Though by many measures and behaviors we’ve shifted to the endemic phase of COVID-19, our health care system continues to grapple with a crisis exacerbated by the pandemic: mental health. The ongoing difficulties and uncertainties driven by the pandemic led to a worsening of many pre-existing mental health issues and the emergence of new ones….
Tackling value-based care is crucial with the upcoming 2030 mandate by CMS. But it can be challenging for providers to deliver equitable care while hitting value-based care goals. A new telehealth study by the University of Texas McCombs School of Business found that virtual care did not significantly lower costs, or reduce the number of…
As value-based care becomes the end goal for many healthcare organizations, health systems across the country are acquiring primary care practices to achieve this mission. Critical aspects of these acquisitions include ensuring that clinician-patient relationships are uninterrupted and establishing operations that generate value for consumers, according to Matthew Weiss, MD, managing director of the EY-Parthenon…
When the covid-19 pandemic swept the country in early 2020 and emptied doctors’ offices nationwide, telemedicine was suddenly thrust into the spotlight. Patients and their physicians turned to virtual visits by video or phone rather than risk meeting face-to-face. During the early months of the pandemic, telehealth visits for care exploded. “It was a dramatic shift…
Congress should focus on advancing value-based care by investing in proper infrastructure, incentivizing patient engagement, and supporting continuous telehealth coverage, according to the American Medical Group Association (AMGA). The organization sent a letter to congressional leaders expressing appreciation for their efforts to support healthcare providers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the letter urged leaders to improve the Medicare program…
“Return” has become a popular word across the globe of late. Return to the office, return to travel, return to going out to eat and sporting events, return to our pre-COVID lives…the list goes on. As our world adjusts to the new normal, the healthcare industry is moving beyond emergency triage to managing today’s top challenges,…
Nathan Moore, M.D., medical director of the BJC Medical Group ACO in St. Louis, sees annual wellness visits (AWVs) as a scaffolding for all of the ACO’s improvement efforts. “We’re using this as our point of entry for advanced care planning and for functional status evaluations,” he said. Moore was speaking during an April 28…
This week, a group of senior officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), some from the Center for Medicare, some from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI, also called The Innovation Center) authored an op-ed in the Perspectives section of The New England Journal of Medicine online, in which they outline their…
Nathan Moore, M.D., medical director of the BJC Medical Group ACO in St. Louis, sees annual wellness visits (AWVs) as a scaffolding for all of the ACO’s improvement efforts. “We’re using this as our point of entry for advanced care planning and for functional status evaluations,” he said. Moore was speaking during an April 28…
Two years into the global COVID-19 phenomenon, it’s become very clear that patient care organizations in the United States have taken a big financial hit from the pandemic. Not only has caring for COVID-19 patients turned out to be extremely expensive, the pandemic has also scrambled hospital operations in particular, as numerous nurses, physicians, and…