Innovative Use of a Mobile Web Application to Remotely Monitor Nonhospitalized Patients with COVID-19.

Most patients with COVID-19 do not require hospitalization but may need close monitoring, which can strain primary care practices. Our objective was to describe the implementation of a mobile web application to monitor COVID-19 signs and symptoms among nonhospitalized primary care patients and to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the application. Retrospective analysis of (1) mobile web application data from March through December 2020 and (2) cross-sectional surveys administered in June 2020.

Concurrent Utilization of Prescription Opioids and Non-opioid Controlled Substances: Rhode Island Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, 2018.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of concurrent prescription opioid and non-opioid controlled substance use in Rhode Island (RI).

Methods: We conducted a cross sectional observational study using data from the RI Prescription Drug Monitoring Program on controlled substance prescriptions dispensed in 2018. We estimated the prevalence of concurrent use of other prescribed controlled substances among adults who received at least one opioid prescription.

Reducing Hospital Readmissions Through a Skilled Nursing Facility Discharge Intervention: A Pragmatic Trial.

Objective: To determine if implementation of Project Re-Engineered Discharge (RED), designed for hospitals but adapted for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), reduces hospital readmissions after SNF discharge to the community in residents admitted to the SNF following an index hospitalization.

Design: A pragmatic trial.

Setting And Participants: SNFs in southeastern Massachusetts, and residents discharged to the community.

Assessment of First-Year Use of Medicare's Advance Care Planning Billing Codes.

This observational analysis characterizes the first year of use of the Medicare code for advance care planning and describes beneficiaries most likely to receive advance care planning.

Use of Chronic Care Management Codes for Medicare Beneficiaries: a Missed Opportunity?

Background: Physicians spend significant time outside of regular office visits caring for complex patients, and this work is often uncompensated. In 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced a billing code for care coordination between office visits for beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions.

Objective: Characterize use of the Chronic Care Management (CCM) code in New England in 2015.

An analysis of diagnoses that drive readmission: What can we learn from the hospitals in Southern New England with the highest and lowest readmission performance?

Unlabelled: Background: The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program was instituted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in 2012 to incentivize hospitals to reduce readmissions.

Objective: To examine the most common diagnoses driving readmissions among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries in the hospitals with the highest and lowest readmission performance in Southern New England from 2014 to 2016.

Methods: This is a retrospective observational study using publicly available Hospital Compare data and Medicare Part A claims data.