Background: Before the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine for healthcare delivery was uncommon. Medicare restricted routine fee-for-service reimbursements for rural patients, with payments made under restricted circumstances. In response to the pandemic, the Department of HHS amended the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental…

Studies have shown the United States faces a shortage of physicians, making it increasingly difficult for people to access needed health care. Physicians need graduate medical education (GME) training before they can practice medicine independently and often practice in the same geographic area as their training. The vast majority of federal…

This interpretative phenomenological analysis explored licensed professional counselors' experiences of turning away Medicare beneficiaries because of the current Medicare mental health policy. Researchers used semi-structured interviews to explore the client-level barriers created by federal legislation that determines professional counselors as…

Estimating prescription medicine use is challenging due to recall bias associated with surveys and coverage bias in administrative data. This study assesses how making operational improvements and combining both survey and administrative data sources can increase data quality on filled prescriptions. We use data from the Medicare Current…

The authors analyzed data from 5,528 American Counseling Association members to examine advocacy beliefs and behavior regarding Medicare reimbursement and advocacy for counselors. Nearly half (49.3%) of the respondents had participated in one or more forms of Medicare reimbursement advocacy. Advocacy participation differed significantly by…

The "Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2024" contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President's priorities, and summary tables. The 2024 Budget is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America in a fiscally responsible way that leaves no one behind. The Budget continues lowering costs for…

Members of Congress and others have questioned whether expanding the scope of the Medicare graduate medical education (GME) program to include nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) could help mitigate the effects of a physician shortage in the United States. A Senate Committee on Appropriations report asked the US Government…

While the medical home has proven effective at improving continuity of care among other populations, there is a paucity of literature testing the effectiveness of medical homes in serving the healthcare needs of autistic adults. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to compare the continuity of care of autistic adult patients at a specialized…

While there is emerging evidence on the prevalence of physical and mental health conditions among autistic adults, less is known about this population's needs during older adulthood (aged 65+). We conducted a cross-sectional retrospective cohort study of 2016-2017 Medicare data to compare the prevalence of physical and mental health conditions in…

Little is known about the extent to which the healthcare needs of autistic older adults with intellectual disability differ from autistic older adults without intellectual disability. We conducted a cross-sectional retrospective cohort study of Medicare claims data from 2016 to 2017 to compare the prevalence of physical and mental health…

The National Association of School Nurses (NASN) believes school nursing services that are reimbursed in other healthcare environments should also be reimbursed in the school setting. The registered professional school nurse (hereinafter referred to as the school nurse) bridges education and healthcare and delivers quality, cost-effective…

Challenges in collecting comprehensive health surveillance data on people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are numerous. A number of important issues and strategies are discussed in the articles contained in this special issue of "Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities." In this article, we focus on the…

In May 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released new guidance on school Medicaid that is a clear victory for school health and student health. It affirms that states have flexibility in their school-based Medicaid program to allow school districts to bill Medicaid for health services delivered to all Medicaid-enrolled…

Suicidality is significantly more common in autistic adults than the general population, yet the factors that increase risk for suicidality among autistic adults remain largely unknown. We identified characteristics associated with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts/self-inflicted injury in a U.S. national sample of Medicare-enrolled autistic…

Medicare began reimbursing for outpatient diabetes self-management training (DSMT) in 2000; however, little is known about program utilization. Individuals diagnosed with diabetes in 2010 were identified from a 20% random selection of the Medicare fee-for-service population (N = 110,064). Medicare administrative and claims files were used to…