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CFHA members have worked hard in the last 9 weeks responding to the various challenges posed by the pandemic. These challenges are not going away, however, a great deal of progress has been made in adapting clinical delivery to telehealth, figuring out the economics of all of this and working on the sustainability of the changes for healthcare teams. It is a hard time to be in healthcare, but it is also a proud time. The next pivot is towards figuring out how to resume at least some in-person care. More to come from our list serve in future posts. For now, below is our summary of the last two weeks of list serve posts.

As a service to members and to the general public we will be posting weekly updates of our conversations and resource sharing efforts here. Because these are taken from email conversations, examples provided may refer to single clinics or situations. We hope this inspires, encourages and educates everyone as to the work that integrated care team members are doing in near real-time to the evolving pandemic. To Join CFHA and support integrated care, use this link: click to join.

Patient Care

• The UMass Center for Integrated Primary Care has shared a link to a draft of guideline for resuming limited in-person practice in the near future: https://www.umassmed.edu/cipc/about/resources/BHP-COVID-Resources/
• The American Diabetes Association Mental Health Program gives healthcare professionals valuable resources for working with diabetic patients, especially due to the fact that people with diabetes are considered to be high-risk for COVID-19 complications. Information regarding membership is available at the following link: https://professional.diabetes.org

Supporting Healthcare Professionals

• A member shared an article looking at the possible changes in mental health spending during and after the pandemic and the effects the change could bring: https://www.openminds.com/market-intelligence/executive-briefings/mental-health-spending-now-after-the-pandemic/
• Licensed medical health counselors and licensed marriage and family therapists are advocating to the House of Representatives for Medicare coverage, especially during the current crisis. Members invite you to use the links to contact your Representative about H.R. 945 (Mental Health Access Improvement Act): https://www.amhca.org/advocacy/medicare and https://www.aamft.org/takeaction#/35
• A research team aimed at helping Primary Care professionals better understand the impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on their experiences has issued a survey that can be taken once or repeated in the following weeks: https://redcap.med.uvm.edu/surveys/?s=KHHMP89E48. Summary reports can be found at the following link: https://www.med.uvm.edu/medicine/gimr/research/living_working_in_healthcare_during_covid-19
• The Larry A. Green Center in partnership with the Primary Care Collaborative issued a survey detailing the financial, practical, and mental health effects of COVID-19 for primary care workers and their patients: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5KWJLJB?isEmailCampaign=[isEmailCampaign_value]&partner=website&recip=[recip_value]&channel=[channel_value. Summary reports can be found at the following link: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d7ff8184cf0e01e4566cb02/t/5ebe8e3aa633d80ce5e7c107/1589546555002/C19+Series+9+National+Executive+Summary+with+comments.pdf. 

Telehealth

• CMS is currently reimbursing audio-only teletherapy services for psychotherapy codes.

Thanks to Emma Serrano, CFHA intern, for her work in compiling these summaries.