Telehealth

A cast of insurers are forging ahead with virtual-only healthcare plans, but several are diverging on scope and application.

For many patients, care has been restricted to the four walls of a hospital. With COVID-19, however, those boundaries have blurred, and health systems are finding innovative ways to serve individuals where they are.

Salim Saiyed, MD, vice president and chief medical information officer at Pittsburgh-based UPMC, will serve as course director of the American Board of Telehealth's new teleprimary care certificate program. 

The Biden administration is investing more than $19 million into telehealth services in rural and underserved communities through a series of initiatives, HHS announced Aug. 18. 

Greenville, S.C.-based Prisma Health and TytoCare are partnering to enable remote medical exams with a handheld exam kit provided to the patient.

Researchers from Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine conducted a study in August to determine if the costs hospitals pay for telehealth visits differ from in-person visits.

Telehealth fraud is costing the federal government billions of dollars. Physicians and telehealth company employees have been connected to several kickback schemes and making fraudulent Medicaid and Medicare claims, according to an Aug. 12 National Law Review report.

Philips released two new Philips HealthSuite solutions that utilize the cloud to improve patient care in a scalable and cost-effective model, according to an Aug. 11 ITN Online report.

Amwell reported $60.2 million in revenue during the second quarter of 2021, up 5 percent from the previous quarter. 

Verizon inked a partnership with Apple to integrate data from the tech giant's Health app with its BlueJeans Telehealth platform, the companies said Aug. 11.