Thursday hits

NPR discusses efforts in the Senate to join the House of Representatives in passing a bill to repeal the ACA's excise tax on high cost health plans a/k/a the Cadillac tax.

Health Data Management reports that Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R IA) is promoting telehealth as a means to maintain the viability of rural hospitals.

Grassley said he—along with other senators—has reintroduced a bipartisan bill that would allow rural diabetic patients to receive regular vision screening using telemedicine.

More broadly, the Rural Emergency Acute Care Hospital (REACH) Act would create a new “rural emergency hospital” classification under Medicare. Many rural hospitals are currently designated as critical access hospitals under Medicare and as a result have to maintain a certain amount of inpatient beds and provide emergency care services 

However, the REACH Act calls for the creation of a rural emergency hospital designation under the Medicare program that would enable facilities in rural areas to provide emergency medical services without having to maintain inpatient beds. In addition to providing emergency care, rural emergency hospitals could convert the space previously used for inpatient services to provide other medical services, including telemedicine.

Last month, the FEHBlog discussed PBM efforts to create curated wellness apps for their members. CNBC reports that BlueShield of California has rolled out its own curated wellness app called Wellvolution.

[Wellvolution provides] an online portal for members to login via a mobile app or the web. Members will then beasked to answer some basic survey questions about their health goals. From there, they’ll get a recommendation for an app or a service they can use as a wellness perk. If they don’t like it, they can change it up at any time. That way, suggests [BlueShield's Bryce]Williams, “the best tools that our members really like can rise to the top.  The insurer teamed up with a health-tech start-up called Solera Health to develop the service.

Health Payer Intelligence reports on the merger plan of two large New England non-profit health care systems, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plans.  Subject to federal and state regulatory approval, "The [combined] company will offer plans to consumers across the spectrum of socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds, from employer-sponsored insurance and quality health plans to Medicare and Medicaid and dually eligible plans." But not FEHBP.

Healthcare Dive discusses a New England Journal of Medicine analysis of U.S. hospital ranking programs. U.S. News and World Report received the top (but not the highest possible) grade of B. CMS's Hospital Compare website received a C.