Survey data indicates that although patients like and continue to want to access telehealth, they also see a need for in-person care access in the future.

By Sara Heath

November 12, 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic, and the changes in healthcare delivery stemming from it, has left its mark on the healthcare industry and pushed many patients to prefer digital health as a key care access medium, according to a survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of DocASAP.

Specifically, patients are increasingly calling on their medical providers to…

The realization of the full potential of telemedicine has taken longer than many of us anticipated, but the COVID-19 pandemic may finally bring about that realization.

By Francis J. Serbaroli, Skip Short and Ioanna Zevgaras | November 10, 2020 at 11:45 AM

The COVID-19 virus has wreaked havoc upon human lives, our economy, and our health care system. When the full extent of the danger posed by this virus became known, hospitals cancelled virtually all elective surgeries in order to have the capacity to treat what was expected to be…

The American Telemedicine Association reflects on telehealth expansion during the Trump Administration and looks forward to progress under President-Elect Biden.

By Hannah Nelson

November 11, 2020 – In response to the results of the 2020 presidential election with America choosing former Vice President Joe Biden as its 46th president, the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) issued a statement calling for policymakers to expand access to telehealth.

“Telehealth has been and will remain a bipartisan issue and the ATA will continue to work with the federal government to improve policies to expand…

With the COVID-19 pandemic, we are navigating through one…

Although telehealth care access proved beneficial for some patients during the pandemic, in-person options were essential to promoting health equity and trust.

By Sara Heath

November 10, 2020 – While the COVID-19 pandemic forced other healthcare organizations to spend March and April shuttering their doors and transitioning to telehealth care access options, Cahaba Medical Care in Alabama was doing the opposite.

The federally qualified health center (FQHC) with ten clinics, a fleet of school-based providers, and two community-based centers in the Birmingham area knew that in order…

“ince at least 2016, Zoom misled users by touting that it offered ‘end-to-end, 256-bit encryption’ to secure users’ communications, when in fact it provided a lower level of security,” the FTC said today in the announcement of its complaint against Zoom and the tentative settlement. Despite promising end-to-end encryption, the FTC said that “Zoom maintained…

In April 2020, CMS had initiated regulatory…

The Federal Communications Commission will open applications Nov. 6 for its $100 million Connected Care Pilot Program, which aims to improve telehealth access for low-income Americans and veterans.

The program, which was introduced by the FCC in 2018, will provide up to $100 million from the Universal Service Fund over a three-year period to help providers implement connected care services.

Four things to know:

1. The online application window will remain open through Dec. 7, and the pilot is open to nonprofit and public eligible…

As the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown kept people at home to avoid getting sick, especially those with chronic health conditions, experts recommended remote patient monitoring (RPM) as a solution to continuity of care. With forethought and the right technology on board, RPM can be a good complement to telehealth, allowing physicians to receive data about their patients’ in real…

The three-year, $100 million program, aimed at boosting broadband connectivity in underserved parts of the country to support telehealth expansion, will accept applications for one month, beginning on November 6.

By Eric Wicklund

November 05, 2020 – The Federal Communications Commission is set to launch its Connected Care Pilot Program, a three-year, $100 million project aimed at expanding telehealth access for low-income Americans, veterans and other vulnerable populations.

The agency announced today that it would accept applications for the program from noon ET on November 6 through 11:59…

CMS released or proposed five rules since Oct. 28 concerning new payment reforms, price transparency regulations and coverage of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Here’s a breakdown of the five rules and proposals, beginning with the most recent:

1. CMS released a final rule Nov. 2 that updates payment rates for dialysis services. It takes effect Jan. 1. The agency is expanding add-on payments for new and innovative equipment and supplies to certain home dialysis machines. In 2021, CMS expects to pay $10.3 billion to about 7,400 dialysis facilities in the prospective payment…

During the COVID-19 public health emergency, the Medicare 1135 waiver immediately expanded the use of telehealth and bypassed HIPAA requirements, allowing essentially any video chat application to be used for remote patient visits.

Within days, free video chat apps of all sorts became widely used by skilled nursing facilities and practically all other healthcare provider organizations to provide some semblance of telehealth — and over the following six months, telehealth has moved to the center of how SNF patients and residents receive care.

However, the anticipated removal of the…

Telemedicine can do far more than suffice during an emergency. When virtual care becomes the catalyst for integrated care—and solves problems that have long plagued our current healthcare system—consumers will want a “virtual-first” model of healthcare…

The 2020 Home Health Final Rule has a “significant change” that home healthcare agencies “should be paying close attention,” according to Aaron Tripp, vice president for reimbursements and financing policy at LeadingAge.

During a LeadingAge Coronavirus Update call this week, Tripp noted that although the payment part of the Request for Anticipate Payment will go away next year, home care providers are still required to submit a “slimmed-down RAP” within five days or face a fine that is equivalent to one day of the 30-day period for each day the agency is late…