NIH Funds Machine Learning, Omnibus Bill Expands Medicare Telehealth
An NIH grant has been issued to enhance machine learning for disease diagnoses, and the omnibus bill passed by Congress will extend telehealth for Medicare and expand access around the nation.
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By - A new grant issued by the NIH will take advantage of EHRs and machine learning to diagnose a life-threatening circulatory disease better.
In Congress, the omnibus spending package will boost access to telehealth and extend its benefits for several years to come. In addition, another bill introduced in the Senate aims to extend waivers for acute hospital-at-home care.
Meanwhile, a federal jury has sided with the Northern California health system, Sutter Health, in a class-action antitrust lawsuit.
NIAID Funding for COVID-19 Vaccination, Testing
The National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases awarded $975,000 to an Illinois community to reduce the barriers to testing and vaccination for COVID-19. The funding will support a project led by Professor Liliane Windsor and other interdisciplinary academics from across the country.
Using an adapted strategy for care previously implemented to treat HIV patients, project leaders plan to address a large group of residents in East St. Louis, Illinois. The intervention is primarily a person-to-person way of learning about hesitancy and reluctance to be vaccinated or adhere to mandates. READ MORE.
NIH Grant Will Support Machine-Learning
A grant from the National Institute of Health slated for Dascena—a machine learning algorithm developer—aims to enable early disease intervention and improved care outcomes. The project’s end goal is to develop an unbiased tool for diagnosing Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS).
As of now, the methods used for diagnosing ACS are unreliable and based on historical studies that focus on White men. The new tool will learn from EHR data to determine risk factors for ACS in different populations. READ MORE.
New Bill Would Extend Acute Care at Home
Senators Tom Carper (D-Delaware) and Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) introduced a bill allowing for the federal acute hospital-at-home waiver extension. The bill would extend the waiver for two years, starting at the end of the national COVID-19 public health emergency. A study that would research the efficacy of permanent at-home adjustments for care is also appended to the bill.
“By extending these flexibilities, Congress will create a predictable pathway for medical professionals to fully realize advances in the care delivery system that enable patients to be treated with safe, equitable, person-centered care in the comfort of their own homes,” said Stephen Parodi, MD, executive vice president of the Permanente Federation at Kaiser Permanente. READ MORE.
Omnibus Bill Would Extend Medicare Telehealth
The lengthy Omnibus bill passed by both chambers of Congress includes extensions for telehealth capabilities that will benefit Medicare patients. Expected to become law next week, the bill expands the reach of telehealth programs and enables a broader set of providers to participate in telehealth programs. The legislation also includes waivers for mental health care and audio-only telehealth services. READ MORE.
Antitrust Class Action Sides with Sutter Health
A federal jury has sided with Sutter Health in an antitrust lawsuit concerning the health system’s supposed anti-competitive tactics. Plaintiffs in the case alleged that Sutter Health used its market dominance to charge high rates for service.
After ten hours of deliberation, jurors found that Sutter Health did not charge higher prices or premiums for their services and that the health system did not unfairly leverage its market dominance to take advantage of patients or insurers. READ MORE.
