October 29, 2020 | A third of seniors prescribed inappropriate meds
INDUSTRY NEWS
Many MA plans to offer supplemental COVID benefits
More than a third of Medicare Advantage plans will start offering new supplemental benefits related to COVID-19, and 94% of MA plans will offer telehealth benefits for Medicare Part B covered services, according to analysis from Avalere Health. Overall, 34% of MA plans will offer supplemental benefits tied to the pandemic, and 27% of all MA plans will offer COVID-19 care and relief packages to beneficiaries with such items as masks, hand sanitizer, thermometers, etc. covered. (FierceHealthcare; Avalere analysis)
Florida has, over three years, paid more than $5 million for the Florida Health Price Finder website (pricing.floridahealthfinder.gov). However, the site has generated only 131,653 visits since its launch in November 2017, the Jacksonville Business Journal reports. Among the problems: It doesn’t provide facility-level cost information to consumers; it just shows average costs at the national, state and county levels. It was also slow to launch, due in part to delays in putting in place rules to get companies such as Florida Blue, AvMed, Health Options, Capital Health Plan and Florida Health Care Plan to submit the data. (Jacksonville Business Journal; WUSF)
INNOVATION & TRANSFORMATION
Augmenting EHR with SDOH data improves risk assessment
Integrating patient-reported social determinants of health data into the EHR can better identify individuals who are at a high-risk for hospitalization, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. “Augmenting EHR data with patient-reported social information improved estimation of 90-day and 180-day hospitalization risk, highlighting specific [SDOH] factors that might identify individuals who are at high risk for hospitalization,” researchers conclude. (JAMA Network Open)
Survey: Employers to roll out new care delivery models
A Willis Towers Watson survey of 397 employers finds that 73% plan to roll out new health delivery models in the next three years. These models include high-performance networks and centers of excellence. In addition, 53% said they had already rolled out these models in the prior three years. “No longer satisfied with traditional strategies, an increasing number of employers are searching for ways to better manage quality of health care with emerging and more cost-effective delivery options,” Julie Stone, managing director of health and benefits at Willis Towers Watson said in a statement. (FierceHealthcare; survey results)
CONSUMERS & PROVIDERS
A third of seniors prescribed inappropriate meds
The prescription of potentially inappropriate medications to older adults (65+) is linked to increased hospitalizations, and it costs patients, on average, $458 per year, according to research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The researchers also found that more than 34% of adults age 65 and older were prescribed these problematic drugs. The potentially inappropriate medications examined included antidepressants, barbiturates, androgens, estrogens, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, first-generation antihistamines and antipsychotics. (Journal of the American Geriatrics Society; HealthLeaders Media; UB Now)
Patient messages add to PCP EHR inbox burden
Primary care physicians spend roughly an extra hour per day on EHR inbox management—and patient-initiated messages account for most of those messages, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Specifically, PCPs spent an average of 52 minutes on inbox management on workdays, including 19 minutes outside work hours. Patient-initiated messages (28%) and results (29%) accounted for the most inbox work time. Researchers made several recommendations, including allowing for “screening and categorization of patient-initiated messages, automatically or by assistants, which can help PCPs prioritize or delegate some messages.” (JAMIA; EHR Intelligence)
NEW & NOTED
Cancer screening way down: Preventive cancer screenings plummeted during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with colon and breast cancer screenings down 75% and 85%, respectively, and remained depressed through the summer, according to research published in JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics. “These problems, if unmitigated, will increase cancer morbidity and mortality for years to come,” researchers conclude. (JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics)
Tea and coffee, please: Drinking green tea and coffee was associated with reduced all-cause mortality in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes. The benefits were even greater in those who drank both. (BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care)
Amazon to expand virtual clinic? Amazon Care, the company’s virtual clinic for its Washington employees, is seeking to “build and grow relationships with commercial and public sector enterprises,” CNBC reports. It has already begun reaching out to health plans and employers to discuss expansion, according to an insider. At most, this is all exploratory, but Amazon has been known to test products on its own workforce before expanding to the general public. (CNBC)
MULTI-MEDIA
In this seven-minute video, patient advocate Swapna Kakani shares her story of living with a chronic rare disease and how that led her into becoming a patient advocate—part of the emerging wave of patient leaders. (Healthcare IT News)
MARKETVOICES...QUOTES WORTH READING
“The current impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer care in the United States has resulted in decreases and delays in identifying new cancers and delivery of treatment. These problems, if unmitigated, will increase cancer morbidity and mortality for years to come.”—researchers writing in JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics