
Here's The Latest in Health Care:
• Two key variables in understanding the stress to the health system due to new COVID-19 hospitalizations are the availability of staff and intensive care unit (ICU) beds. A new study found a 90% increase in hospitals reaching ICU capacity from July through December, with rural hospitals facing the biggest capacity issues. Read More
• CMS plans to adopt the AMA's code revisions and accompanying guideline changes for the E/M office or outpatient visit codes. Among the changes, health care practitioners will need to familiarize themselves with a new medical decision-making table as well as a new definition of "time" for office or outpatient visit services. Read More
• Add heart attack patients to those who may find significant value in using telehealth as a post-discharge treatment tool for recovery. A recent study showed no significant differences in safety events or medication adjustment when using telehealth with low-risk patients. Read More
• In an effort to accelerate inoculation efforts, which have fallen behind initial targets, HHS will dole out more than $22 billion to states and local jurisdictions by mid-January to support COVID-19 containment and lagging vaccination rollouts. According to the CDC, as of Wednesday morning, only 5.3 million Americans had received their first shot out of 17 million doses distributed. Read More
Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture, secure messaging, clinical communication, and care navigation software.