NYS Hep C Telemedicine Workgroup – Meeting Notes

August 20 (10 – 11 AM) via Webinar

In attendance at this meeting: See below notes

Next Meeting: Thursday, September 17 – 10:00 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

Hepatitis C Treatment via telemedicine: research project proposal – Pruthvi Patel, MD

  • Project proposal:
    • Physicians’ Experiences with telehealth in treating patients with Hep C during COVID-19
    • Study design: Survey/Questionnaire for providers treating Hep C from Jan-June 2020
    • Collecting info on demographics, resources, ethics, technical effectiveness and Hep C-specific effectiveness, physician experience
  • Discussion and feedback
    • Consider expanding Telehealth to country jail settings for HCV treatment; bail reform is changing the county jail landscape. AIDS Institute is working on a jail survey regarding Hep C and STI treatment.
    • Survey should assess challenges with Telehealth services and broader Hep C services for providers in rural areas
    • Availability of lab testing during COVID:
      • Policy Item: Consider allowing blood draw in pharmacy
      • Home blood draw visits may work with a segment of the patient population, but may challenging to implement across all of the population
      • CabLab (in Hudson Valley Regions, NYC and LI); LabFly (in NYC and LI) being used at Hudson River Health (HRH) Care with Dr Aisha Kahn
  • Contact: Pruthvi Patel if you wish to collaborate in this study: pruthvi.patel@mountsinai.org

NYS Tele-medicine Policy and Regulation Updates – Sandeep Krishnan 

  • Medicare was billed $4 billion in March and April 2020 compared to $60 million the same two months in 2019.
  • Private payers are not uniformly reimbursing these services and are not aligned with Medicare waivers/policies to expand telehealth during COVID
  • Decker School is integrating telehealth in curriculum for NP’s and RN’s. Need to expand the workforce in rural areas for Hep C, behavioral health
  • Possibility to use HRSA planning grant to develop a NY State-wide telehealth network, possibly for the treatment of Hepatitis and opioid treatment

Letter on Hep C Treatment in Opioid Treatment Programs

  • Letter will be sent to additional networks of providers in order to collect additional signatures (goal #: 75 signatures)
  • Letter will be sent to OASAS, Medicaid and Governor’s office.

Forward planning discussion

  • Invite Office of Rural Health to future calls

Resources:

In Attendance:

  1. Andrew Talal, MD, SUNY Research Foundation, ahtalal@buffalo.edu
  2. Jeff Weiss, REACH, jeffrey.weiss@mountsinai.org
  3. Sonal Kumar, MD, Cornell, sok9028@med.cornell.edu
  4. Pat Lincourt , NYS OASAS, pat.lincourt@oasas.ny.gov
  5. Colleen Flanigan, RN, NYS DOH, colleen.flanigan@health.ny.gov
  6. Nadine Kela-Murphy, MPH, NYC DOHMH, nkelamurphy@health.nyc.gov
  7. Jessie Schwartz, RN, MPH, NYC DOHMH, jschwartz2@health.nyc.gov
  8. Nirah Johnson, LCSW, NYC DOHMH, njohnso2@health.nyc.gov
  9. Meg Chappell, MPH, Empire Liver Foundation, megchapell@empireliverfoundation.org
  10. Marie Bresnahan, MPH, NYC DOHMH, mbresnahan@health.nyc.gov
  11. Julia Hunter, Binghamton General Hospital, julia.hunter@nyuhs.org
  12. Angelica Ramirez, Mount Sinai Health System, angelica.ramirez@mountsinai.org
  13. Daanish Shaikh, START Treatment and Recovery Centers, dshaikh@startny.org
  14. Alvin Chu, MA, MPH, START Treatment and Recovery Centers, achu@startny.org
  15. Rebecca LaMarca, START Treatment and Recovery Centers, rlamarca@startny.org
  16. Mavis Bailey, START Treatment and Recovery Centers, mbailey@startny,org
  17. Melanie King, START Treatment and Recovery Centers, mking@startny.org
  18. Anthony McLeod, START Treatment and Recovery Centers, amcleod@startny.org
  19. Osherbhode Ramcharan, START Treatment and Recovery Centers, oramcharan@startny.org
  20. Kathleen Davis, University of Rochester Medical Center, Kathleen_davis@urmc.rochester.edu
  21. Dan Shappee, AbbVie, Daniel.shappee@abbvie.com
  22. Aisha Khan, DO, Hudson River Health Care, aikhan@hrhcare.org
  23. Pruthvi Patel, Mount Sinai, pruthvi.patel@mountsinai.org
  24. Deborah Brown, Deborah.brown@health.nyc.gov
  25. Stephanie McHugh, stephanie.mchugh@health.nyc.gov
  26. Kelly Ramsey, MD, OASAS, kelly.ramsey@oasas.ny.gov
  27. Andrew Reynolds, areynoldshcv@gmail.com
  28. Justine Waldman, REACH, jwaldman@reachmed.org
  29. Arslan Mohamed, amohamed1@health.nyc.gov
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