Addressing Disparate Impact of COVID-19 on Minorities: Secretary Azar and Surgeon General Adams spoke to the importance and the work that our Department is doing to address health care disparities in “How the Trump Administration is Fighting COVID-19 in Communities of Color,” published in the Dallas Morning News. The op-ed focuses on the actions the Administration is taking to address the health care disparities both prior to and as a result of the pandemic.

“Telemedicine is here to stay” says Verma: Many of you are highly supportive of the various ways in which HHS has made telehealth more available during COVID-19. Today Administrator Verma had an article published in Health Affairs which outlines data on what CMS is seeing in this area, including the tremendous uptick in seniors using telehealth. Some nuggets you might find interesting:

• Before the public health emergency, approximately 13,000 beneficiaries in fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare received telemedicine in a week.
• In the last week of April, nearly 1.7 million beneficiaries received telehealth services.
• Across all age groups, 25-34 percent of beneficiaries have received a telemedicine service.
• Encouragingly, there was no significant difference by race or ethnicity among beneficiaries who received telemedicine services.


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