December 9, 2021 | Political polarization over COVID killing thousands

INDUSTRY NEWS

Goozner: Self-interest, silos make interoperability unlikely

Health care in America takes place in silos, and with few exceptions, those fragmented organizations still refuse to communicate with each other, Merrill Goozner writes. Moreover, promoting a national system for data exchange and interoperability is not a major concern in DC. “What prevented implementation of the law calling for health information interoperability? The short answer is the self-interest of every sub-industry within health care.” This has left him skeptical about the likelihood of interoperability anytime soon. “The self-interest of too many powerful players stands in the way, and the government remains in their thrall.” (GoozNews blog)

Physician offices not accommodating visually impaired

Only 10% of doctor's offices in the US provide basic accommodations for patients with severe visual limitations, according to research published in JAMA Ophthalmology. The basic accommodations were defined as always or usually describing the clinic space and always or usually providing printed material in large font. Nearly 63% of non-ophthalmologists and 29.3% of ophthalmologists provided neither accommodation. Only 24% of ophthalmologists provided both. In more than 30 years since enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, “many physicians practicing in the US are not meeting basic accommodation needs of their patients with significant vision limitation,” researchers note. (Reuters Health; JAMA Ophthalmology)

INNOVATION & TRANSFORMATION

630-fold growth in telehealth 2019-2020

Telehealth saw an astounding 63-fold increase between 2019 and 2020, growing from just 840,000 visits in 2019 to 52.7 million in 2020, according to HHS. Mental health has emerged as a key clinical area for telehealth due not only to the pandemic, but also the lack of available providers. However, Healthcare Dive notes that it remains unclear how many COVID-era flexibilities will continue after the national health emergency expires. How much payers will decide to reimburse for the service and how much patient demand will remain once fears of in-office virus transmission are less acute? (Healthcare Dive; HHS report)

CONSUMERS & PROVIDERS

Study: Costs influence use of telehealth

Most Americans (53%) prefer to receive care in person but are generally willing to continue using telehealth services, according to research published in JAMA Network Open. Nearly 30% preferred a telehealth. But patients who preferred telehealth would be less interested if the out-of-pocket cost was higher than for in-person care. Patient “willingness to use telehealth is very sensitive to costs. Patients may not perceive video visits to have the same value as in-person healthcare," RAND’s Zachary S. Predmore, PhD, the lead author, said in a prepared statement. (mHealth Intelligence; JAMA Network Open; RAND announcement)

Long COVID pain is real

Clinicians often fail to acknowledge the pain caused by long COVID, warns attorney Kate M. Nicholson, founder and president of the National Pain Advocacy Center. Pain is increasingly being recognized as a key feature of what is commonly called "long COVID," in which symptoms persist after the acute phase of the viral infection ends. But too often, it’s not taken seriously. “A chronic condition that affects more Americans than any other, and one that is growing amid a global pandemic, should no longer be disregarded. It requires attention — stat.” (STAT)

Nurses still fed up—and have solutions

In a recent survey, 66% of nurses indicated they had at least considered leaving the profession; 37% said they were burned out, stressed and/or overworked. Only 32% said they are very satisfied with their occupation (vs. 52% pre-pandemic). Respondents also identified solutions: For instance, 97% agreed that pay hikes and other incentives would attract and retain nurses, and 85% percent agreed on the need to improve cross training. Cross Country Healthcare and Florida Atlantic University’s College of Nursing conducted the survey. (Healthcare Dive; announcement)

NEW & NOTED

More ACA choices: The number of insurance options in the ACA marketplace has increased since its low in 2018, according to a Health Affairs report. Research found that 1,968 counties (accounting for 66% of the US population younger than 65) have more insurers in 2021 than in 2018. Only 12 counties (comprising 0.4% of the US population younger than 65) have fewer insurers. Nearly 1,500 counties having access to three or more marketplace payers. (Health Affairs)

Calm yourself: Losing one's temper or exercising too rigorously could be contributing factors for a stroke, according to new research published in the European Heart Journal. “Acute anger or emotional upset was associated with the onset of all stroke, ischemic stroke, and ICH [intracerebral hemorrhage], while acute heavy physical exertion was associated with ICH only.” (Fox News; European Heart Journal)

Equal access—sort of: Medicaid members were as likely as those with private coverage to have seen a general practitioner in 2019. However, they were less likely to have a usual place for receiving care, according to a new report from the Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program Payment Access Commission. (Modern Healthcare*)

MULTI-MEDIA

Political polarization over COVID killing thousands

Since May 2021, people living in counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas that voted for Joe Biden, according to a new analysis by NPR. The culprit? Misinformation. (NPR)

MARKETVOICES…QUOTES WORTH READING

“We live surrounded by a vast medical-industrial complex: hospitals; doctors’ offices; walk-in clinics run by governments, pharmacies and worksites; stand-alone emergency rooms, ambulatory surgical centers, dialysis clinics, imaging centers and lab test sites. The profusion of organizations eager to dip into the 18% of gross domestic product devoted to curing the sick is testimony to both America’s entrepreneurial spirit and the wasteful competition it engenders.”—Merrill Goozner, writing in his GoozNews blog