November 11, 2021 | Health care: The last bastion of the fax machine

INDUSTRY NEWS

Health care: The last bastion of the fax machine

At least 70% of health care providers still exchange medical information using a fax machine, reports Bloomberg Law. Reliance on faxes is particularly strong in sectors of the health care system where the adoption of electronic health records systems has lagged. For example, skilled nursing facilities and behavioral health providers didn’t receive federal funds for EHR adoption through the HITECH Act. However, hospitals and providers outfitted with the latest EHR technology still use them to exchange information. Why? Lack of interoperability. (Bloomberg Law)

2020: Steep declines in US life expectancy

The US had the second-steepest decline in life expectancy among high-income countries in 2020, according to research published last week in the BMJ. U.S. men saw life expectancy fall by 2.3 years, from about 76.7 to 74.4. Women lost more than 1.6, from about 81.8 to 80.2. Researchers compared observed life expectancy in 2020 with what would have been expected for the year based on historical trends from 2005-2019. Life expectancy dropped in 31 of the 37 countries studies. Only Russia had a steeper decline. (NBC News; BMJ)

INNOVATION & TRANSFORMATION

More women use telehealth—and startups know it

Women are currently accounting for significantly more visits than men, according to data from U.S.-based telehealth vendors, Healthcare Dive reports. Teladoc said in the first quarter of 2021, women accounted for 64% of general medical visits, while men only accounted for 36%. Experts warn that rolling back telehealth access and affordability will disproportionately affect women—at the same time a growing share of startups are emerging to address women's health needs. Healthcare Dive looks into both trends. (Healthcare Dive)

Streamlined ACA enrollment: No wrong door

Efforts to simplify ACA enrollment will make it easier to identify and enroll those eligible for Medicaid, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That’s because participating states must provide a single application for Medicaid, CHIP and Marketplace coverage—a “no wrong door” application process. All the ACA Marketplaces will screen or assess eligibility for all health coverage programs and individuals will be enrolled in or referred to the program for which they are eligible regardless of how they apply. (Kaiser Family Foundation Policy Watch)

CONSUMERS & PROVIDERS

Family docs ready to deliver COVID vax to kids

Amid “a strained public health system, misinformation and vaccine hesitancy,” vaccinating 28 million children ages 5 to 11 against COVID-19 “will be no easy task,” Sterling N. Ransone, Jr., MD, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, writes in a commentary for USA Today. “Fortunately, the best resources available to move us toward this goal already exist: our nation’s family physicians.” He calls on public health officials and policymakers further engage family physicians and their primary care colleagues to help increase vaccination rates. (USA Today*)

Opinion: We’re failing PCPs

Primary care physicians are dispirited, burned out and leaving the profession, writes family physician Jen Baker-Porazinski, MD. “It is well past time that America's healthcare system supported primary care doctors in their faithful commitment to their calling. As a nation, we can't afford to fail in this. If doctors continue to leave medicine, retire early, or choose to specialize for better pay and less bureaucracy, then who will be left to care for the health of Americans?” (MedPage Today)

NEW & NOTED

Lower all-cause mortality: People vaccinated against COVID-19 are also less likely to die of other causes compared to the unvaccinated, according to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (MedPage Today; Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report)

2020 uninsured rate stable: The rate of uninsured Americans in 2020 remained relatively stable — between 8.6% and 9.7% — despite pandemic-related job losses and other economic challenges, according to data released by HHS. (Axios)

Language barriers to telehealth: Patients with limited English proficiency were less likely to use telehealth video visits when accessing virtual services during the pandemic compared to those comfortable speaking English, according to research published in JAMA Network Open. (mHealth Intelligence JAMA Network Open)

MULTI-MEDIA

COVID may lead to lasting cognitive issues

Preliminary research suggests that SARS-CoV-2 can enter the brain easily through a person's nose, infiltrating brain cells where it lurks unchecked, possibly leading to lasting neurological symptoms, such as trouble with thinking and memory. The research presented at a recent Society for Neuroscience meeting has yet to be peer reviewed. (NBC News)

MARKETVOICES…QUOTES WORTH READING

“Just last week we received faxed medical records for a patient that made a stack two inches thick. It came in two or three different faxes because they ran out of paper half-way through, and it was all disorganized, and there were missing sheets. It was a mess.”—Dr. Subha Airan-Javia, a hospitalist with Penn Medicine and founder and CEO of CareAlign, a developer of communication tools for health care providers, quoted by Bloomberg Law