The Concept The concept behind coordination of benefits (COB) is fairly straightforward and simple. In situations where a patient has multiple health plans, it’s a way for commercial and government insurers to determine which payer is responsible for coverage, in what amount, and in what order — as a primary, secondary or tertiary payer. For instance, two spouses may pay for health insurance under each of their employer’s plans, so each would be covered under their plan and their spouse's plan. Or a single person may have Medicare and additional health care coverage under a supplemental plan. Coordination of benefits… Read entire article here
The US finds itself woefully unprepared to perform enough COVID-19 testing to identify and quarantine infected patients at scale, slowed by test development regulations; a disbanded White House pandemic response team; and a lack of coordination between local, state and federal governments. This lack of “systemness” in the healthcare system has left clinical laboratories scrambling to receive testing approval from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and ramp up production. Fortunately, testing guidelines were loosened by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) at the end of February, allowing academic labs and large commercial labs like Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp to quickly… Read entire article here
The 21st Century Cures Act and its Impact on Health IT Some important healthcare legislation was passed early last week that you might have missed, but which has even more relevance given the significant care coordination challenges in dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak, testing, and quarantine requirements. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) passed the Cures Act Final Rule, which is designed to provide patients and providers secure access to health information. Meanwhile, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) passed the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule, which is designed to provide… Read entire article here
