March 12, 2020 | Drive-thru coronavirus testing

INDUSTRY NEWS

Interoperability rules released Monday

They’ve arrived. The final versions of companion interoperability and information-blocking proposals came out on Monday. The long-awaited rules from the CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology prohibit information blocking and are intended to give patients more control over their medical data. Better care coordination is another goal: One provision requires hospitals to electronically notify other health care facilities or community providers when a shared patient is admitted, discharged or transferred. The rules generated fierce debate and still face opposition from some provider groups and the health IT industry. (Modern Healthcare)

CWF warns against Medicaid block grants

The Trump administration’s new Medicaid block grant option will result in significantly less federal funding and greater financial risks for states that opt in, a new Commonwealth Fund report warns. The report says the block grants would lead to drastic funding reductions immediately and over the long term. Moreover, most of the savings from Medicaid spending reductions would accrue to the federal government, not the states, according to the report. (CWF report)

INNOVATION & TRANSFORMATION

Medical home certification makes modest difference

Practices certified as medical homes have more practice systems and higher performance on diabetes care than uncertified practices, but the different is “modest,” according to research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers found “some differences in characteristics and practice systems, and in performance measures of diabetes care between practices that are certified as medical homes and those that are not.” They note an association between medical home systems and performance: “Practices wanting to improve their care and performance measures should improve the number and function of practice systems, regardless of certification status.” (Annals of Family Medicine)

Paramedical tattoos: transforming scars

Paramedical tattoo artists are creating intricate fingernails and “filling in the blanks” created by accidents or surgeries using flesh-toned pigments to camouflage imperfections, scars and discolorations. It’s a new field, and some health care professionals are still debating its safety. Because it is cosmetic, patients usually have to pay out of pocket. But at least one artist performs up to eight reconstructive medical tattoos each week for free, with support from a GoFund Me page. (Kaiser Health News)

Colorado as a laboratory for reform

Colorado may be designing the blueprint for addressing health care across the country. State lawmakers have taken on an array of health care issues, including a public option, surprise medical billing, drug importation and high drug costs. Colorado has emerged as a potential model for revamping health care in other states. However, the public option—which is yet to be implemented—remains controversial, with hospitals and insurers stating their opposition. If implemented, the option would be available only to those in the individual market in 2022. (USA Today)

CONSUMERS & PROVIDERS

Mobile security compromises increase

Nearly 38% of health care organizations said they suffered a compromise involving a mobile device in the past year, according to Verizon’s 2020 Mobile Security Index. That’s up from 25% in the 2019 study. Perhaps most concerning, 37% of health care professionals admitted to sacrificing mobile security to “get the job done.” Only 12% of respondents had in place what Verizon considered basic precautions: changing default or vendor-supplied passwords, encrypting data before sending it across public networks, regular security testing and restricting data access to a need-to-know basis. (Healthcare Dive; Verizon study)

NEW & NOTED

Va. caps insulin cost: Virginia lawmakers have overwhelmingly passed legislation to cap insulin prices at $50 per month. Once the bill is signed, Virginia will become the third state—after Colorado and Illinois—to cap costs. Washington has legislation in the pipeline. Those latter three cap the price at $100/month. (The Hill)

Overwhelmed: Roughly 40% of patients with chronic conditions said the burden of managing their care is overwhelming, according to research published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings .“Patients carry unsustainable burdens because of the imbalance between the high health care workloads, which add to the competing demands of life, and their limited capacity to shoulder this burden and access, use, and perform health care tasks.” (Mayo Clinic Proceedings)

Dealing with COVID-19: Learn how your nonprofit can best prepare for the coronavirus at a webinar sponsored by NonProfit WebAdvisor on March 18 at 1 p.m. EDT. Nonprofit attorney Zachary Kester will collect and synthesize the latest guidance from WHO, the CDC, OSHA and others. (details and registration)

No bullying: An international panel of obesity experts has issued a consensus statement calling for an end to the “pervasive, resilient form of social stigma” associated with the disease, noting patient care suffers when clinicians cling to this bias. The statement, published in Nature Medicine, is endorsed by more than 100 professional societies. (Nature Medicine; Medscape)

MULTI-MEDIA

Drive-thru coronavirus testing

Employees of the University of Washington’s UW Medicine system in Seattle have access to drive-through coronavirus testing. The facility—a former hospital garage—can test a person every five minutes. Results are typically returned within a day or so. For now, the clinic will continue to focus on health care workers because they will be essential if the coronavirus continues to spread in the Seattle area. It plans to extend in-car testing to first-responders who may have been exposed. (NPR)

MARKETVOICES...QUOTES WORTH READING

“From a national perspective, …[Colorado] is known as one of the cool places for health care reform, where people are trying new ideas, where there is leadership, where there is community, where there are all the critical elements to get something done.”—Dr. Jay Want, executive director of the Peterson Center for Healthcare, a New York-based health policy think tank, quoted in USA Today