Monday Musings

The Texas v. United States case concerning the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act will be held a week from tomorrow before a three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans beginning ar 1 pm CT. The panel includes Judeeeges Carolyn D. King (Carter appointee), Jennifer W. Elrod (G.W. Bush appointee) and Kurt D. Engelhardt (Trump appointee). The Court makes recordings of their oral arguments available to public at this site.

The Burlington (NC) Times Journal reports on the avalanche of lawsuits against two major medical providers LabCorp and Quest Labs which used American Medical Collection Agency to collect its patient invoices. AMCA is now in bankruptcy court following the disclosure of a massive patient data breach. It will be interesting how the courts rule in these cases (assuming they are settled first). In any event businesses will need to engage in greater due diligence over their vendors that hold and/or process their confidential consumer information.

Currently telehealth services generally are provided in real time. Mhealth Intelligence reports on the development of alternative asynchronous or store and forward telehealth services.

Video-based telehealth programs require that both patient and provider be online and in front of a video screen at the same time, he said, while store-and-forward platforms aren’t that rigid, allowing patient and provider to access the platform when and where they want. 

According to the article, the development of alternate telehealth approaches has been slowed by state law limits and reimbursement approaches. Carrier should give alternate telehealth approaches a look.

The FEHBlog's alma mater is the University of Connecticut. The FEHBlog read in UConn Today that

Using blood pressure self-monitoring is an effective way to empower patients with hypertension to stick with an exercise program, according to a first-of-its-kind study conducted by a multidisciplinary team of UConn researchers in collaboration with Hartford Hospital.

The findings, recently published in the Journal of Hypertension, confirm a long-held but previously untested theory by the study’s principal investigator, Linda Pescatello, a distinguished professor in UConn’s Department of Kinesiology, and Dr. Paul Thompson, chief of cardiology at Hartford Hospital, that blood pressure self-monitoring can and should be used as a behavioral strategy to help keep patients with hypertension engaged in an aerobic exercise training program, a proven means of addressing the chronic condition known to be a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Interesting.

Finally when you have a free hour, listen to today's Econtalk episode in which physician and author Adam Cifu of the University of Chicago talks about being a medical conservative with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Fascinating.