Elevance Health: Telehealth Utilization in Florida Medicaid from 2019 to 2021 Underscores Opportunity to Improve Access

Increased telehealth utilization among Florida’s Medicaid members has persisted past the peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis of telehealth utilization data during and post-public health emergency (PHE) underscores the opportunity for telehealth to increase access, especially for rural members, older adults, and minority communities. In response to COVID-19 and the PHE that ensued, Medicaid allowed reimbursement for a broader range of telehealth services and individuals started using these services more. This brief analyzes telehealth utilization among Simply Healthcare’s Medicaid members to highlight the demographics of those using these services and opportunities for telehealth to improve accessibility and care delivery going forward.

Addressing Maternal Health Disparities: Doula Access in Medicaid

Women using doulas in Medicaid have fewer inpatient hospital admissions during pregnancy, are more likely to attend their postnatal visit, experience lower odds of cesarean delivery, have lower odds of postpartum depression or anxiety, and have lower overall costs compared to women not using doulas. Elevance Health examined the use of and outcomes from doula services offered by Elevance Health’s affiliated Medicaid managed care plans in three states: California, Florida, and New York. The findings from this analysis suggest that doulas offer a personalized and effective approach for improving delivery of culturally competent maternal health care and mitigating birth inequities.

AMN Healthcare: Increasing Health Equity in Your Community

Success in healthcare requires organizations improve quality and clinical effectiveness while decreasing costs. Healthcare organizations committed to outcomes improvement must also be committed to health equity, and their first step is making it a systemwide, leadership-driven priority. This includes investing in the structures and processes to provide culturally competent care to many different patient populations. Healthcare professionals need to understand their patients’ lives, address their population-specific healthcare needs, make their practices inclusive, and build trusting relationships that enable them to openly participate in care.

West Monroe: The impacts of rising inflation and a potential recession on the healthcare industry

Payers and providers will be challenged differently by the current economic climate—each can navigate these potential threats with a digital focus.

Newport Healthcare: How EMDR and ABFT Support Each Other in Adolescent and Young Adult Treatment

EMDR and ABFT (Attachment-Based Family Therapy) are both powerful, effective modalities in their own right, and it appears they can support each other in trauma and depression treatment for adolescents and young adults and their parents/caregivers. In combination, these approaches seem to provide a foundation of stability and skills, allowing all family members to be present, vulnerable, and emotionally regulated when engaging in deep therapeutic work. This article submitted by Newport Healthcare clinicians Meredith Dellorco, LCSW, and Olivia Lynch, MS, LPC, includes research on the individual modalities, an understanding of how they might work together, and a case study detailing the application for a family in treatment at Newport.

UnitedHealth Group: A Path Forward to a Modern, High-Performing Health System

UHG’s commitment is built on three pillars: Access to universal coverage is within reach and can be achieved by ensuring continuity of coverage for those currently insured, enrolling people in the coverage for which they are currently eligible, completing Medicaid expansion & providing more affordable coverage options. Affordability can be achieved by accelerating value-based care systemwide, reforming prescription drug pricing, and ending wasteful administrative spending. The health care experience can be transformed by focusing on equity and reducing disparities, expanding, and diversifying the health care workforce, empowering consumers with actionable information, and enabling clinicians to focus on patient care.

Tabula Rasa HealthCare: Case Study on Care Resources

Care Resources, a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) in Michigan, partnered with Capstone Risk Adjustment Services, a CareVention HealthCare solution, to improve clinical documentation. Together, Care Resources and Capstone, identified gaps to implement new services and strengthen processes to reflect the level of care the organization provides to its patients.