...stabilize. FAIR Health’s latest reports for August and September report that the percent of medical claims coded as telehealth are back up to 5.4%. June and July dropped slightly to 5.2% and 5.3% respectively. Also steady are that the vast majority of claims are for mental health services. In September, they were 66% of diagnoses far ahead of ‘acute respiratory diseases and infections’ at 3.1%. In procedure codes, psychotherapy accounts for over 43%. A patent troll Epically bites the dust. Back in the early to mid-2010s [TTA’s index here], patent trolls (technically non-practicing entities which have no active business) presented... Continue Reading
Search Results for "FAIR Health"
Weekend short takes: May telehealth claims up to 5.4%; three health plan breaches, one at its law firm–affecting over 400,000 patients; layoffs hit Calm, Truepill (updated)
FAIR Health’s telehealth claims took two bumps up in both April and May. In April, telehealth medical claims moved slightly upward to 4.9% from March’s 4.6%, but May increased 10% to 5.4%, a percentage not seen since May 2021. Mental health conditions still make up the vast bulk of claims at 62.8%, but 3.6% of telehealth claims involve COVID-19 diagnoses, with 3.2% of claims for respiratory diseases and infections. This is attributed to a regional increase in the Southern and Western states of the latest variants of COVID-19. FAIR Health monthly tracker main page Priority Health, a Michigan-based nonprofit health... Continue Reading
Wednesday news roundup: March telehealth claims down to 4.6%, state telehealth waivers expiring, UnitedHealth’s Optum bids for EMIS, Talkspace reportedly rejected Amwell, Mindpath bids
Telehealth usage continuing its downward trend. At 4.6%, telehealth medical claims in March were off over 6% (0.3 points) versus February’s 4.9%. Again, 65% of claims were for mental health conditions, and social workers were the leading providers of telehealth at 32% for primarily one hour of psychotherapy at 26%. FAIR Health monthly US tracker. One possible contributing factor is states pulling back on the broad telehealth provider location and other waivers (such as platforms) that were enacted during the Covid emergency. These waivers primarily permitted out-of-state providers. The expiration of waivers thus return telehealth delivery to in-state licensed providers... Continue Reading
News roundup: telehealth claims drop 9% in February; Amwell’s good news, bad news Q1; tech-enabled practice Crossover Health growing; NowRx and Hyundai test semi-self-driving delivery
FAIR Health’s February monthly tracker is pointing downward again. After a brief post-holiday rise to 5.4% of claims in January, it dropped to 4.9% in February, a 9% drop. Mental health claims seized the lead again by a country mile at 64.2% of claims. COVID-19 fell off the list of top 5 claim areas, though only 3.4% in January compared to 58.9% for mental health. This month lists categories of specialists delivering telehealth, and social workers topped the list at over 31%, which fits the telemental health picture. Amwell’s shaky opening to 2022. It should not come as any surprise... Continue Reading
Weekend roundup: telehealth claims ticked up again in January, Walmart opens Florida health ‘superstores’, Blue Shield California partners with Walgreens’ Health Corners
...2022 58.9 3.4 3.4 December 2021 55.0 6.0 4.8 November 2021 62.2 4.5 1.4 February and March claims will be the proof, but telehealth is leveling off to a steady 4-5% range of claims with seasonal rises, barring any mass infectious diseases. The FAIR Health monthly map also enables drill-down by region. Healthcare Dive Walmart Health ‘superstores’ open in Florida, finally. The concept, which had gradually spread to 20 locations in Arkansas, Georgia, and Illinois starting in 2019, now has two locations in the Jacksonville area. Three additional locations will be opening by June in the Orlando and Tampa area.... Continue Reading
Predictions, predictions, for weekend reading: is telehealth usage shrinking or growing? It depends on your perspective.
...of healthcare revenue. Their target numbers are $20 billion and 15% of outpatient visits with a three-year compound annual growth of 25%. This is based on claims trends they see (we don’t–see our reports on FAIR Health’s claims data) as well as revenue consensus by public telehealth companies such as Teladoc. However, as the report puts it, it cannot completely account for telehealth acquisitions by larger managed-care companies or the extension of telehealth across existing consumer and patient platforms which if anything would increase the picture. The ‘flywheel’ effect of the pandemic raised awareness of telehealth by both patients and... Continue Reading
Telehealth saves $100+ per visit or lab tests, reduces unnecessary ER/ED + urgent care visits 19%: Cigna/MDLIVE study (updated for RPM offering))
...urgent care visits by 19%. Lab visits were also reduced in cost. Patients who saw MDLIVE providers during urgent care visits were able to avoid unnecessary tests, saving an average of $118 for each episode of care. Unfortunately, some of the results offered up by Cigna are countered by other sources–and surprisingly they didn’t cross-check: Evernorth, their health services business, estimates that telehealth visits are currently 25% of all visits. That is far above the claims information that FAIR Health tracks, where telehealth is below 4%. Back in April 2020, it was 13%. Even Epic’s tracking indicated that the peak... Continue Reading
What’s next for telehealth in the (almost) aftermath–and rating the US states on policies
...health insurance payers, took a few months to work through into 2021. Telehealth usage in 2021 receded steadily to single digits, and at last report to just above 4% of claims as of October 2021 (FAIR Health US claims data). What remains is the continued dominance of mental health–62% for mental health codes. It’s turned out that Babylon Health‘s SPAC was the last of the major action for 2021, getting in under the wire in October. It’s obvious that investors will be more realistic in assessing telehealth companies, looking at the areas that sustained telehealth usage, such as behavioral health.... Continue Reading
US telehealth usage increases slightly in August, reversing months of decline
...nationally in August 2021 at 2%, the first time it had done so since January 2021. The vast number of claims–58.8%–were for mental health conditions, a slight change from July’s 60.7%, and decreased across every region. Also increased: acute respiratory diseases and infections, rising from 3.5% to 4.2%. The largest increase in telehealth claims occurred in the Southern states, rising from 3.1% percent of medical claim lines in July to 3.5% in August. FAIR Health’s monthly tracker includes claims from the private (commercial) insurance population, including Medicare Advantage, and excluding Medicare fee-for-service and Medicaid. FAIR Health release, Becker’s Hospital Review... Continue Reading
News & deal roundup: Oak Street adds telespecialty RubiconMD, ATA plumps for wider telehealth access, yet claims fall to 4%, West Suffolk NHS adds Zivver mail/file security, Northwell’s $100M for AI–and miss industry shows yet?
...can understand ATA’s frustration and the sincerity of its aims, it distorts the emergency meaning of a PHE that is just about nonexistent except for mandates. And telehealth claims, even with current access, have sunk down to a tick above 4%, 60% of which are mental health codes (FAIR Health July national data). Too many providers, too little demand? The West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (WSFT) has selected Zivver UK to secure its mail and file transfer systems, as it migrates from NHS Mail to Microsoft 365. It includes encrypted email to patients as a core requirement meeting NHS digital... Continue Reading
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