October 2020

Our e-newsletter for Enterprise Risk Management, Claim Settlement and Healthcare Solutions.

We hope all of our clients and friends are continuing to do well during this challenging time.  Please continue to be safe.  We thank you for trusting Blackburn Group with your risk and claim business needs, and we will always strive for personalized care and excellence throughout this crisis and recovery process.

Robert J. Blackburn, Managing Principal

• The Integrated Risk and Claim Management Environment

  Risk Managers, Claim Managers and Brokers are integrating key insurance and claim information to create risk profiles that are more optimized and stable for the future.  What are the key activities to focus on now?  Read more >>

  More Risk, Claim and Healthcare News …

• Medicare Is Doing the Right Thing on Evaluation and Management Payments.   Individuals living with chronic diseases, including rheumatic diseases and those that affect the neurologic system, depend on medical specialists for highly skilled care. Along with performing procedures, these specialists spend many hours each week conducting face-to-face (and increasingly, telehealth) visits with patients, at which they discuss, diagnose, and monitor a patient's reaction to treatment. Known as "evaluation and management" or E/M services, these services are crucial to the diagnosis and management of complex and chronic conditions.   View article...

• Rural Hospitals Teeter on Financial Cliff as COVID Medicare Loans Come Due.  The money lent from the federal government is meant to help hospitals and other health care providers weather the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet some hospital administrators have called it a payday loan program that is now, brutally, due for repayment at a time when they still need help.  View article…

• Chronic, Preventive Care Fell as Telemedicine Soars During COVID.  As the COVID-19 pandemic drives down the number of primary care visits and altered the method by moving many to telehealth appointments instead of in-person visits, the content of those appointments also changed, researchers report in JAMA Network Open. Specifically, researchers found that preventive and chronic care for cardiovascular risk management dropped off during the first half of 2020 vs previous years.  View article...

• The Cost of Inpatient and Outpatient Care Drives High Health Spending in the U.S. Relative to Other Countries, New Analysis Finds.  A new Kaiser brief compares the main drivers of health spending in the United States and other large, wealthy countries, and finds that the cost of inpatient and outpatient care drives high per capita health spending in the U.S.  View article...

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