Practice Management
New guidelines from The Joint Commission clarify what clinicians are allowed to convey via text messages. Urgent care providers should especially be aware that clinicians are allowed to text each other using a HIPAA-compliant platform as long as they don’t do so to send patient care orders. The new guidance, drawn up in consultation with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, also stipulates that all healthcare organizations should have policies prohibiting the use of …
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We told you months ago the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was assessing the viability and wisdom of banning use of powdered gloves in operating rooms and, more applicable to urgent care operators and clinicians, exam rooms. Now the agency says it has gathered sufficient evidence to publish a final rule banning the gloves, as well as absorbable powder for lubricating rubber gloves, due to “present an unreasonable and substantial risk of illness or injury. …
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The Texas Association of Business—the state’s chamber of commerce, essentially—is pushing lawmakers to come up with a bill that would allow more patients to use telemedicine. The TAB says the move is necessary after a decade of rising healthcare premiums and deductibles, which has increased the burden both on its members and their employees. Loosening restrictions on telemedicine has seen opposition from the physician-led Texas Medical Board, whose efforts have seen to it that the …
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Legislators in New Jersey are weighing the relative benefits of telemedicine in order to ensure the evolving technology is used properly—namely, that there’s no danger of virtual doctor visits taking the place of in-person care then the latter is clearly needed. Advocates point out that sometimes patients need to see a physician after even urgent care centers have close, though their symptoms don’t warrant an expensive trip to the emergency room. Detractors say some patients …
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Vermont is aiming to lower incidence of opioid addiction by putting new restrictions on prescribers. For starters, the state health department has recommended limiting the number of opioid pills a doctor can prescribe; Gov. Peter Shumlin suggested 10 would be appropriate for patients undergoing minor procedures like those that might be performed in the urgent care setting, but the proposal currently on the table frames the amount as a “5-day supply for acute pain.” That …
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Medicaid patients in Missouri will have to fork over an $8 copay before receiving care in the emergency room, thanks to a new bill that aims to reduce overusage in the ED. The bill allows for free visits to urgent care centers, however. Senate Bill 608 also gives physician offices the right to assess Medicaid patients a $5 penalty if they make a habit of missing appointments without 24-hours’ notice; miss an appointment once and …
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Payers, politicians, and practitioners don’t often line up on the same side of issues, but in Colorado they’re united in their distaste for a proposed single-payer system that would increase health coverage in the state—at the cost of a $25 billion tax increase that could drive employers out, some fear. Proponents counter that “ColoradoCare” would end up saving more than $6 billion annually by 2019. Under the program, residents would choose among private health insurance …
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California residents who have to visit out-of-network medical providers will get much-needed economic protection under a new bill just passed by state legislators. The bipartisan bill, AB72, assures that patients who received care in in-network facilities would have to pay only in-network cost sharing, regardless of whether the provider who treated the patient is in-network or out-of-network. This would not apply to self-insured employer health plans, however, which are shielded from state regulations by the …
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The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act—better (if not more affectionately) known as HIPAA—was signed into effect in 1996, around the time that the World Wide Web was viewed as the wild frontier. In 2016, the internet is now The Establishment, every citizen of the United States has access to health insurance, and electronic data drive everything from who’s “trending” on Instagram to local, regional, and national expectations of the coming flu season. Even firewalls …
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Project ECHO—Extension for Community Health Outcomes—has helped physicians in rural New Mexico connect with specialists their patients would otherwise never be able to see since 2003. Now a pair of out-of-state senators want to see the program become the model for a national system telehealth system. The ECHO Act, cosponsored by Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Orrin Hatch of Utah, would require the Department of Health and Human Services to work with the Health …
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