Virtual Care News

Humana’s Bold Goal Benefitting Members; Healthcare CIOs Eye Patient Engagement Technology

Humana's Bold Gold helped Medicare Advantage members deal with COVID-19. The pandemic has shifted healthcare CIOs' focus to increased patient engagement.

Medicare Advantage, cybersecruity

Source: Getty Images

By Kyle Murphy, PhD

- Happy Thursday. A downward trend in COVID-19 cases and deaths is good news as reopening moves forward across the nation.

Patient Engagement Technology a Top CIO Priority in 2021

Patient engagement technology is the leading consideration for health system chief information officers this year, with more than half of CIOs reporting such in a recent report from Stoltenberg Consulting, a health IT consulting firm.

Fifty-two percent of the CIO respondents noted that patient engagement technology takes the spotlight after tools to support the COVID-19 pandemic response, the survey conducted by CHIME on Stoltenberg’s behalf showed. The public health crisis forced healthcare organizations to reconsider how they support chronic disease management and keep patients well remotely, all while still creating a good experience.

This marks a significant shift from last year when most CIOs identified artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning as critical areas for focus. This year, only 14 percent of CIOs said as much. READ MORE

Real-Time Analytics in the Stanford Children’s NICU

In the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), real-time data analytics technologies are essential. While the same level of risk exists in the NICU as it does in other intensive care units, clinicians are also tasked with providing care to extremely delicate patients.

“The patients we care for are very different from any other patient in ICU settings, even in pediatrics,” says Lance Prince, MD, PhD, chief of neonatal and developmental medicine at Stanford Children’s Health.

“The majority of our patients are not in the ICU because of an acquired disease. They are in the ICU because they were either born extremely premature or they were born with some sort of birth defect. We have our share of kids who come in with major infections like anyone else, but the goal of what we're trying to do in the neonatal intensive care unit is to provide unbelievably high levels of support to promote normal human growth and development.” READ MORE

Humana’s Bold Goal Yielded Better Outcomes in 2020

In 2020, Humana’s Bold Goal program saw better Medicare Advantage health outcomes in physical and mental healthcare than the payer's Medicare Advantage community overall, Humana’s most recent Bold Goal report revealed.

The pandemic dealt a significant blow to mental health across the nation in 2020. Humana’s Medicare Advantage communities were no exception. The overall Medicare Advantage population saw a 5.4 percent increase in unhealthy days compared to the baseline year, 2015.

However, in Bold Goal communities, Medicare Advantage members saw a smaller increase in mental health unhealthy days. The 2020 unhealthy days for mental health in Bold Goal communities exhibited a 2.2 percent increase over the 2015 Unhealthy Days. READ MORE

Costs of Cybersecurity Risks for Pharma Supply Chain Swell

Ransomware susceptibility for pharmaceutical manufacture supply chain tops $31 million annually, according to new research from Black Kite. Ransomware threat actors have shifted their focus to pharmaceutical supply chains in recent years, with 12% of pharma industry vendors likely to incur a ransomware attack annually.

Phishing attacks, which commonly use leaked credentials, have historically been the leading attack vector in ransomware attacks. About half of pharmaceutical companies (47 percent) have over 1,000 leaked employee credentials exposed on the deep web.

Over 5 billion people rely on at least one product manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry, including over-the-counter pain medication, a cancer drug, or a COVID-19 vaccine. READ MORE

HHS Argues Site-Neutral Payments Before SCOTUS

HHS is asking the Supreme Court to bypass a case brought on by hospital groups challenging site-neutral payment rates for certain outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) services, which the department lowered in 2019 to control “unnecessary” increases in volume.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) and other hospital groups have argued since the 2019 rule cutting the rates that HHS is acting beyond its authority by reducing rates for all hospital outpatient departments, even those exempted from other site-neutral payment policies under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015.

These groups filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to review the appellate court’s decision in February 2021. READ MORE

GAO Cautions Telehealth Coverage Expansion Beyond COVID

The US government’s financial watchdog is advising lawmakers to wait a while and gather more data before deciding on whether to permanently expand telehealth coverage for Medicare and Medicaid programs beyond the pandemic.

In testimony to the Senate Finance Committee this week, the Government Accountability Office told lawmakers that connected health services have been crucial to expanding access to care during the COVID-19 public health emergency. But the full effect of those new services on cost, safety and clinical outcomes hasn’t yet been determined.

CMS has issued more than 230 Medicare waivers since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in early 2020, helping to expand telehealth coverage by allowing more providers to use the platform, adding more sites where telehealth could be used, and allowing those providers to use different modalities, such as audio-only telehealth. A few of those telehealth waivers have been made permanent, but most will end when the PHE ends. READ MORE

Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
©2012-2024 TechTarget, Inc. Xtelligent Healthcare Media is a division of TechTarget. All rights reserved. HealthITAnalytics.com is published by Xtelligent Healthcare Media a division of TechTarget.