Becker's Hospital Review

44 CIO / HEALTH IT 'The genie's out of the bottle on this one': Seema Verma hints at the future of telehealth By Laura Dyrda W hen the COVID-19 pandemic be- gan and it became clear telehealth would be necessary for physicians and nurses to treat patients remotely, CMS boosted rates for telehealth visits so they matched rates for in-clinic visits and would sustain providers during the pandemic. CMS also relaxed its guidelines about the type of telehealth visits it would cover, mak- ing them accessible to nearly all beneficiaries and situations. Health systems pivoted to vir- tual visits for primary care and non-emergent visits as well as check-ins for patients with chronic conditions. Private payers followed suit and many updated their coverage guide- lines and rates through the summer of 2020. During the first weeks of the pandemic, health systems including St. Louis-based Ascension and Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health reported huge increases in telehealth visits, according to e Wall Street Journal. e increased availability and coverage for tele- health visits have been crucial in the adoption by providers and patients, and now both are becoming comfortable with telehealth visits; many in the industry predict that telehealth is here to stay. But what about the policies that made it possible? Both CMS and private payers currently have an expiration date on their enhanced telehealth coverage post-pandemic. Before COVID-19, CMS only covered telehealth vis- its in certain situations and most beneficia- ries didn't have access to it. e coverage rates from both public and private payers were typically much lower than in-person visits at practices or hospital-based clinics. e cov- erage was a roadblock for adoption for some healthcare providers. e Wall Street Journal reported that CMS telehealth visits went from 10,000 per week to 300,000 per week as of March 28, and the number only went up. "I think the genie's out of the bottle on this one," Seema Verma, the CMS administrator, said. "I think it's fair to say that the advent of telehealth has been just completely ac- celerated, that it's taken this crisis to push us to a new frontier, but there's absolutely no going back." If the telehealth coverage is relaxed and pay- ments are increased, there is some concern about over-utilization. While CMS has not made any perma- nent updates for telehealth yet, Ms. Ver- ma did call telehealth a "clear example of untapped innovation." n Adventist Health to launch 150-bed virtual hospital: 5 things to know By Jackie Drees R oseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health began admitting pa- tients to its first virtual hospital May 11, according to NBC af- filiate KGET. Five things to know: 1. Through the program, dubbed Adventist Health Hospital@Home, the health system will use virtual technology to treat hundreds of patients in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. 2. The virtual hospital will provide 150 beds initially; physicians and nurses will provide care via video visits and remote monitoring of vital signs. 3. Nurses and other healthcare professionals will provide in-home visits, and patients will be able to have lab tests, mobile imaging such as X-rays and ultrasound, and IV therapies performed at home. 4. Patients will have 24/7 access to their care teams via telemedicine. 5. Adventist Health will accept most insurance plans, and there are no extra costs for the program besides standard outpatient copays, co-insurance and deductibles, according to the system's website. n Former clinic administrator gets 4 years for stealing, selling patient information By Laura Dyrda A Florida woman was sentenced to four years in federal prison May 19 for us- ing medical records at clinics where she worked to steal and sell patient identities. Stacey Lavette Hendricks pleaded guilty Jan. 30 to stealing patients' information while working in administrative roles at several Florida medical clinics and selling it for cash. Stolen information included birth dates and Social Security numbers. Ms. Hendricks also used the patients' identities to defraud businesses. Last year, she sold the stolen information to an undercover law enforcement officer and a search of her home and car turned up 113 identities stolen from patients, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Senior U.S. District Judge James Wittemore sen- tenced Ms. Hendricks May 19. n

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