Managed Care UPDATES
Trends in Outpatient Care Delivery and Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US Research Letter, JAMA Intern Med The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically altered patterns of health care delivery in the US. In the context of declining in-person outpatient visits, many clinicians began using telemedicine for the first time, spurred in part by regulatory changes that expanded public and private insurer reimbursement for a wider range of telemedicine services. To understand how telemedicine compensated for declining outpatient volume and geographic variation in changing patterns of outpatient care, we examined telemedicine and in-person outpatient visits in 2020 among a national sample of 16.7 million individuals with commercial or Medicare Advantage insurance. Read more at https://jamanetwork.com/journals/ jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2773059 Saving Medicare for Baby Boomers and Beyond—A Looming Fiscal Crisis Editor’s Comment, JAMA Health Forum The fiscal future of Medicare is an unavoidable challenge for the US federal government. The Medicare trustees’ annual report to Congress in April 2020 projected that the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will become insolvent in 2026, when revenues will cover only 90% of expected Part A expenditures. Financed primarily through Medicare payroll taxes on working adults (nearly 90% of revenue) and income taxes on Social Security benefits of retired adults (approximately 8% of revenue), this trust fund covers Part A benefits for Medicare beneficiaries receiving hospital, skilled nursing, home health, and hospice care. Read more at https://jamanetwork.com/channels/health-forum/fullarticle/2773054 Cost Minimization Analysis of a Teledermatology Triage System in a Managed Care Setting JN Learning, JAMA Dermatology Interview with Erin Amerson, MD, author of Cost Minimization Analysis of a Teledermatology Triage System in a Managed Care Setting. Listen here https://edhub.ama-assn.org/jn-learning/ audio-player/18561081 Association of Race, Health Insurance Status, and Household Income With Location and Outcomes of Ambulatory Surgery Among Adult Patients in 2 US States Original Investigation, JAMA Surgery In this cohort study of 13 million patients who received ambulatory surgery in New York and Florida between 2011 and 2013, the likelihood of receiving surgery at a freestanding ambulatory surgery center compared with a hospital-based outpatient department was significantly lower among patients who were Black, had public health insurance, and resided in rural areas. Read more at https:// jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/article-abstract/2770165 www.aamcn.org | Vol. 7, No. 4 | Journal of Managed Care Nursing
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