COVID-19: Telehealth and Virtual Care
The White House Aug. 3 issued an executive order on 鈥渋mproving rural health and telehealth access.鈥 The order includes directives to: launch a new payment model for rural health care; develop and implement a strategy to improve rural health care infrastructure; create a report describing policy鈥
AHA released The Future of Telehealth 鈥 Protecting Patient Access to Care, which urges Congress and the Administration to ensure telehealth flexibilities remain in place after the COVID-19 public health emergency and to reimburse virtual services on par with in-person care.
Telehealth connects patients to vital health care services through videoconferencing, remote monitoring, electronic consults and wireless communications.
On June 10, Clarke County Hospital, a 25-bed critical access hospital in Osceola, Iowa, was awarded by the Federal Communications Commission, $170,072 as part of the agency鈥檚 COVID-19 Telehealth Program. 鈥 The program is part of the FCC鈥檚 response to the COVID-19 public health emergency and will鈥
Monitoring confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients at home and remaining in regular contact can be a challenge, but the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) has come up with an automated text messaging system that has been working effectively.
House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., released separate legislative proposals that would make permanent certain Medicare telehealth flexibilities allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Harvard University鈥檚 Kennedy School, the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and the United Nations recently collaborated on a platform to produce a decision-making tool that initially will focus on digital contact tracing of coronavirus infections. The platform, which鈥
At the peak of New York state鈥檚 COVID-19 outbreak, Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx was at the epicenter. For the behavioral health center, that meant greatly expanding its already innovative use of digital solutions to connect with its patients. This would be needed to continue to serve the鈥
AHA has tracked the stories of several rural community hospitals as part of our coverage of COVID-19. Those stories and their podcasts may be found on the AHA website. As part of this series we share how rural hospitals have found new ways of delivering care to patients under COVID-19. Today, we鈥
The Federal Communications Commission鈥檚 Rural Health Care Program will carry forward up to $197.98 million in unused funds from prior years to increase available funding for 2020 to $802.74 million if needed, the agency announced.