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5 Things to Communicate to Patients After the COVID-19 Quarantine   As states begin lifting shelter-in-place or stay-at-home restrictions, providers are working on getting their practices back up and running. As you prepare to resume care delivery, keep in mind that patients may be hesitant to return to normal activities – especially ones who feel the risk of exposure to the coronavirus may be high. Communicating your safety measures across all patient touchpoints can be reassuring for patients. This article outlines five key points to communicate. For an extended version of this article, which includes examples that may be used to craft your patient communications and how to reinforce messaging across patient touchpoints, click here. 1. Express Your Commitment to Safety. Let your patients know that you take their concerns [...]

TAMPA, FL – iCare Health Solutions, LLC (iCare) has announced that its Diabetic Retinal Exam (DRE) patient outreach program has helped five of its Florida-based Medicare Advantage partners earn the CMS Five-Star rating for their Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) Diabetic Retinal Exam (DRE) measure. “Achieving five stars for the DRE measurement is difficult,” says Tamara Bruns, Executive Vice President of Care Delivery Transformation at iCare. “It requires a strategic approach and ongoing effort to overcome geographical, socioeconomic, and communication challenges to reach our targeted populations. For five health plans to achieve the five-star rating is rare. Our team did an outstanding job. We are incredibly proud of this accomplishment.” iCare works with its contracted HEDIS health plan partners by targeting members who are non-compliant for their [...]

You go to your optometrist or ophthalmologist and they test your eyesight. Unless you have perfect vision, they hand you a slip of paper (or send an electronic file) that has all these numbers and words that probably mean nothing to you. But they’re your eyes, and you want to know what your prescription means.   I’m going to break down each aspect of your eye prescription, so you can fully understand what’s going on with your sight.   OD, OS, and OU   One of the first things you’ll probably notice are the rows starting with either OD or OS (and sometimes OU). These codes are much simpler than you might realize.   OD stands for oculus dexter, which means your right eye OS stands for oculus sinster, which [...]

We’re sure you already know what primary health care is – it is that basic level of care from a family doctor that encompasses a broad range of potential issues. Primary eye care follows that same idea. It’s the basic, general, and regular health care for your entire eye.   This isn’t just about checking for 20/20 vision or getting a new prescription. Primary eye care runs all sorts of tests like pupil dilation, computerized tests, and that infamous air puff test.   Remember: this is about your whole eye health – and as you will soon see, the health of your entire body.   Here are 4 reasons why primary eye care is so important:   See Clearly   Let’s start with the obvious answer first. Regularly visiting your [...]

What You Need To Know About The HEDIS Health Care Rating · Every American needs health insurance – but other than cost, how do they know which one to choose? · Doctors work alongside health plans – but how do they know more about these companies they are working with? · And health plans may be experts in their own care and services – but how do they know whether they are better or worse than the next health plan? The answer to all of these questions is HEDIS, or the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set. Here’s everything you need to know about this health care rating system. What Is HEDIS? HEDIS is a rating system that uses many different specific measures or standards to compare the performance and [...]

In the world of health and medicine, we recognize that medications often come with a trade-off. You fix one problem, but experience X, Y, or Z side effects. So we weigh the pros and cons, together with our doctors, and make the best choice we can.   The biggest issue normally arises when we do not realize what potential side effects can come from our prescription or over-the-counter medications. That lack of knowledge can leave us with annoying consequences at best and life-threating consequences at worst.   Somewhere in the middle of those two extremes lands our eyesight. Many different medications can affect the eyes.   Some just make them dry or irritated Others can cause blurriness, double vision, or visual disturbances (like floaters) And others get more serious – [...]

When we go on a new medication, we are hopeful that our health problem will go away – or at least be better managed. We are not hoping for a whole new set of health issues. But sometimes, that’s exactly what we get all thanks to side effects.   Here is a list of common medications that have been shown to negatively affect the retina (in some cases). This list is not comprehensive, nor will every person taking these drugs have negative eye-related side effects.   If problems do pop up, it is often related to inappropriate dosing. Sometimes any visual impairment will go away once you stop using it; other times the retinal damage can be permanent.   So no matter what, it is imperative to make sure you [...]