Among other provisions, the bill extends the 5% advanced APM bonus for an additional six years and modifies thresholds to achieve the bonus. Thirteen national provider groups support the newly-introduced House bill, the Value in Health Care Act of 2020, a bipartisan effort that proposes to make changes to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) […]
Telehealth is hot right now among physicians and patients, but what’s its long term outlook? What impact will telehealth have on patient outcomes and physician reimbursement? Telehealth is hot right now among physicians and patients, but what’s its long term outlook? What impact will telehealth have on patient outcomes and physician reimbursement? To learn more […]
Many health systems had just two days to expand or overhaul their COVID-19 patient-data-reporting practices, according to leaders from more than 10 state hospital associations. A flurry of controversy erupted this past week following the publicization of a Trump administration directive to hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when reporting COVID-19 […]
Telehealth use has surged during the coronavirus pandemic, with the technology spreading far and fast. Doctors and patients alike must be wondering if this is the beginning of a whole new kind of doctor–patient relationship, one that might totally transform our health care system? Maybe. But I’m not convinced, and Americans may not be either […]
As healthcare business professionals, we have been trained in the importance of following HIPAA privacy and security requirements. As coders, auditors, and health information services professionals we are bound by the HITECH Act of 2009, which outlines the responsibilities of “business associates” with respect to HIPAA requirements. As business associates, we are required to “appropriately […]
Heading into 2020, adoption of telehealth services was already on the rise. Then the health crisis hit. Now it appears that COVID-19 has not only cemented telehealth’s place in the healthcare landscape but done so in a very big way. McKinsey & Co. is projecting that virtual visits could potentially account for $250 billion, or 20%, of […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has provided some guidance within the “Medicare and Medicaid Programs Policy and Regulatory Revisions in Response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency” interim final rule (IFR), allowing for remote patient monitoring, or RPM. This type of patient care is very helpful for ongoing treatment during the COVID-19 […]
Telemedicine reimbursement and other regulatory flexibilities enabled providers to quickly pivot operations for COVID-19, but temporary policies also poised the health policy landscape for significant change after the pandemic. In the wake of the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US, policymakers quickly relaxed long-standing healthcare regulations, including telemedicine reimbursement and healthcare fraud prevention […]
Value-based payments support telehealth, data analytics, and other capabilities providers need to effectively respond to crises like COVID-19, says SWHR’s Sanjay Doddamani, MD. More practices are going to want to get their revenue through value-based payments following the COVID-19 pandemic, according to heart failure cardiologist Sanjay Doddamani, MD. The pandemic has shown the best of […]
With concerns of COVID-19 having a disproportionate impact on certain individuals, such as minorities and the elderly, public health experts are requiring more detailed data, provided on a real-time basis – further supporting the reliability and integrity of data being central to healthcare. Though rates of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have somewhat stabilized, […]