Last quarter, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs have both continued to seek public and private partnerships and investigate new technology. Despite controversy over the firing of former VA Secretary Dr. David J. Shulkin, and external criticism from former Vice President Joe Biden toward the Trump administration for taking too long with...
Increased investment in telehealth for providers, employers, and payers has become a reality, a forward momentum that is unlikely to be turned around. But even as adoption ticks up and state and national legislatures open the doors for more telehealth use and reimbursement, recent studies have shown mixed results about the efficacy of the technology.
About a year ago, in an effort to standardize...
According to a report in Politico, the Trump administration has chosen a new Chief Technology Officer for the Department of Health and Human Services, the post originated by Todd Park and most recently held by health anthropologist Susannah Fox. Bruce Greenstein, the former head of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, has been tapped for the post according to Politico.
Greenstein was...
There are plenty of things that hold back innovation in healthcare – regulatory requirements, slow-to-materialize financial returns and the general complexity of the industry have all made healthcare lag behind other tech-enabled fields. Nevertheless, developers and entrepreneurs have persisted, and we now find ourselves surrounded by countless digital health devices.
But with that innovation...
Reimbursement for telemedicine is still far from equal across health plans and state lines, especially for those under government programs. But there’s a new piece of telemedicine legislation on the table that could establish a federal model for Medicare populations.
The bipartisan Senate bill functions as an experiment: Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Gary Peters (D-MI) introduced the...
Another report suggest value-based payment models will continue even, if in a different form, under the new administration's governance of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to a Health Affairs report.
"The election of Donald Trump might change the strategy of advancing healthcare reform, but the movement toward value-based care both preceded the Affordable Care Act and...
Teladoc was one of the many signatories on one of the letters recently sent to incoming HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell.
After efforts to remove restrictions from CMS coverage of telehealth through legislative channels have stalled, telehealth stakeholders have sent a barrage of open letters to incoming US Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell, urging her to use her newfound...
The Department of Health and Human Services has formed a new workgroup, charged with "identifying key considerations to improve patient safety and promote innovation in health information technology (Health IT), including mobile medical applications." The group has been selected by HHS and the FCC and will report to the Health IT Policy Committee which advises the ONC.
This is the same workgroup...
Timed somewhat appropriately on Valentine's Day, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the winner of its Million Hearts Risk Assessment Challenge this week. More than 35 developers competed to create a mobile app that would leverage Archimedes analytics engine IndiGO (which stands for Individual Guidelines and Outcomes) for patient use, allowing anyone to easily calculate...
Mayo Clinic's Patient iPad app
"HIPAA is a valve, not a blockage." At least, that's what Office of Civil Rights (OCR) director Leon Rodriguez has said about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Discussions of the national health information privacy and security act often revolve around the ways it limits access to patient health information, rather than the ways in...
