Healthcare organizations continue to grapple with a shrinking and burned-out workforce while simultaneously working to fulfill their missions of delivering high-quality care and expanding access. That has prompted a need for innovative solutions that can extend the reach of traditional care.

Bay Pines (Fla.) VA Healthcare is rolling out a telehealth system for physicians and nurses in its intensive care unit, WTSP reported Dec. 1.

The American Hospital Association is asking the Drug Enforcement Administration to extend and clarify pandemic-era rules that allowed providers to prescribe addiction-treatment medications through telehealth.

Over the past two years, the healthcare sector has been challenged to rapidly adopt a variety of technology trends like telehealth, as well as to closely follow an accelerated level of innovation in medical devices and new approaches for delivering care. These trends have underscored the importance of connectivity in solving for the latest challenges of the day. In fact, the Federal Communications Commission recently acknowledged that reliable cellular connectivity is a social determinant of health.

As hospitals and health systems increasingly look to remotely monitor patients for a variety of chronic conditions, Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente is already tracking the diabetes of nearly 40,000 people from the comfort of their homes.

AvaSure, an acute virtual care and patient monitoring company, has named four C-suite executives to its team.

Nest Collaborative, a virtual breastfeeding support platform, has partnered with Kettering (Ohio) Health to provide telehealth breastfeeding support to patients giving birth at the system's maternity centers. 

More than 100 health startups and medical associations are lobbying for permanent permission to prescribe controlled substances via telehealth, a permission that has been temporarily granted due to the pandemic-era flexibilities, The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 25. 

Omaha, Neb.-based CHI Health sent a letter to Congress on Nov. 28 urging them to continue the pandemic-era safe harbor for first-dollar high deductible health plan telehealth coverage.

Healthcare organizations are faced with myriad pressures ranging from controlling costs to dealing with labor shortages, addressing changing consumer dynamics and maintaining patient loyalty.

Amwell is reportedly exploring a $200 million buyout of online therapy company Talkspace, Seeking Alpha reported Nov. 28. 

Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Avera Health has received $2.5 million from the Health Resources and Services Administration to address the workforce shortage through telehealth, virtual nursing and rural healthcare education.

As telehealth use expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, many states passed laws requiring payers to reimburse providers at the same rate as in-person visits. But not all of them.

Becker’s has covered five health systems implementing new telehealth programs since Oct. 27:

Penn Medicine's telehealth program was able to help alleviate barriers to opioid use disorder treatment and increased buprenorphine prescriptions by 89 percent, according to a study published Nov. 16 in NEJM Catalyst.

South Dakota is spending $1.7 million to install telehealth services in ambulances through a partnership with Sioux Falls-based telehealth provider Avel eCare, The Mitchell Republic reported Nov. 21.

Attorneys general in 45 states signed a letter urging the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to permanently extend COVID-19 pandemic-era telehealth flexibilities that allowed clinicians to prescribe buprenorphine to patients over the phone, without an in-person or video evaluation. 

Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health has rolled out two new telehealth programs for patients seeking treatments for common ailments.

Telehealth support company OpenLoop is partnering with BlueJeans by Verizon to provide its clients with access to BlueJeans' HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform. 

Telehealth company Teladoc has reached the 50 million visit milestone, and a quarter of Americans now have access to Teladoc through their employer or health plan.