Cigna to Reward Vaccine Recipients; Intermountain Makes Health Equity a Priority
The payer is offering financial rewards for COVID-19 vaccinations. Meanwhile, the health system is moving forward with its efforts to address health equity. Also, providers are interested in direct contracting.
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By - Welcome to Tuesday’s roundup of recent provider, payer, and pharmaceutical news.
Cigna Incentivizing COVID-19 Vaccinations
Cigna announced that it will offer financial rewards to employees who receive the coronavirus vaccine. The payer announced financial incentives for employees who are fully vaccinated. Cigna is offering $200 to employees who reside in the US and who are on the Cigna Medical Plan. Employees will be able to access their rewards through their health savings account or health reimbursement arrangement. Additionally, Cigna employees can use up to ten days of coronavirus-related paid emergency time off.
In its announcement, Cigna stressed that it is not requiring employees to receive a coronavirus vaccine. READ MORE
Intermountain Sets Sights on Health Equity
Intermountain is nearly a year into renewed work toward health equity and recognizing institutional racism as a public health issue. In September, the health system issued a public statement declaring health equity one of its core pillars. The statement acknowledged health equity as a fundamental standard of care that needs to be at the core of all other clinical quality improvement initiatives.
“The events of 2020 really brought a sharper focus to what was going on beneath the surface and our need to be bolder in declaring the problems that existed,” noted Mikelle Moore, senior vice president of Community Health at Intermountain Healthcare. READ MORE
AMA Innovation Arm Targets Clinical Trials
Health2014, a subsidiary of the American Medical Association, recently spun out SiteBridge Research to boost clinical trial access for small and community physician practices. SiteBridge is a portfolio company that aims to create a path towards enriched real-world data and real-world evidence, which ultimately results in more widely applicable clinical trial results.
Additionally, the company is developing a network of leaders, including physicians and experts engaged with pharmaceuticals. The company will gather these industry perspectives to shape research study design and target more diverse patient representation in clinical trials. READ MORE
Renewed Interest in Direct Contracting
Dozens of physician and hospital groups are seeking another opportunity to sign up for the new directing contracting model days after the CMS closed down applications for future cohorts.
The agency announced on the Global and Professional Direct Contracting Model page earlier this month that it would no longer accept applications as its Innovation Center undergoes a review of its portfolio of alternative payment models. The pause will impact the model’s second performance year, slated to launch on January 1, 2022. Providers led by America’s Physicians Groups, however, say this is the wrong move for the value-based care movement. READ MORE
Home Health Telehealth Waivers Eyed by Senate
Lawmakers are re-introducing a bill aimed at extending Medicare coverage for home health services delivered by telehealth during a public health emergency. Senate Bill 1309, introduced on April 22 by US Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Ben Cardin (D-MD), reportedly mirrors the Home Health Emergency Access to Telehealth (HEAT) Act, which was submitted in 2020 by Collins and Cardin but failed to make it out of the Senate.
The newest iteration of the bill would give the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services the authority to issue waivers for home healthcare services delivered by telehealth to replace in-person visits during a public health emergency. READ MORE
The Analytics of Patient Engagement
Patient engagement is a critical part of the healthcare industry, and it’s essential for entities to keep patients involved in care processes. At Community Health Network, an integrated healthcare system with five main hospitals, leaders recognized the importance of patient engagement strategies.
“We needed to offload some of the work from our caregivers so that they could focus on pandemic-related activities instead of hospital discharge, call-backs, or appointment reminders. One of our mantras is that every patient's last mile is unique to them. We try and create those individualized journeys to the last mile,” said Patrick McGill, MD, EVP and chief analytics officer. READ MORE
