The AHA today released a one-page guide to help hospital and health system board members and leaders implement virtual care strategies or telehealth. These strategies would allow hospitals to help maintain or supplement access to health care services in vulnerable rural and urban communities that have difficulty recruiting or retaining an adequate health care workforce. This emerging strategy is one of nine identified by an AHA task force last year to help ensure access to care in vulnerable communities based on their unique needs, support structures and preferences. The guide is the seventh in a series that will address each of the nine strategies. For more on the task force and strategies and to access the guides, visit www.aha.org/EnsuringAccess.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a March 5 listening session on its proposed rule to promote electronic health information exchange.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee today held a hearing to examine how primary care affects health care costs and outcomes.