare leaders anticipate increased telehealth usage to have one of the biggest impacts on the healthcare industry, according to a new Definitive Healthcare report. For its 2020 Healthcare Trends Survey, data firm Definitive Healthcare polled 2,300 industry leaders on the trends they predict will have the greatest impact on the […]
Covid-19 has seen a massive increase in the use of telemedicine. While it may seem novel, it’s actually been around for decades and research shows it’s frequently just as effective as face-to-face interventions, if not better. But how well it works for you mostly depends on your healthcare system. When it comes to telemedicine, we […]
A group of 14 Democratic senators penned a letter to FCC chairman Ajit Pai on Aug. 20 detailing what they say is the agency’s failure to manage the Rural Health Care Program and COVID-19 Telehealth Program. In the letter, the senators said that FCC “has not made sufficient funding available, has delayed rural healthcare funding decisions, and […]
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other federal agencies are joining forces to increase access to telehealth solutions in rural areas across the U.S. According to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) issued in early September, the FCC, along with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will […]