News

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected our lives in many ways, including how companies communicate with their employees. Many employees don’t know how to use health savings accounts (HSAs) in unison with their high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) and aren’t taking advantage of several tax saving strategies as a result.

If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that the status quo of an inefficient, outdated healthcare system cannot continue. One thing that is changing is medical billing. Medical billing will completely change because of the events of 2020.

All the Medicare Advantage trend lines seem like they are northward bound. Enrollment, the number of plans, the number of companies selling those plans — they’re all up. So Avalere Health’s report last month on the percentage of beneficiaries in highly rated plans stood out — and not in a good way.

In this episode, Briana Contreras of MHE spoke with Dr. David Moen, president of Prospero Health Partners. The two discussed how Prospero is closing a gap in the healthcare system by taking care of patients with chronic, serious health issues, who are not yet in hospice care, but are prone to frequent, costly hospital admissions. They also talked about the skyrocketing demand for in-home care and telehealth during the pandemic, especially for seniors with advanced illnesses and compromised immune systems.

With the 2020 election season nearly behind us, conventional wisdom is that we will have divided government: a Democratic president, a Republican Senate and a razor-thin Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. That combination is a recipe for compromise on President-elect Joe Biden’s healthcare priorities; namely, the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic and adjustments to the ACA.

Briana Contreras of MHE spoke with Manik Bhat, founder and CEO of Healthify – a company that works with managed care organizations to integrate social determinants of health (SDoH) into the healthcare ecosystem. Manik and Briana spoke about how the need to address SDoH has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began and what the importance of addressing these social and economic issues are during and after the pandemic. They also touched on how SDoH contribute to the spread of viral diseases, but worsen the issues for individuals already struggling.