As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, best practices for weathering the storm are starting to emerge. I’m Jeff Lagasse with Healthcare Finance News, and we’ll take a look at those and explore other news in this week’s Top Stories.
Hospitals and health systems have a tough balancing act: Staying above water financially while also delivering quality care to those afflicted with COVID-19. Three leading healthcare advisors broke down some of the emerging best practices for Healthcare Finance News (https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/top-ten-things-ceos-got-right-during-pandemic), and the successful strategies used by CEOs are wide-ranging. They moved from static to rolling financial forecasting, with some CFOs adjusting their revenue scenarios daily. They made targeted decisions on labor cost reduction, fostered an atmosphere of cooperation and used IT to implement new strategies enabled by regulatory flexibilities. Those who have proven to be nimble have put themselves in better positions, and will be well-poised for recovery when the pandemic ends.
Many of the new regulatory flexibilities introduced by state and federal policymakers are centered around telehealth, and a new Foley and Lardner report found that reimbursement restrictions for telehealth and virtual care have been removed at unprecedented rates. According to HealthcareITNews (https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/report-shows-vast-improvement-state-telehealth-reimbursement-policies), 43 states and the District of Columbia have implemented some version of a state telehealth commercial payer law during the pandemic – and experts believe this year will trigger even greater expansion. That bodes well for the future of telehealth, although only 14 states require true “payment parity,” meaning providers not based in those states may receive lower reimbursement rates for virtual care.
Finally this week, Fitbit users can now track their blood glucose levels within the device’s connected app. In MobiHealthNews (https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/fitbit-adds-blood-glucose-tracking-its-connected-app), we see that users can import their blood sugar data automatically by connecting with their LifeScan OneTouch Reveal app or by manually logging their levels, and can set personalized ranges to help visualize what activities and health decisions keep them within their target range. Fitbit Premium members will be the first to test this new capability.
I’m Jeff Lagasse with Healthcare Finance News, and this has been Top Stories.