Telehealth

BioTelemetry, now a Royal Phillips company, agreed to pay $44.875 million to settle allegations that the company improperly billed Medicare by outsourcing heart monitoring services to India between 2013 and 2022. 

The COVID-19 pandemic revolutionized telehealth, and many patients continue to seek out COVID-19 care from the comfort of their own homes.

Becker's has reported on three hospitals or health systems implementing telehealth programs since Dec. 7:

Only 15 percent of patients who were eligible for Medicare fee-for-service telehealth used the service in the second quarter of 2022, according to a Dec. 15 telehealth utilization report from CMS.

Mental health disorders are not isolated — they have far-reaching effects that drive up costs for both patients and providers.

Two House members said that congress is trying to expand Medicare's virtual flexibilities beyond the public health emergency, NextGov reported Dec. 14. 

Telehealth reduces primary care spending, as telehealth utilization has been associated with lower emergency department utilization and inpatient hospitalizations, according to a Dec. 13 study editorial published in Nature.

Most patients who had a telehealth visit didn't require an in-person follow-up appointment in the next three months, according to a Dec. 13 study from Epic Research. 

Only 11 percent of hospitals and 8 percent of practices said they are looking to expand their telehealth offerings in 2023, according to a Dec. 14 telehealth report from national healthcare consultancy firm Sage Growth Partners.

Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health System has partnered with musculoskeletal digital health company IncludeHealth to offer patients virtual physical therapy in their homes.