Beware Of Fake Telehealth Companies

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A flurry of start-ups have been advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Tik-Tok touting medications which are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the purpose the advertisement is pushing.  For instance, the Wall Street Journal reported that start-up Home Health ran an ad with a middle-aged man holding a dumbbell and saying testosterone “literally changed my life” restoring his energy and happiness.  The problem is, the man is an actor who has never used the drug and the ad doesn’t mention that testosterone is only approved by the FDA for treating specific disorders and carries with it the risk of heart attacks and stroke.  Beware of these ads,  they have increased significantly since the pandemic began.

Medicare And MediCal Fraud Likely Involved In Some TeleHealth claims

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The federal government has generally been in favor of TeleHealth since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.  However, a recent report from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found less than 1% of the 742K Medicare-certified doctors billed Medicare nearly $28 million in TeleHealth claims that resulted in a half million claims that are “problematic.”  This is sure to cause further investigation.

Monterey, CA Telehealth Continues To Boom

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Telehealth continues to boom even as the pandemic has begun to slow.  It’s quicker, easier, and doctors can see more patients.  Prior to the pandemic, telehealth made up less than 0.01% of healthcare visits across the United States.  By mid-April of 2020, that number had jumped to 69%.  Both Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, or CHOMP, and Dignity Health care are actively promoting telehealth.  This is particularly great news for those with rare diseases for which there are just a handful of specialists nationwide.  A new study found that 83% of those with rare diseases were offered a telehealth visit by their health care provider and 92% of those felt it was a positive experience.

Telehealth Use Remains Popular With Patients And Physicians

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The use of Telehealth soared during the early days of the pandemic, but still remains strong years into the coronavirus pandemic.  Prior to this crisis, most health care plans covered Telehealth, but very few patients used it.  Social distancing to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 led many health care providers to start delivering more services remotely.  Medicare suspended restrictions on which telehealth services it covered, the geographic location of the beneficiary and whether the visit had to originate in a health care facility.  This further fueled the use of Telehealth by seniors.  A new study used data from Cosmos, a HIPAA-defined Limited Data Set of more than 126 million patients from 156 organizations including data from 889 hospital and 19,420 clinics from 50 states. It found that Telehealth use soared from less than 1% before the pandemic to 13% of outpatient visits in the first 6 months of the pandemic, then declined to 11% during the next 6 month period and was down to 8% in the latest period measured (March-August of 2021).  Still, 8% is a pretty high number and it’s nice seniors still have this option under the current Medicare system.

Telehealth Has Become The Norm For Seniors During The Pandemic

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Telehealth has become a normal part of the daily life of seniors, although there has been a big behind the scene battle being played out as Medicare has threatened to stop reimbursing for these visits once the pandemic has lifted.  However, with the new Omicron strain of COVID-19 spreading like wildfire, for now, at least, Medicare has backed down and extended coverage of remote health care through at least 2023.  Granted, it does have its limitations.  For instance, patients and physicians worry that the lack of face-to-face visits won’t allow the doctor to pick up on subtle clues about the patient’s health that body language might reveal with a personal visit.  However, with 52.7 million Medicare visits clocked last year versus only 840K in 2019, clearly something is working!

Pebble Beach, CA Telemedicine Is Here To Stay, Says Medicare

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More than three times as many Medicare beneficiaries had access to their doctors via a phone or video visit during the pandemic than before, a trend which is likely to continue with the new COVID-19 variant causing another surge in coronavirus cases.  The Kaiser Foundation, which recently conducted a study on this issue, said that expanded telehealth care is really good news for people of color, those with disabilities and low income families.   Those living in rural areas had difficulty getting to the doctor even before coronavirus.  Believe it or not, Monterey County is considered rural and indeed in South and North County populations are spread out over quite a large footprint. Thankfully, in early 2020, Medicare expanded coverage of such visits to enable all enrollees to keep up with their medical care while minimizing their r4isk of exposure to the coronavirus.  Although the rules only extend through the end of 2021, there are a number of bills in Congress which would make telehealth coverage permanent.

