Patients and physicians like telehealth and want it to continue after the pandemic comes to an end, according to one of the largest studies to examine the mode of practice during COVID-19. But there’s work to be done to make the most of the technology going forward. The AMA collaborated with the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition—comprised…
The move to value-based care—where payment for volume of services is being supplanted by payment for outcomes of care—has proceeded with remarkable speed since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) went into law a mere ten years ago. Payment for outcomes increasingly focuses on holding providers of healthcare responsible for total costs of care. Accountable Care…
With telehealth use skyrocketing over the past year and a half due to the coronavirus pandemic, some have wondered if there’s a limit to its effectiveness. Is there a certain number of virtual visits that a patient – especially one with a chronic condition – should get, after which the technology outlasts its value? The…
Throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, several innovative data tracking tools have been identified to support population-based public health and individual patient level care management. Some of these are less traditional ways to look at health data, and can usefully inform health planning and system of care design strategies. A curious question is, can we use these…
Social determinants of health were strongly associated with whether or not an individual with heart disease adopted measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, according to a study that draws attention to health disparities. The study, presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 70th Annual Scientific Session, is based on a survey that examined COVID-19…
Patient access is generally the first encounter a patient will have with a healthcare organization, making it central to the patient experience. But this aspect of healthcare is also a major first for another area: revenue cycle management. During the patient access process, revenue cycle teams have their chance to get medical billing and reimbursement…
Green space, an increasingly recognized social determinant of health, has been linked to lower racial health disparities related to the novel coronavirus, according to researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. These findings offer another view of the racial health disparities seen during the pandemic. Thus far, most investigations into COVID-19 racial health disparities have looked…
In April 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control issued a report featuring evidence that in the month of March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic was not an equal-opportunity killer. Within just a couple of months of COVID-19 emerging in America, it became clear that health disparities were evident in outcomes due to complications from the…
When the COVID-19 pandemic began to disrupt daily life in the U.S., many medical practices were left scrambling. Patient volumes plunged immediately, non-urgent care was postponed, and no one was sure exactly how long the shutdowns and mitigation precautions would last. By late April, 97% of practices reported a negative financial impact from the pandemic,…
The healthcare system is at a critical point in its transition to value-based care a decade after implementation of the Affordable Care Act and its Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), according to CMMI’s newly minted director Liz Fowler, PhD, JD. “The goal [of the ACA] was to create a system that rewards better…