Telehealth

Consumers Use Digital Tech for Price Comparison, Virtual Care

by Kelsey Waddill

As the country experiences an enrollment season in the middle of a global pandemic, Americans are gravitating toward digital technology for a wide variety of purposes including price comparison and...

The Role of Whole Person Care in Population Health, Telehealth

by Kelsey Waddill

As the healthcare environment faces major changes, payers may face challenges in maintaining their focus on whole person care across all strategies. Given the influence of the pandemic, payers may...

34% Medicare Advantage Plans Will Offer COVID-19 Benefits in 2021

by Kelsey Waddill

Not only have Medicare Advantage plans continued to increase their health-related supplemental benefits for 2021 open enrollment, but this year one in three plans will also offer supplemental benefits...

Key Considerations for Permanently Integrating Telehealth Coverage

by Kelsey Waddill

Telehealth is metamorphosing and payers will have to take steps in order to permanently integrate telehealth coverage as a key form of care delivery. When the coronavirus pandemic struck, Donna O’Shea, MD, chief medical officer of...

Payers Integrate Virtual, In-Person Social Determinants Support

by Kelsey Waddill

When Blue Shield Promise and LA Care shut down their in-person community resource centers in March 2020, they leveraged virtual platforms to connect members with social determinants of health...

Payer-Provider Partners Tap Telehealth for Behavioral Health Access

by Emily Sokol, MPH

The coronavirus pandemic saw a huge rise in the need for behavioral health services. In June alone, 40 percent of adults in the United States reported struggling with mental health or substance abuse,...

3 Common Telehealth Technologies that Payers Cover, Leverage

by Kelsey Waddill

Phone calls, secure direct messaging, and remote patient monitoring are the three leading modalities that form the backbone of payer telehealth technologies. According to the Centers for Disease...

MA Payers Focus on Cutting Out-of-Pocket Costs, Home Health in 2021

by Kelsey Waddill

As Medicare open enrollment approaches,  benefits from major payers emphasize lowering out-of-pocket costs and home healthcare benefits. UnitedHealthcare, Humana, and Cigna are significant...

Cost, Health Literacy Cause for Concern Ahead of Open Enrollment

by Kelsey Waddill

Entering into Medicare open enrollment 2021, Medicare enrollees and nearly-eligible enrollees continue to struggle with health literacy and healthcare costs, a survey commissioned by GoHealth...

Big Premium Drop, More Medicare Advantage Benefits Slated for 2021

by Kelsey Waddill

As Medicare Advantage plans prepare to expand their benefits in 2021, CMS expects premiums to drop 34.2 percent from 2017 levels in the new year. “The Medicare Advantage average monthly premium...

Payer Strategies For Home Healthcare, Remote Patient Monitoring

by Kelsey Waddill

Home healthcare and remote monitoring are increasingly critical to providing value-based care, improving quality while keeping costs low. Experts have discovered that, in some cases, remote patient...

How States Handled Medicaid LTSS Coverage, Benefits for COVID-19

by Kelsey Waddill

Most states have had to expand their Medicaid long-term supports and services coverage and benefits in order to protect some of the most vulnerable populations from the coronavirus, which could have...

Neither Anthem, Cigna to Receive Damages in Merger Disputes

by Kelsey Waddill

Chancery Court Judge Travis Laster laid to rest the merger dispute between Cigna and Anthem on the last day in August 2020, a little over five years after the two payers originally announced the...

Payer, Provider Value-Based Contract Targets 10% Lower Cost Trend

by Kelsey Waddill

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) struck a six-year value-based contract with Allina Health that focuses on quality improvement and cost savings through care coordination,...

How Payers Can Calm Member Fears, Push Virtual Care Adoption

by Kelsey Waddill

As the healthcare landscape is becoming more digitized, payers can take steps to prevent members from falling back into old, non-digital forms of care, a recent Accenture report highlighted. The...

How Employers Are Accelerating Virtual Care, Telehealth Adoption

by Kelsey Waddill

Employers are emphasizing virtual care and telehealth in their healthcare benefit and care delivery strategies during the coronavirus pandemic, a recent survey by the Business Group on Health...

Key Payer Strategies to Improve Colorectal Cancer Preventive Care

by Kelsey Waddill

Risk factors for colorectal cancer are growing more prevalent even in younger age groups, meaning payers need to improve colorectal cancer preventive care, a Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA)...

COVID-19 Waivers Improved Medicare Advantage Telehealth Access

by Kelsey Waddill

Medicare Advantage plans and other stakeholders reported that CMS waivers successfully enabled Medicare and Medicare Advantage telehealth access during the coronavirus pandemic, but several barriers...

WellCare Offers SDOH Support for Seniors Through End of 2020

by Kelsey Waddill

WellCare, a subsidiary of Centene Corporation, announced a new partnership lasting through December 2020 that aims to bolster Medicare Advantage the social determinants of health support through better...

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