https://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-2021/telehealth-increase-covid-pandemic.html

Salinas, CA Seniors Turning To Telehealth Amidst Coronavirus Pandemic : By Derek Baine

More and more seniors are turning to Telehealth programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  “When you’re not feeling well, having to get up, get dressed and drive all the way to the hospital and then get in line and then possibly get sick from someone else is not all that appealing,” Marla Jo Fisher, a writer, told AARP Bulletin (November 2020, page 44).  Medicare is expanding coverage of telehealth visits during the pandemic, changes which hopefully will remain in place.  The Department of Health and Human Services recently reported that less than 1% of primary care visits in February were via Telehealth, a number which jumped to 43.5% in April.  California has a bill going into effect on January 1 requiring all insurers to pay for Telehealth visits.  If your doctor isn’t using Telehealth, talk to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, CHOMP, on suggestions.

https://www.chomp.org/find-a-doctor/doctor-search-results/?termId=a826e4db-730c-e611-9cf8-005056a462a1#.X9fgodhKjcs

Monterey, CA Seniors Turning To Telehealth Amidst Coronavirus Pandemic : By Derek Baine

More and more seniors are turning to Telehealth programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  “When you’re not feeling well, having to get up, get dressed and drive all the way to the hospital and then get in line and then possibly get sick from someone else is not all that appealing,” Marla Jo Fisher, a writer, told AARP Bulletin.  Medicare is expanding coverage of telehealth visits during the pandemic, changes which hopefully will remain in place.  The Department of Health and Human Services recently reported that less than 1% of primary care visits in February were via Telehealth, a number which jumped to 43.5% in April.  California has a bill going into effect on January 1 requiring all insurers to pay for Telehealth visits.  If your doctor isn’t using Telehealth, talk to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, CHOMP, on suggestions.

https://www.chomp.org/find-a-doctor/doctor-search-results/?termId=a826e4db-730c-e611-9cf8-005056a462a1#.X9fgodhKjcs

Telehealth Booming During Pandemic

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Telehealth has expanded rapidly during the pandemic, and is likely here to stay.  Before the pandemic, Medicare was limited to beneficiaries living in rural areas only, with many restrictions on where you could receive services and by whom.  In early 2020, however, Congress and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded coverage to make it easier to use Telehealth services.  Hopefully this will remain intact.  Under current rules, the expanded Telehealth coverage is set to expire once the pandemic is over.

https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/medicare-and-telehealth-coverage-and-use-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-options-for-the-future/?utm_campaign=KFF-2021-The-Latest&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=128256590&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–RXNnPjavKL184o0qKSG9L1m0wDM8ttcr5udBuLn5BgacMbgQX0oDKczuGvZJGgClVcbhGNBl_99-oxdqb74zYkr-vsg&utm_content=128256590&utm_source=hs_email

Pacific Grove, CA Seniors Turning To Telehealth Amidst Coronavirus Pandemic

A doctor holding a stethoscope with his hand

More and more seniors are turning to Telehealth programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  “When you’re not feeling well, having to get up, get dressed and drive all the way to the hospital and then get in line and then possibly get sick from someone else is not all that appealing,” Marla Jo Fisher, a writer, told AARP Bulletin (November 2020, page 44).  Medicare is expanding coverage of telehealth visits during the pandemic, changes which hopefully will remain in place.  The Department of Health and Human Services recently reported that less than 1% of primary care visits in February were via Telehealth, a number which jumped to 43.5% in April.  California has a bill going into effect on January 1 requiring all insurers to pay for Telehealth visits.  If your doctor isn’t using Telehealth, talk to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, CHOMP, on suggestions.

https://www.chomp.org/find-a-doctor/doctor-search-results/?termId=a826e4db-730c-e611-9cf8-005056a462a1#.X9fgodhKjcs