Passport Health Plan, a Medicaid plan serving approximately 300,000 members across the commonwealth of Kentucky, announced progress toward finalizing a developer for its Health & Well-Being Campus and its plan to launch a Medicaid Innovation Hub as part of the project. Several Developers Submit Proposals Passport completed the first stage of its two-part developer selection…
UK working to reduce opioid-related deaths in Kentucky
By Sally McMahon The University of Kentucky’s (UK) Center on Drug and Alcohol Research (known as CDAR) conducts research on numerous aspects of substance abuse and related behavior, including intimate violence, criminal justice settings and characteristics of rural substance use. CDAR has a history of providing training on evidence-based treatment, intervention and prevention approaches, as…
OCR eases HIPAA burdens for telehealth
By: Sarah Cronan Spurlock and Jennifer Henry Jackson In response to the unprecedented public health emergency presented by COVID-19, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), responsible for enforcing the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules, issued a notification of enforcement discretion for telehealth remote communications effective immediately. The…
HIPAA’s privacy rule exceptions in light of COVID-19
By Lisa English Hinkle While the HIPAA Privacy Rule protects the privacy of patients’ health information (PHI), it is balanced to ensure that appropriate uses and disclosures of the information still may be made when necessary to treat a patient, to protect the nation’s public health and for other critical purposes. First, it is important…
Thinking strategically about end-of-life care
By Turner West The perennial growth in Medicare Advantage enrollment and the emergence of value-based initiatives and new payment models in traditional Medicare creates stronger incentives for efficient use of healthcare services. In the context of serious illness care there are myriad opportunities to both improve patient experience and reduce healthcare expenditures by diminishing non-beneficial…
A quest for new therapeutics
By Sally McMahon Linda Dwoskin, PhD, professor and associate dean of research at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, is leading research on methamphetamine use disorder and working to develop a medication to treat the disorder. We talked to Dwoskin recently about what it takes to develop treatment options and how she works with…