Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems scrambled to modify patient care processes - particularly when it came to strategies aimed at reducing the risk of hospital-related complications.
Personal View: More time is critical to success of No Surprises Act
KATE HUBBEN
Kate Hubben
Because the Biden administration has been silent about its plans for regulating the No Surprises Act a significant and impactful part of the omnibus spending bill that was passed at the end of 2020 health care providers and employer plan sponsors have been scrambling to meet the deadline of Jan. 1, 2022, when it will go into effect.
The No Surprises Act calls for the end of most surprise medical billing, the introduction of advanced explanations of benefits (EOBs), a comprehensive price transparency tool for consumers, full disclosure of all health insurance brokers compensation and a variety of other surprises that when regulated would appear to be a net win for consumers. However, it puts a massive financial burden on insurance carriers and employer plan sponsors that must create and/or fund the creation of a brand new infrastructure around these deliverables. That massive fin
WVU researchers investigate the best dose of telehealth for patients with chronic conditions
More than ever, patients are using telehealth to ask doctors and nurses about worrying blood-pressure readings, nauseating migraines and stubborn foot ulcers. But for patients with chronic conditions, how frequent should telehealth appointments be? Can that frequency change? Under what conditions?
West Virginia University researcher Jennifer Mallow is trying to answer these questions. In a new project, she and her colleagues completed a systematic review of studies that dealt with telehealth and chronic conditions. They found that in general telehealth services benefitted patients more if they continued for about a year, rather than ending after six months or so. But perhaps their most significant finding was just how much we have left to discover.
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Long-time sweethearts Raymond E. and Valerie Hanks spent their Cinco de Mayo sitting side-by-side Wednesday outside of the adjoining senior living facilities in Bankers Hill they call home.
In normal years, it wouldn’t be strange for the married couple of 55 years to spend an afternoon in the shared courtyard of St. Paul’s Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and St. Paul’s Manor.
But after a year kept largely apart due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the afternoon felt special.
When Valerie, 76, first moved into St. Paul’s Nursing four years ago because of her worsening dementia and multiple sclerosis, it was difficult for Raymond, 82, as he adjusted to her absence. He soon moved into the adjoining Manor an independent living facility to be closer to her, and they would visit about six times a day either in his apartment, the courtyard or at the nursing home.
MARY PIEPER
Special to the Globe Gazette
As director of nursing at Oakwood Care Center in Clear Lake, Jenna Kuechenberg has had a difficult year.
She said the one word that comes to mind when she thinks about the COVID-19 pandemic is âexhausting.â
âIt was really hard on the residents,â she said.
For her the worst part was telling them they couldnât see their loved ones during the lockdown.
âThat was heartbreaking,â Kuechenberg said.
But now that most of the residents have been vaccinated and can visit in person with their families again, âItâs getting significantly better,â she said.