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Infighting continues over healthcare pricing transparency rule
Scott E. Rupp Medical & Allied HealthcareThe healthcare price transparency argument continues. The latest battlefront came with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) adding a new element to its policy, saying it plans to collect data on hospital median payer-specific negotiated rates. That information could be used to set Medicare payment rates. Hospitals immediately returned the volley. It’s not a new development that health systems and some payers loathe the idea of making their pricing models and negotiated rates public.
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AR, VR show promise as innovative ways to control pain, reduce opioid prescriptions
Tammy Hinojos Medical & Allied HealthcarePain management is a major sector in healthcare. The problem has always been there, and it always will be. As long as we have diseases, injuries and major surgeries, pain management will be an area healthcare providers grapple with. But unlike disease, which can be cured in some cases, pain can only be managed. And the opioid crisis that was making headlines before the world health pandemic took center stage has spotlighted the need for alternative means of effectively treating pain.
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Telemedicine, webside manner, and barriers to care
Keith Carlson Medical & Allied HealthcareTelehealth and telemedicine have been gaining in popularity for a number of years, and medical providers' ability to be effective in these very 21st-century roles has truly become a new expectation of practice. In this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for positive patient outcomes vis-à-vis telemedicine has never been so important, or so crucially put to the test. And when social and economic disparities loom large in terms of telemedicine reaching those most in need, we can experience a perfect storm of telehealth’s promises remaining largely unfulfilled.
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How well can your hospital recover after COVID-19? This new study…
Lisa Mulcahy Medical & Allied HealthcareAs a healthcare professional at a hospital, you know your facility has faced its greatest operational challenges ever because of COVID-19. You're no doubt thinking ahead to how your facility will normalize after the crisis eases — but how do you know what areas you need to focus your attention on? A new study from Colorado State University researchers Emad M. Hassan and Hussam Mahmoud, "An Integrated Socio-Technical Approach for Post-Earthquake Recovery of Interdependent Healthcare System," can help give you some vital guidelines.
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Increased telehealth use creates calls for its continued expansion among…
Scott E. Rupp Medical & Allied HealthcareLong seen as a pariah of sorts, the practice of telemedicine is here to stay. Blame COVID-19 and social distancing for breaking the outdated resistance. Telemedicine continues to expand because of the pandemic, including the use of telehealth, remote monitoring technologies, and wearables. Experts say that the use of these technologies is now a way of life for patients and will likely replace some in-person care.
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Nurses: The professional progeny of Florence Nightingale
Keith Carlson Medical & Allied HealthcareFlorence Nightingale, the founder and progenitor of the modern nursing profession, lit a spark several centuries ago that burns within millions of nurses to this day. The lamp that she literally — or metaphorically — lit during the Crimean War continues to illuminate nurses’ paths forward, and her legacy is one that strengthens with age as her offspring continue to advance the profession. And in difficult times such as the current coronavirus pandemic, nurses fight the good fight around the clock.
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Quantifying undetected cases of COVID-19: The pandemic serum sampling study
Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied HealthcareA new study at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, has been initiated to determine how many adults in the U.S. without a confirmed history of COVID-19 infection have antibodies to the virus. This is a serosurvey, and researchers will collect and analyze blood samples from an estimated 15,000 participants (18 years of age and older) who have not had a confirmed history of COVID-19 or current symptoms in an endeavor to provide critical data for epidemiological models.
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Lost hospital revenue comes into view as elective surgeries resume
Scott E. Rupp Medical & Allied HealthcareThe American Hospital Association has released a new report that suggests cratered healthcare finances as a result of COVID-19 have been disproportionally devastating for hospitals and health systems. The report says losses to these organizations will surpass $200 billion during the first four months of the outbreak from March through June 2020. The losses are not directly related to coronavirus itself but are due to the massive ancillary response to curbing the spread of the virus.
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CMS continues expanding services in response to COVID-19
Scott E. Rupp Medical & Allied HealthcareThe Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced several changes pertaining to delivering care to seniors and to "provide flexibility to the healthcare system as America reopens" from the economic shutdown brought on by COVID-19, the agency said in a statement on April 30. The changes are many and include making it easier for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to get tested for COVID-19, the expansion of telehealth services, and the dismissal of rules for how certain groups can be treated and where.
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COVID-19 crisis slows organ transplants nationwide
Chelsea Adams Medical & Allied HealthcareAs ICUs have filled up with COVID-19 patients, the number of organ transplants have decreased significantly nationwide. Data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) showed transplants decreased sharply in early March. By the last week of month, half the number of transplants were performed as in the first week. According to the UNOS, there were about 900 transplants the week of Feb. 16. By March 29, that number had fallen to 437. Living donor programs have seen the most significant drop.
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