During the first week of March in 2020, much of the world media was focused on news surrounding a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and its spread across the globe. Community member and patient behavior are paramount in preventing the spread of coronavirus and COVID-19 infection and limiting health care and societal costs. RTI conducted a self-funded survey from Feb 28-March […]

This post was originally published on March 18, 2020 at The Medical Care Blog. Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) unveiled new guidance about using telehealth during this public health emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak. This guidance will help increase access to telehealth services. In addition, this will help people receive […]

This post was originally published on March 12, 2020 at The Medical Care Blog. COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, is spreading across the US and around the world. Can providers use telehealth to help identify and manage the novel coronavirus while helping organizations manage capacity and prevent the spread of COVID-19? Read […]

Too often in the United States, patients are admitted into a health care facility for routine treatment, expecting routine outcomes. They may be cautioned by their health care team about the potential for a negative outcome resulting from an infection, but they do not anticipate that it could happen to them. Health care-associated infections (HAIs)—infections […]

This is the first post in a four-part series about social determinants of health (SDOH). This post provides an overview of SDOH and frames additional issues in the field. Subsequent posts will focus on data standards for improving the collection and use of SDOH, measuring quality in the context of SDOH, and evaluating programs that […]

Giving patients the right care, at the right time, in the right place may mean that care is best provided outside of the hospital or even outside of the doctor’s office. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in partnership with RTI International, has spent decades developing a program that encourages doctors and hospitals […]

This blog post is the first of our 3-part series on advancing interoperability. Last month, I attended a health information exchange bonanza: the 5th annual Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC) conference and the 3rd annual Interoperability Forum, hosted by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). These back-to-back meetings in Washington, […]

Sweeping change to the structure and funding of the U.S. health care system has emerged as a dominant issue in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Democratic primary. Most of the candidates’ policy proposals involve expansion of publicly funded health care to close the coverage gap that results in millions of Americans going uninsured each year. As […]

In November 2017, staff in my division were asked to write a haiku poem that describes our research at RTI. Always a fan of the fun haiku, I took a deep breath and wrote the following:   Cancer researcher Works to improve chemo care Now receives chemo. I have so enjoyed Telling my oncologists About […]

Medicare Advantage (MA) is an important source of health insurance coverage for Medicare beneficiaries; the number of enrolled beneficiaries has grown steadily since the early 2000s, with over one-third of Medicare beneficiaries (19 million individuals) enrolled in an MA plan in 2017. An MA organization is a private insurer that has contracted with the Centers […]