Month: June 2020

June 25, 2020 MICHAEL BRADY CMS wants to make permanent changes to telehealth flexibilities for home health providers, the agency said Thursday. The Trump administration loosened telehealth restrictions for home health providers during the COVID-19 pandemic but now wants them to go beyond the public health emergency. According to the proposed rule, CMS is looking […]

June 23, 2020 MICHAEL BRADY   A federal judge sided with the Trump administration Tuesday, saying that HHS can force hospitals to reveal the prices they negotiate with insurers. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington D.C. wrote that HHS had the right to issue the rule because it considered the concerns of providers and payers, acknowledged conflicting information […]

June 18, 2020 02:57 PM MARIA CASTELLUCCI As telehealth adoption takes off in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, quality analysts and health systems claim much is still unknown about the quality of these virtual visits. Telehealth is often touted for its ability to improve access to care and lower healthcare spending, but those assertions haven’t […]

June 10, 2020 ALEX KACIK Healthcare professional services utilization dropped by nearly 70% in April year over year, resulting in a 50% decline in revenue, according to Fair Health’s new analysis of 31 billion commercial claims. COVID-19 hit the Northeast the hardest as utilization of professional services—defined as any service provided by a practitioner instead of being billed […]

June 05, 2020  TARA BANNOW Healthcare hiring began to bounce in May, but hosptial still shed jobs as the COVID-19 pandemic affected their finances. Hospitals shed 26,700 jobs in May, which is not as steep as the BLS’ estimate that they lost 135,000 jobs in April. Several health systems including UW Medicine in Wisconsin and Cape […]