NYS Hep C Telemedicine Workgroup – Meeting Notes
Friday June 19 (10 – 11 AM) via Webinar
In attendance at this meeting: See below notes
Next Meeting Dates and Times: Thursday July 16 (10-11 AM)
Workgroup Chair: Andrew Talal, MD, University at Buffalo, ahtalal@buffalo.edu
Workgroup goals: Short term: Identify, assess, document and disseminate current strategies and opportunities to provide hepatitis C treatment in substance use treatment facilities, via telemedicine. Long-term: Develop a NYS Telehealth network to provide a forum for ongoing learning and sharing of best practices to promote hepatitis B and C care and treatment through telehealth.
Meeting Notes
Managed Care: Changes in Telemedicine pre and post COVID-19
Jerry Ernst, MD | Chief Medical Officer, AmidaCare, JErnst@AmidaCareNY.org
Michael Merrill, MD | Medical Director, Independent Health, Michael.Merrill@independenthealth.com
- See presentations here
- A weekly phone call with a healthcare professional has been shown to improve patient satisfaction and hospital admittance rate lowers.
- From a manage care point of view, telemedicine can reduce resource consumption and improve patient care if done with quality monitoring.
- Access to telemedicine cuts healthcare costs.
Telemedicine implementation Discussion
- COVID-19 has accelerated the use of telemedicine and a new policy has been implemented supporting higher reimbursement rates for telephone visits
- There needs to be a concerted effort in reducing access issues throughout NYS
- Efforts need to be made in closing the gaps between the care given to patients with access to audio only versus patients who have access to both audio and video
Letter to OASAS highlighting challenges with supporting HCV treatment in stand-alone substance use treatment facilities
Sara Lorenz Taki, MD, Greenwich House MMTP, staki@greenwichhouse.org
Announcement
Governor Cuomo signed a bill on June 17 making audio and video telemedicine reimbursable under CHIP and Medicaid in NY. See announcement in Bloomberg News
Study Proposal – To assess HCV treatment via telemedicine implementation and outcomes during COVID
Pruthvi Patel, Mount Sinai, pruthvi.patel@mountsinai.org
Resources
- NYS Telehealth Resources for hepatitis providers – webpage on Hep Free NYC
- Weekly webinar series: Telehealth During the Public Health Emergency: Training for Practices. NYC Health Dept.
In Attendance:
- Aisha Khan, DO, Hudson River Health Care, aikhan@hrhcare.org
- Alvin Chu, MA, MPH, START Treatment and Recovery Centers, achu@startny.org
- Andrew Reynolds, areynoldshcv@gmail.com
- Andrew Talal, MD, SUNY Research Foundation, ahtalal@buffalo.edu
- Arslan Mohamed, NYC DOHMH, amohamed1@health.nyc.gov
- Colleen Flanigan, RN, NYS DOH, colleen.flanigan@health.ny.gov
- Daanish Shaikh, START Treatment and Recovery Centers, dshaikh@startny.org
- Darlene Meyer, The Research Foundation for SUNY, dkmeyer@buffalo.edu
- Eli Camhi, Healthcare Consultant, ecamhi@generes.com
- Ese Oghenejobo, NYS DOH, ese.oghenejobo@health.ny.gov
- Jessie Schwartz, RN, MPH, NYC DOHMH, jschwartz2@health.nyc.gov
- Julia Hunter, Binghamton General Hospital, julia.hunter@nyuhs.org
- Katy Cook, AHI Health, kcook@ahihealth.org
- Kelly Ramsey, MD, OASAS, kelly.ramsey@oasas.ny.gov
- Kiara Lora, Montefiore Medical Center, kialora@montefiore.org
- Marc Badura, The Research Foundation for SUNY, mbadura@buffalo.edu
- Marie Bresnahan, MPH, NYC DOHMH, mbresnahan@health.nyc.gov
- Nadine Kela-Murphy, MPH, NYC DOHMH, nkelamurphy@health.nyc.gov
- Nirah Johnson, LCSW, NYC DOHMH, njohnso2@health.nyc.gov
- Osherbhode Ramcharan, START Treatment and Recovery Centers, oramcharan@startny.org
- Pruthvi Patel, Mount Sinai, pruthvi.patel@mountsinai.org
- Sandeep Krishnan, MBA, MS, Med Tech International, sandeep.krishnan@medtecintl.com
- Sara Lorenz-Taki, MD, Greenwich House, staki@greenwichhouse.org
- Sheila Reynoso, MPH, Montefiore Medical Center, sreynoso@montefiore.org
- Sonal Kumar, MD, Cornell, sok9028@med.cornell.edu
