In this week's news, the future of telehealth is still uncertain as reimbursement codes are rolled back post-COVID and policy-makers debate how and what solutions should be paid for, while many in the field are considering telehealth a non-option in the new normal. Plus, new findings on the effects of coronavirus on pregnant mothers and an increase in maternal mental health problems during the pandemic.

As the economy continues to emerge from social isolation, industries are evaluating the strength of their pandemic strategies in a post-pandemic world.

It’s obvious that the path back to normal is a forward-looking one — systems have changed too much to fall back into their former lines, and the world’s massive inadequacy to manage a pandemic has shown that they shouldn’t.

Reading Health, an early customer of Babyscripts, has long been committed to delivering cutting-edge innovation to its patients. Now as a part of Tower Health’s integrated healthcare provider/payer system, they are part of a collaboration that offers leading-edge, compassionate healthcare and wellness services to a population of 2.5 million people in Pennsylvania. Collaboration across Tower Health enables their hospitals, providers, leadership and staff to leverage best practices across the health system and stand out as a leader in healthcare transformation.

As the use of telehealth continues to rise through and post-Covid, policy makers and healthcare systems consider implications around security, privacy, and reimbursement, and raise questions around health inequity and accessibility for low income populations. Plus, new studies on the effect of Covid-19 on reproductive health and family planning decisions.    

In this week's news, policy makers weigh in on the future of reimbursement for telehealth, telemedicine, and other virtual care strategies adopted during the coronavirus pandemic. Negotiations about reimbursement raise questions about health inequities and disparities in access to virtual care solutions, particularly for the Medicaid population. Plus, new research on the connection between social determinants of health and health outcomes and the meaning of virtual care for maternal health.

In these times of uncertainty and ever-evolving policies and practices, Babyscripts is committed to sharing the benefit of our long experience in the field of innovation, specifically virtual maternity care. We’re keeping our clients and others abreast of the latest in clinical guidance, best practices, market intelligence, and other topics through our virtual care resource center (subscribe here) as well as through a webinar series with some of our large health system partners (register for our June 24 webinar with Dr. Mark B. Woodland of Tower Health System).

Babyscripts was recently privileged to present our virtual maternity care solution at Adaptation Health’s first demo day for Medicaid innovation, Responding to COVID-19 and Beyond. 

Part one of a three part series connecting Medicaid leaders with health innovators, this session focused on expanding access to maternity and behavioral care through virtual solutions for vulnerable populations. 

The recent protests for racial justice and equality have put a much needed spotlight on the inequities that exist in our healthcare system. Coupled with the pandemic, they are driving important conversations about the ways in which technology can be used to improve outcomes for the vulnerable, especially low-income and minority populations. Plus, as the world emerges from lockdown, reimbursement questions resurface as practices consider long term plans for virtual care solutions. 

New expectations and standards for virtual care are being established as the healthcare marketplace emerges from pandemic conditions. Without the urgent need driven by COVID-19, questions about coverage and reimbursement for virtual care are halting the move toward standardization, and telehealth still faces barriers to wholesale adoption. Research and resources around COVID-19 continues for OB patients, reactivating GYN patients is proving challenging.

Plus, an ongoing series from Self covering the struggles of being black and pregnant in the US, and the public health crisis of black maternal mortality. Find it here.

Our nation is in a state of crisis, and it is not the crisis that we think. It is a crisis of disease — not an uncontrollable virus that takes lives indiscriminately, but an internal disorder that is deeply embedded in the fabric of our everyday lives and operates on prejudice and hate. The deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless others enrage and grieve us, both for what they are and for what they represent — not a tragic aberration but a systematic failure to protect the equality that our country professes to uphold.