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GAO Looks at Telehealth

With growing interest in using telehealth, or telemedicine, to serve patients in geographically remote or underserved areas, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, operating under a mandate from the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), has examined potential barriers to the use of this relatively new form of care. Among the barriers it found were cultural issues, inadequate licensure, lack of coverage (and reimbursement) for such services, and access and provider training issues. GAO offered no recommendations for addressing these challenges. Learn more about GAO’s findings by going here to see the report Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring [...]

iqtsupport2017-04-25T06:00:37-04:00April 25, 2017|Uncategorized|

Medical Homes and High-Need Patients

With five percent of patients accounting for 50 percent of health care costs, such high-need patients are the subject of increasing attention as health care providers search for better ways to serve them at less cost. Such patients are especially challenging when they lack the financial resources and personal support systems needed to address their considerable medical needs. One of those ways is through the concept of the medical home: an approach to primary care, also often referred to as a patient-centered medical home, that is a team-based approach to delivering patient-specific, coordinated, accessible care that focuses on quality and [...]

iqtsupport2017-04-14T06:00:55-04:00April 14, 2017|Uncategorized|

New County Health Rankings Published

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has published health rankings for every county in the country. Among the health or health-related factors for which the rankings provide data are: demographic information quality of life health factors percentage of population uninsured supply of health care providers and services socio-economic factors the physical environment Find the county health rankings here.

iqtsupport2017-04-04T06:00:10-04:00April 4, 2017|Uncategorized|

The More High-Need Patients, the Better the Care

Physician practices that serve higher proportions of high-need patients have lower health care costs, fewer hospital admissions, and fewer emergency room visits than physician practices that serve lower proportions of high-need patients. This was the conclusion of researchers who analyzed four years of claims data for high-needs patients in Michigan. The study also found some evidence that smaller medical practices are more effective in serving high-need patients than larger practices. The study, “Outcomes For High-Needs Patients: Practices With A Higher Proportion Of These Patients Have An Edge,” was supported by the Commonwealth Fund, and is summarized by the fund here. [...]

iqtsupport2017-03-20T06:00:30-04:00March 20, 2017|Uncategorized|

Telehealth May Not Reduce Health Care Costs

Telehealth may increase rather than decrease health care costs, a new study has found. The study, performed by the Rand Corporation and based on a limited sampling of data from California, found that only 12 percent of telehealth doctor visits replaced office visits while the remaining 88 percent of telehealth encounters constituted new demand. The study focused on virtual visits for respiratory illnesses and found that the telehealth encounters often led to office visits and medical tests that increased annual spending on respiratory illnesses approximately $45 for each user. Learn more about the study, its methodology and findings, and reaction [...]

iqtsupport2017-03-16T06:00:12-04:00March 16, 2017|Uncategorized|

But is the Innovation Working?

Driven by government payers, private payers, and business demands, health care providers are engaging in delivery system innovation to an unprecedented degree. But is that innovation achieving its objectives? How can providers tell? A new post on the Health Affairs Blog offers guidelines for evaluating the effectiveness of delivery system innovation. Among other steps, it proposes identifying the target population the innovation seeks to serve; describing baseline performance; and documenting the components of the innovation. It also suggests how payers can be enlisted to help with this effort. Go here for the article “Strategies For Assessing Delivery System Innovations.”

iqtsupport2017-03-14T06:00:56-04:00March 14, 2017|Uncategorized|

Key Ingredients for Health Care Innovation

What conditions and considerations are needed for innovation in health care? A new article on the Health Affairs Blog asks this very question. To see the answers, go here to see the article “Innovative Environments In Health Care: Where And How New Approaches To Care Are Succeeding.”

iqtsupport2017-03-13T06:00:24-04:00March 13, 2017|Uncategorized|

A New Approach to Treating the Underserved

Last month Congress passed the Expanding Capacity for Health Outcomes Act. The new law calls for the U.S. Department of Health and Human services to study a New Mexico project that employs distance learning to enhance the ability of the medical community to serve medically underserved areas. Launched by the University of New Mexico in 2003, Project ECHO takes advantage of telehealth techniques to employ medical specialists who consult via videoconference with primary care providers. This approach can be employed to help patients in rural and underserved rural areas and to assist those with limited mobility who have difficulty traveling [...]

iqtsupport2017-02-07T06:00:34-05:00February 7, 2017|Uncategorized|

Long-Awaited 340B Guidance Withdrawn

The long-awaited “guidance” that was expected to bring potentially major changes to the federal section 340B prescription drug discount program has been withdrawn by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration. The final guidance, based on proposed guidance released in mid-2015, was expected to redefine the patients, providers, and prescription drugs eligible to participate in the 340B program. The document was thought to be in the final stages of review by the Office of Management and Budget. Learn more about the proposed guidance, what it was expected to address, who is relieved and who is [...]

iqtsupport2017-02-06T06:00:56-05:00February 6, 2017|Uncategorized|

Defining “Success” in Addressing Social Determinants

With a growing number of programs designed to address the social determinants of individuals’ health care challenges, the question arises as to how to define “success” in those approaches. A recent article on the Health Affairs Blog addresses this question by illustrating the many variables that go into determining what constitutes “success” and suggesting that success be viewed from a number of perspectives, including: success for entire communities success from the perspective of individual patients success based on the effectiveness of addressing specific social needs (such as housing, transportation, or food security) The article also describes the different ways that [...]

iqtsupport2017-01-31T06:00:30-05:00January 31, 2017|Uncategorized|