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Tag: COVID-19
09/14/2023

‘They Won’t Rip Telehealth Away’: Digital Behavioral Health Companies Prepare for Industry-Shaping DEA Decision

Article Excerpt: November is fast approaching, and with it comes the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) proposed rule on telehealth and controlled substance prescribing. After a six-month delay, the federal law enforcement and regulatory body will release regulations that will shape the future of telehealth within behavioral health in the post-COVID era. It also has the potential to redirect the evolution of telehealth in the behavioral health industry. Companies that exclusively or heavily focus on providing care via telehealth have had to prepare for the potential snapback to a regulatory environment where in-person exams were required before a telehealth provider could prescribe certain controlled substances.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/abd4vzmn

Article Source: Behavioral Health Business

Posted in: Regulation & Policy // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
07/14/2023

Does Artificial Intelligence Belong in Therapy?

Article Excerpt: For many, the nearest therapist these days isn’t someone sitting across from them in a room but a friendly face on the other side of a Zoom, or even a chat thread on a smartphone. In a quantum leap beyond those types of virtual encounters, increasingly, the entity offering mental health advice may not even be a human. Chat-based mental health services boomed during the pandemic, several of them using generative artificial intelligence chatbots to converse about mental health and offer virtual companionship. If that technology starts to make its way into professionally licensed mental health areas, Rep. Josh Cutler has filed legislation to make sure the usage is regulated and disclosed. And he had an unusual collaborator in that mission – his bill was co-written by the generative app ChatGPT.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/ycktatac

Article Source: CommonWealth

Posted in: Emerging Technologies, Regulation & Policy // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
07/05/2023

Despite Room for Improvement, Telehealth Assists Incarcerated Patients

Article Excerpt: A report from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) described the various state-level efforts to expand access to telehealth that benefited justice-involved and incarcerated patients with substance use disorders (SUDs) throughout the pandemic, along with the lessons to guide future use. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people with SUDs experienced many adverse outcomes, including healthcare access barriers along with buying drugs off the street and using them alone… To address these issues, federal and state governments took action to remove telehealth access barriers and support those with SUDs.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/3pun4xcj

Article Source: mHealth Intelligence

Posted in: Emerging Technologies, Regulation & Policy // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
05/24/2023

Telehealth for Addiction Treatment Rose Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Article Excerpt: Published in JAMA Network Open, new study findings indicate that insured adults, particularly those who were younger, had higher participation rates in overall and telehealth-enabled addiction treatment following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an unprecedented and widespread shift to virtual care modalities. Although many studies have indicated success associated with telehealth use, researchers aimed to discern its relationship with treatment for addiction. They also sought to determine whether there were differences in addiction treatment utilization after telehealth policy changes by demographics such as age, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/y5jb33ud

Article Source: mHealth Intelligence

Posted in: Methodologies & Analytics // Tagged: ; ; ; ;
03/23/2023

With Gains and Gaps, Mental Health Care Moves Forward

Article Excerpt: According to the state Department of Health and Human Services, one in four New Hampshire residents is experiencing some form of mental health distress. “This is a regional and national crisis for all children and adults,” said Dr. William Torrey, chief of psychiatry at Dartmouth Health, who has spent 38 years in the field. Demand for inpatient and outpatient care currently “exceeds our capacity at all levels,” Torrey said. More people are seeking care, more are acknowledging mental illness and addiction struggles in themselves and loved ones, and more are advocating for mental health care — which is good. “They see the extreme need for services.”

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/msxv2adj

Article Source: Union Leader

Posted in: Regulation & Policy, Uncategorized // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
03/15/2023

ONC: Majority of Office-Based Physicians Used Telehealth in 2021

Article Excerpt: A report from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology found that telehealth use grew noticeably over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, with high rates of not only provider adoption but also satisfaction. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it became apparent that telehealth was an effective method for providing and receiving care. However, as the severity of the public health emergency diminished, questions surrounding telehealth and its continued use arose.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/4cru2w4c

Article Source: mHealth Intelligence

Posted in: Methodologies & Analytics // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ;
02/13/2023

Telehealth Is Here to Stay: How Technology Has Become a Staple for Physicians and Is Serving Unmet Health Care Needs

Article Excerpt: While the pandemic was the impetus for greater utilization of telehealth across the health care continuum, it’s safe to say that due to the convenience and benefits it offers to patients and providers, telehealth is here to stay. Before COVID-19, telehealth visits only accounted for 4% of total appointments, according to our recent research, which evaluated telehealth usage across 93.7 million patients in our athenaOne network. In the first half of 2022 when many patients returned to receiving in-person care, virtual visits still accounted for 8.9% of total appointments – a relatively minor decrease from the 12.1% we saw at the pandemic’s height. In addition to large-scale utilization, it is also evident that telehealth is being leveraged for a wide range of use cases. The network research, in addition to a survey we commissioned through Dynata of 2,000 U.S. patients, both found interesting patterns in usage for behavioral health, chronic care, as well as differences in adoption across race and gender. Despite differences in adoption and utilization, one thing is clear: Telehealth will remain a pivotal component of health care delivery now and in the years to come.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/yhm65kvr

Article Source: Medical Economics

Posted in: Emerging Technologies, Methodologies & Analytics // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ;
02/06/2023

How Technology Can Help Solve Mental Health Care’s Biggest Barrier

Article Excerpt: From telehealth and TikTok to artificial intelligence and virtual reality, the mental health care industry is embracing technology — but it’s making many clinicians uneasy. From concerns about the ethics of mental health influencers to the inaccuracy of mental health advice on TikTok and to complaints about teens misdiagnosing themselves, many experts are uncomfortable about the role technology is playing in mental health support. But technology can also help solve what’s arguably the industry’s biggest issue: access. Given the ongoing mental health crisis and the fact that many people lack adequate access to quality mental health care, it’s essential to strike a balance between technological innovation, the pace of clinical validation, and high ethical and safety standards to ensure that rigorous, culturally centered mental health support is widely available at a time when it’s so desperately needed.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/4d4vk7pr

Article Source: STAT News

Posted in: Emerging Technologies // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
01/05/2023

Leaning In: How eCOA can Help Advance Mental Health Research

Article Excerpt: Electronic Clinical Outcomes Assessment and digital health tools were well-suited to accommodate the rapid rise of virtual and telehealth shifts during the Covid-19 pandemic and there is no going back. The adoption of eCOA technology in mental healthcare research can make pivotal advancements in mental health patient care.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/2wubjsws

Article Source: MedCityNews

Posted in: Methodologies & Analytics // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ;