State News

The Colorado Center for Improving Value in Health Care has expanded Shop for Care, a transparency tool that allows consumers to compare price and quality information for select services and procedures at Colorado healthcare facilities, according to AboutHealthTransparency.org. The newly improved tool includes updated 2018 prices for imaging services like X-rays, CT scans and MRIs, as well as episode prices for 11 new hospital and outpatient procedures including hysterectomies, colorectal resections and more. The tool shows that price and quality vary significantly across Colorado, and higher prices do not necessarily signal better patient experience or outcomes.

Practice-level participation in innovative care models led to a $30 per member per quarter decrease in spending for three Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield value-based primary care programs, according to a Milbank Memorial Fund issue brief. The brief examined changes in healthcare spending and utilization (years 2011 through 2018) associated with practice-level participation in one of the three Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield value-based primary care programs. Estimated savings suggests a 2:1 return on investment, indicating that each dollar spent on care management fees among this commercially insured adult population resulted in a $2 savings in beneficiary spending. Reductions in acute inpatient stays and emergency department use likely account for the program savings. Savings were greater for participating practices in later years for each of the programs, suggesting that return on investment may increase over time. 

A new law in New Jersey extends the time period for which individuals can receive coverage and providers can bill for services using telemedicine and telehealth for 90 days following the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency and the state of emergency. Included in the law are telehealth and telemedicine services delivered under the Medicaid and NJ FamilyCare programs. 

A collaboration between Duke University, the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina combined healthcare spending data for North Carolina residents in 2016 and 2017, combining healthcare spending across several distince sources of healthcare insurance coverage with data held by different institutions. The project includes Medicare, Employer-Sponsored Insurance and North Carolina Medicaid data to calculate total healthcare spending by county and per-person spending, broken down across counties, populations, age groups and service categories. The data and it's visualizations present detailed windows into healthcare costs and spending characteristics in the state. 

An essential worker instructed by her employer to obtain a COVID test before returning to work received costly medical bills after being directed to an emergency room by doctors who were unable to offer the test due to lack of supplies, according to Kaiser Health News. Based on her doctor’s recommendation, the woman felt she had no choice but to turn to the emergency room and assumed she would not have to pay due to the recent passage of the CARES Act and media reports that coronavirus testing would be free. However, she was not aware of loopholes in the legislation that allow for variation in cost-sharing waivers across states and the fact that self-insured employers like hers are exempt from state directives.

A new resource, WisCovered.com, aims to guide consumers seeking health insurance, reports the Wisconsin Examiner. The site is starting up as hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin residents have lost their jobs and potentially their health insurance, as well. Set up by the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, WisCovered.com includes links to a variety of resources to help users learn about their insurance options, including free telephone counseling on health insurance alternatives through the nonprofit Covering Wisconsin or the United Way's 211 service. 

Telehealth visits during March grew significantly from the previous year and approximately half of all telehealth visits were for mental health services, according to a preliminary report on COVID-19 healthcare trends from the Utah Department of Health. Using APCD data, the report shows that medication “days supplied” was 12.3 percent above average in March 2020, with a significant increase for anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications. The report also noted a sharp decline in the number of child and adolescent immunizations provided in March 2020 as compared to 2019 trends.

Virginia is one of at least a dozen states that can dock residents’ income tax refunds to pay delinquent medical debts, Kaiser Health News reports. The state collected $68 million in individual debts through the program, a figure that includes medical bills and other types of debt owed to state and local government agencies and state courts, among others. A new state law will prohibit UVA and UVC from taking consumers’ tax refunds unless they can determine that patients aren’t eligible for financial assistance or programs like Medicaid, but concerns about the harmful practice remain.

The Idaho Governor signed an executive order making more than 150 emergency rules enacted since March to address the coronavirus pandemic permanent, reports mHealth Intelligence. Idaho healthcare providers now have permanent access to a wide range of telehealth tools to improve access to care and outcomes. The measures include allowing more freedom of online platforms for providers to use to connect with patients, allowing licensed out-of-state providers to treat Idaho patients and giving physician assistants more responsibilities in care management.