From the Federal Employee Benefits Open Season front, Govexec takes “a closer look at 2023 FEHB premiums.”
On a related note, Health Payer Intelligence informs us
Member experience is key to member retention and, in order to boost member experience, payers must consider whether they are offering easy access to care and straightforward care navigation, according to an Accenture report.
The organization surveyed nearly 21,000 Americans who are consumers of both payers and providers.
Reg Jones, writing in the Federal Times, answers a “lightning round” of cost of living adjustment questions posed by federal and postal employees and annuitants.
In other OPM news, Federal News Network reports
With a fast-approaching deadline to apply for a Public Service Loan Forgiveness limited-time waiver, the Office of Personnel Management said agencies should help federal employees with their applications.
If they have the documentation available, agencies can certify a current employee’s entire work history, including that individual’s time working previously at other agencies.
“The federal employee should present a separate PSLF form for each federal agency and period of employment for which they are seeking certification and the agency official should certify each form as appropriate,” OPM wrote in an Oct. 24 memo.
Employment certification forms are just one of the requirements to apply for the temporary PSLF waiver, which expires on Oct. 31.
From the Omicron and siblings front, the New York Times reports
Younger people have also been less likely to receive boosters than the original vaccinations, and only about one-third of people of all ages have received any booster, The New York Times vaccine tracker indicates. But seniors, who constitute 16 percent of the population, are more vulnerable to the virus’s effects, accounting for three-quarters of the nation’s 1.1 million deaths.
“From the beginning, older people have felt the virus was more of a threat to their safety and health and have been among the earliest adopters of the vaccine and the first round of boosters,” said Mollyann Brodie, the executive director of public opinion at Kaiser Family Foundation, which has been tracking vaccination rates and attitudes.
Now Kaiser’s most recent vaccine monitor survey, published last month, has found that only 8 percent of seniors said they had received the updated bivalent booster, and 37 percent said they intended to “as soon as possible.” As a group, older adults were better informed than younger respondents, but almost 40 percent said they had heard little or nothing about the updated bivalent vaccine, and many were unsure whether the C.D.C. had recommended it for them.
(Currently the C.D.C. recommends that individuals over age 5 receive the bivalent vaccine, which is effective against the original strain of Covid-19 and the Omicron variant, if two months have passed since their most recent vaccination or booster.)
The article adds
Kaiser surveys have found that doctors and other health care professionals are trusted sources of information, and the older population is in frequent contact with them.
“If more providers recognized that four in 10 older adults don’t realize there’s a new booster and they should get it, that’s a lot of opportunity to make an impact,” Dr. Brodie said.
While on patient-provider communications, the Washington Post points out a free National Institute of Aging online resource that helps older adults prepare for doctor’s visits.
From the telehealth front, mHealth Intelligence reports
Telehealth usage has dropped significantly since its peak during the pandemic, with visit volumes falling 37 percent from 73.7 million in the second quarter of 2020 to 46.4 million in the first quarter of 2022, according to a new report by market research firm Trilliant Health.
Further, telehealth’s popularity among patients appears to be waning. Less than half (48.7 percent) of patients who used telehealth in 2021 did so once, and only 6 percent used the care modality five to six times last year.
This data “suggests that expanded availability of virtual care options has not had a widespread impact on consumer preferences,” said Sanjula Jain, Ph.D., senior vice president of market strategy and chief research officer at Trilliant Health, in an email. * * *
Though the overall shifts in telehealth use indicate a move back to in-person care, certain sub-groups continue to flock to telehealth.
Telehealth continues to be widely used to access behavioral healthcare services, the report shows. In Q1 2019, 32.4 percent of all telehealth visits were related to behavioral healthcare. That figure spiked to 59.9 percent by Q1 2022.
For providers, “behavioral health presents the greatest opportunity, and deploying virtual behavioral health services can be a good way to reach broader populations, engage existing customers while bringing in new ones, and provide new revenue opportunities via engagement in other care services,” Jain said.
In addition, telehealth-enabled prescribing is on the rise, according to the report. Around 35 percent of antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs were prescribed via telehealth in 2020 and 2021, compared to 1 percent in 2019.
In studies news, STAT News discusses the importance of fine-tuning artificial intelligence tools before releasing them for patient use and the cardiovascular differences between women and men.