HIMSSCast

The American Telemedicine Association and other business groups want Congress to continue allowing telehealth services to be treated as an excepted benefit, and senior assistance company Papa raises $150 million in Series D funding.

Health care employee well-being is often touted as a business necessity, and strong evidence confirms that it’s smart business. Accenture’s multi-industry “Care to do Better” study shows how it unlocks workers’ full potential, with significant positive business impact. The study references the Accenture “Net Better Off” framework, which quantifies human well-being in terms of six dimensions. Learn how human pressures affect your health workforce and uncover our four suggestions to leave your staff (and business) better off.

After its rapid adoption during the pandemic, virtual care is here to stay. Going forward, providers must balance in-person and virtual care to provide a seamless experience for patients along every step of the care journey.Lisa Johnson, managing director, Tegria, and Srini Surendranath, Chief Product & Strategy Officer, Andor Health, discuss how understanding the patient journey is vital for developing workflows that incorporate both virtual and in-person care.

Recently, the HIMSSCast team had a chance to sit down with a wide range of healthcare innovators at HLTH in Boston to discuss what they saw as the major trends shaping the evolution of heathcare. One that came up over and over again was value-based care. We talked to notables including Jonathan Bush, Glenn Tullman, Toyin Ajayi and many more about how changing how we pay for healthcare is opening the door to radically re-imagine how we provide it.This is the first in a series of "Industry Voices" episodes where we'll feature a wide range of guests speaking on a single theme.More about this episode:'You can’t navigate your way through a broken system': Transcarent's Glen Tullman on healthcare cost, quality'Omnichannel' is the new watchword as big tech, retail get serious about healthcareHow retail giant Walmart plans to disrupt the healthcare industryRetail giant Best Buy snaps up remote monitoring company Current HealthInnovation can increase the value of employer-sponsored careFirefly Health launches virtual-first health plan for small and mid-sized employersCityblock rakes in $400M for platform focused on Medicaid and low-income populations and other digital health fundingsModernizing Medicare and Medicaid means addressing the affordability crisis

A shortage of nurses and other healthcare workers continue to hurt hospitals' financial performance, and senior living communities and health systems will soon be able to use the Alexa voice assistant at scale.

In the final podcast in our Virtual Care paradigm series, we look at how virtual care for mental health can benefit not only patients but also physicians themselves, who face many barriers to mental health care and as a result suffer from high levels of stress, burnout, and even suicide. To discuss this issue and its potential solution, host Jonah Comstock is joined by Kavi Misri, founder and CEO of Rose Health, and Dr. Matthew Peters, chief medical officer at Rose Health and an associate professor and practicing physician at Johns Hopkins.Talking points:How the Rose Health system works and why it was developedMental health assessment scores and why they helpUsing the Rose Health system to combat physician burnoutIssues that arise when clinicians seek mental health treatmentPhysician burnout in this pandemic momentVirtual care and how it can helpFitting mental health into the busy physician lifestyleThe vicious cycle of staff shortages and burnoutPositive indications from Rose’s early effortsMore about this episode:Brigham and Women's pilots new program to support provider mental healthBurnout in the Age of COVID-19, a Healthcare IT News special projectGaining trust starts with knowing the patient, provider (this episode's companion HIMSS TV episode)Digital therapeutic 'HelloBetter Stress and Burnout' available to 50 million adults in GermanyClinicians share technology’s two-sided effect on burnout

Democrats push for healthcare provisions in reconciliation bill; Google unveils mobile version of Care Studio. Plus: Providence CIO touts benefits of AI and machine learning.Links to the stories:CBO estimates $553 billion price tag for healthcare provisions in reconciliation packageGoogle rolls out mobile app version of Care StudioHow CIOs are prioritizing AI investments for the next 5 years

Here  why Fast Interoperability Health Resources, or FHIR, is the new agent of change in healthcare.  Organizations around the world are capitalizing on FHIR adoption, using the new data standard to kickstart their legacy modernization and digital transformation journey.

Medicare Advantage star ratings released; Security firm raises FIN12 ransomware attack concerns. Plus: Withings receivesan FDA clearance for Scan Watch’s ECG and SpO2 monitoring features .Links to the stories:See the rankings: More than 70 health plans earned 5 stars in Medicare Advantage star ratingsCyber experts warn of 'aggressive' threat actor targeting healthcareWithings scores FDA clearance for smartwatch ECG and SpO2 monitoring

The CDC's Diabetes Prevention Program is one of the first lifestyle and behavior-based interventions to be proven, in a large clinical study, to be more effective than a comparable drug (in this case metformin). Digital implementations can make the DPP more accessible and more scalable, and a number of digital health companies have been tackling this for the last few years.Fruit Street Health is one of those companies and its CEO Laurence Girard joins host Jonah Comstock on today's HIMSSCast to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and successes his company has had in this space.Talking points:A brief history of the CDC Diabetes Prevention ProgramWhy Fruit Street and others are taking the DPP digitalChallenges and opportunities of virtual DPP implementationOngoing reimbursement challenges with Medicare and MedicaidAdvantages of group-based programs via video chatsQuestions and misconceptions about scalabilityMaking sure pre-diabetes interventions work for everyoneCultural food expectations and combatting food deserts, both through partnershipsDirect-to-consumer DPP outreachAre DPP programs (in-person and virtual) making a dent in the problem?More about this episode:Fruit Street to deliver CDC's National Diabetes Prevention Program through live video classesFruit Street Health raises $3 million in doctors-only roundUK passes on Apple, Google's Bluetooth contact tracing tool, Fruit Street Health launches COVID-19 telemedicine platform and more digital health news briefsAHIP, CDC to partner on diabetes preventionMedicare to reimburse for Diabetes Prevention Program, including Omada's digital versionDiabetes Prevention Program under the Affordable Care Act is working, HHS Secretary Burwell saysAmerican Medical Association pushes public, private health plans to cover National Diabetes Prevention ProgramCMS calls for extending Diabetes Prevention Program into Medicare, proposes new doc fees to boost chronic care