Five years after COVID lockdowns supercharged the idea of talking to your doctor or nurse online from home, telehealth has become such a regular part of medical care in New Hampshire that advocates hope the state will loosen laws concerning prescriptions. The final report of the Commission to Study Telehealth Services, a group that was established by the Legislature in 2020, says it should be legal for telehealth providers to prescribe certain medications for mental health and substance use disorders without requiring an in-person visit. “Those types of conditions are treatable through this modality. You don’t need to necessarily lay hands on the patient in order to treat them. It fits very well,” said Dr. Jonathan Ballard, chief medical officer for the state Department of Health and Human Services. In medicine, “modality” means “method of treatment.” Data from 2023, for example, showed that between one-third and one-half of doctors’ visits for mental health and substance use disorders in the state were done via telehealth, compared to 5 percent or less for other types of visits. With that in mind, the commission’s most immediate recommendation is that legislators expand a provision created by Gov. Chris Sununu’s emergency action during the COVID pandemic and later codified into law, which allows providers to prescribe certain drugs for opioid-use disorder without an in-person visit. Similar online-only prescribing should be allowed for a variety of mental health and substance-use disorders, the commission said. The group’s final report was released to Gov. Sununu and legislators on Nov. 26. Ballard said the recommendation was spurred by data and experience from Dr. Audrey Kern, an addiction medicine specialist who was a member of the commission. “For example, a person with anxiety may be treated with controlled medication. They’re perfectly stable but still have to come in for an office visit. Attention deficit disorder is another (example),” Ballard said. The commission found that the use of telehealth services has declined slightly since the pandemic lockdown, when the practice soared from almost zero. It now sits at roughly 60-70 visits per 1,000 members, with Medicaid patients slightly more likely to use online services than private insurance patients. “We were reassured that there was still continued use (of telehealth), settling into an amount that is clinically appropriate, driven by need,” Ballard said. He pointed to the fact that there’s a winter uptick, when it gets harder to drive to the hospital, clinic or doctor’s office. “There’s a spike every single winter. That reassured us the data is valid,” he said. Telehealth is most often used in the populated southeast part of the state, which isn’t a surprise even though it may be of more value in rural areas with less access to providers. “So much of this data follows the map of other health service utilization. You have more providers in the southern part of the state which drives use in all health services, including telehealth,” Ballard said. The commission also recommends that lawmakers extend the group for two more years because many new technologies are coming online that can help telehealth services. Ballard pointed to a movement known as Hospital-at-Home being tested in Massachusetts and other places. “You can treat people with a hospital level of care using advanced technology” such as telemetry of a patient’s vital signs at home that can have a nurse or doctor called there if necessary. “It can let you move people out of the hospital or completely avoid a hospitalization,” he said. “It’s very promising.”
Elon Musk’s preschool is the next step in his anti-woke education dreamsLamar Jackson leads all players in initial Pro Bowl voting results
How Christmas in England was BANNED for 20 years & almost lost forever – Brits celebrated ‘humiliation’ insteadAlberta UCP backbenchers support loosening ethics rules
Tech review: Gift options for the cord cutterAlamo Bowl notes: CU Buffs excited to have stars on board for postseason
Since Luka Doncic’s arrival, Mavericks have become a Christmas Day regular: ‘It’s special’
Pep Guardiola signs new Man City contract: Transfer challenges await for rebuild with Hugo Viana | Sporting News
Will Fagg was waiting for a Christmas miracle. The owner of Federal Hill pizzeria, TinyBrickOven, Fagg was getting ready to close his shop on Christmas Day after being unable to secure a liquor license. But now, the family-run pizza business is set to remain open for another year after Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, said he would give the shop $60,000. Portnoy visited Tinybrickoven earlier this month to review its pizza and met Fagg, who said the pizzeria would close unless it obtained a liquor license. In a video posted to social media Monday, Portnoy praised the pizza, describing it as “thin, New York kind of style” with a “good undercarriage.” “There’s no way this place should be going out of business, none,” Portnoy said in the video. When Fagg came outside to shake Portnoy’s hand, the social media personality had one question for the pizza shop owner: how much would he need to stay open for another year? “I think we could probably get our liquor license and continue to stay open if we had $60,000,” Fagg said in the video. “Done,” Portnoy said, reaching out for a handshake. Fagg was in disbelief. “Wow,” he said. “I’m gonna cry, man, I’m gonna cry.” The slice of cheese pizza earned a 7.9 out of 10 on Portnoy’s scale. The review posted to YouTube has racked up more than 220,000 views in less than 24 hours. The pizza shop has asked the community to write to Senate President Bill Ferguson and Del. Luke Clippinger, both Baltimore Democrats, to voice support for the business. Portnoy’s review has also spurred an outpouring of support on social media. Bill Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund, called on Gov. Wes Moore to help in a post on X, formerly Twitter . “How about fast-tracking Tiny Brick Oven’s liquor license so they can stay in business and serve customers?” he wrote on the social media site Tuesday morning. “It would be a wonderful holiday gift and a good demonstration of efficient and responsive government.” A GoFundMe created by Fagg to support the shop’s pay it forward program, an effort to provide free pizza to people in need, had raised nearly $60,000 as of Tuesday afternoon. Have a news tip? Contact Natalie Jones at najones@baltsun.com , 443-679-7818 and x.com/nataliemjones.
Fianna Fail and Fine Gael eye independent TDs as option to secure Dail majorityTechnology stocks pulled Wall Street to another record amid mixed trading. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% Monday after closing November at an all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1%. Super Micro Computer, a stock that’s been on an AI-driven roller coaster, soared after saying an investigation found no evidence of misconduct by its management or the company’s board. Retailers were mixed coming off Black Friday and heading into what’s expected to be the best Cyber Monday on record. Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. On Monday: The S&P 500 rose 14.77 points, or 0.2%, to 6,047.15. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 128.65 points, or 0.3%, to 44,782. The Nasdaq composite rose 185.78 points, or 1%, to 19,403.95. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 0.59 points, or less than 0.1%, to 2,434.14. For the year: The S&P 500 is up 1,277.32 points, or 26.8%. The Dow is up 7,092.46 points, or 18.8%. The Nasdaq is up 4,392.60 points, or 29.3%. The Russell 2000 is up 407.06 points, or 20.1%.Chargers QB Justin Herbert does not practice because of left ankle injuryEDMONTON - Alberta’s Opposition NDP says the province would become the most corrupt and secretive government in Canada if potential ethics rule changes become law. United Conservative Party legislature committee members are urging the government to exempt most political staffers from being bound by conflict of interest rules. Those rules currently limit how much staffers can accept in the form of gifts and spell out if they need to be reported. NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir says if adopted, the proposals would mean no one would know who might be buying the government. He says loosened restrictions made last year already shield the government from being transparent and it would be worse if the new rules went ahead. The push comes after multiple ministers said they accepted hockey playoff tickets from a medical supplier involved in a $70-million deal to purchase medication from Turkey that has yet to be delivered. UCP backbencher Grant Hunter says Alberta is an outlier among the provinces in including senior public servants under ethics rules.
