Dive Brief: * New government data puts in stark relief how dramatically telehealth use exploded last year, with the share of Medicare visits conducted virtually skyrocketing from just 840,000 in 2019 to 52.7 million in 2020. * That’s a nearly 63-fold increase. Specialists like behavioral health providers saw the highest telehealth use relative to their ...

President Biden emphasized how the bill would lower prescription drug costs, an issue his administration hopes will build support for the broader package.

The California Medical Association (CMA) and the California Hospital Association (CHA) today sent a joint letter to the California Congressional Delegation, urging immediate action to eliminate or delay the Medicare payment cuts that are scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2022. “California’s hospitals and physicians continue to provide critical health services to their patients and ...

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted on Saturday to lift a temporary injunction that it had placed on the San Diego Unified School District’s student COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The rare weekend decision, reached by a 2-1 vote, lifts the injunction the court had placed on the mandate about a week ago. Judges had ...

Out-of-pocket costs may play a larger role in choosing telehealth over in-person visits for those who would otherwise prefer virtual care, a new survey by the RAND Corporation suggests. In a study conducted in March by the nonprofit research organization and published in JAMA Network Open, researchers assessed post-pandemic patient preferences for telehealth versus in-person care. Nearly ...

Provider groups are urging the Biden administration to walk back several provisions in a surprise billing rule, including requirements for providers to offer good-faith estimates to certain patients and what they deem a flawed process for determining out-of-network charges. Providers and payers submitted comments on the interim final rule released back in October. The rule ...