Comagine Health Blog

It’s fair to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives and is still forcing us to find new ways of being. New ways of being together, of being apart and being connected. Last April was the first time my family connected with our primary care provider over Zoom. We were not alone.
Comagine Health’s analytics team has been monitoring the impact of the pandemic and tracking the rates of virtual visits to provide insights into observed trends in utilization, cost and quality measures.
Before the pandemic, in January 2020, just 0.5% of primary care medical visits and 2.5% of specialist visits in Oregon occurred via telehealth, which includes video conferences and phone calls.
During the pandemic, these…

On Dec. 1, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a press release about the Calendar Year 2021 Physician Fee Schedule (CY 2021 PFS) Final Rule titled “Trump Administration Finalizes Permanent Expansion of Medicare Telehealth Services and Improved Payment for Time Doctors Spend with Patients.” Because there has been misunderstanding about what this means, I’m clarifying it here.
The CY 2021 PFS Final Rule permanently adds eight billing codes to the…

Marc Bennett
President and CEO, Comagine Health
Co-chairman, Salt Lake Chamber Health Care Policy Committee
Andrew Croshaw
CEO, Leavitt Partners
Co-chairman, Salt Lake Chamber HealthCare Policy Committee
Dave Davis
President, Utah Retail Merchants Association
As we weather a public health crisis together and look forward to its conclusion, words like “virus” and “vaccine” have become almost routine in our daily conversation. While…