MobiHealthNews
House bill seeks to phase in Medicare coverage of telemedicine, remote patient monitoring
July,23,2014
by: Jonah Comstock
Representatives Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and Glenn Thompson (R-Penn.) are set to announce a new telehealth bill soon. Like some of Mike Thompson’s previous telehealth efforts, the bill seeks to amend the Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, the law that has long limited government-reimbursed telemedicine to rural areas and specific use cases.
As Jonathan Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), has told MobiHealthNews in the past, when the Social Security Act was passed telehealth was in its infancy and legislators, worried about abuse or that telemedicine wouldn’t be cost-effective, limited Medicare and Medicaid coverage to very particular cases. Only patients in rural areas could be reimbursed for any telehealth service that required patient-physician interaction, for instance. Those types of arbitrary restrictions have become increasingly obstructive for telemedicine practitioners over the years. Read More
HealthDataManagement
UnitedHealthcare Releases Mobile App to Non-Members
July,24,2014
by: Greg Goth
UnitedHealthcare's free mobile app Health4Me is now available to all consumers. The app gives users access to an array of healthcare information, including the ability to review market average prices for more than 520 medical services. Health4Me is designed to help all consumers make more informed decisions regarding their care, including the ability to:
* Locate nearby healthcare providers, and convenience care, urgent care and emergency care facilities
* Review market average prices for more than 520 medical services across 290 episodes of care, providing a comprehensive view of what consumers should expect throughout their course of treatment Read More
Modern Healthcare
Working around exchange subsidy ruling should be easy: experts
July,23,2014
by:
Tuesday's split decision in two federal appellate court cases over whether consumers shopping on the federal insurance exchange can receive premium subsidies could have major effects on the healthcare market. But some experts say officials in states that have not established their own state-run exchanges could solve the problem fairly easily if they want to, and that they will face significant political pressure to do so.
A study by the Urban Institute concluded that 7.3 million Americans would lose $36.1 billion in federal subsidies in 2016 if states that defaulted to the federal exchange can't access subsidies. That would have a big impact on the exchange insurance market, both in the number of consumers buying plans and in the health status of the greatly reduced pool of enrollees. Read More
A study by the Urban Institute concluded that 7.3 million Americans would lose $36.1 billion in federal subsidies in 2016 if states that defaulted to the federal exchange can't access subsidies. That would have a big impact on the exchange insurance market, both in the number of consumers buying plans and in the health status of the greatly reduced pool of enrollees. Read More
Med City News
To make personalized medicine reality, Path2Cures speakers call for open data sharing
July,24,2014
July,24,2014
by: Meghana Keshavan
Breaking out of research silos and collaborating more openly will be a big step in driving personalized medicine forward, said Dr. Andrew Futreal, a professor of genomic medicine at MD Anderson.
Futreal was one of a dozen personal-medicine experts from the private, public and academic sectors who spoke at a Path2Cures hearing Wednesday in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
It’s going to be an expensive proposition, after all, to tailor medications for each individual – so teamwork is key, the panel agreed.
“We’re sitting on a massive opportunity to do away with that single investigator-driven idea,” Futreal said. That’s what they’re doing, after all, at MD Anderson – exploring partnerships, and shedding the “homegrown” kind of research that’s typical of academia. Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment