Briefs

UPMC has spun off a specialty telemedicine company focused on infectious disease care. The new company—Infectious Disease Connect—follows the success of UPMC’s tele-infectious disease program, which launched in 2013. The telemedicine program connects infectious disease specialists at UPMC with patients and physicians at rural community hospitals for consultation and treatment services. Infectious Disease Connect has three main components: patient care, antimicrobial stewardship, and consulting with hospitals about infection prevention and control.

A bipartisan group of senators released legislation to ban surprise medical bills, and landed on arbitration as a final resort if hospitals, specialty physicians or insurers aren’t happy with the pay rate proposed for out-of-network treatment. The new bill from Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) has been in the works for nearly a year. Under the proposal, a patient’s insurer would automatically pay the out-of-network doctor or hospital about the same rate it would pay if the service were in-network. But adding arbitration provides an appeals process that hospitals and specialty physicians want. Cassidy said he sees the method as landing on a “sweet spot” where doctors keep getting paid but have recourse.

House appropriators approved a $56 billion budget that would roll back the Trump administration’s ban on funding groups that provide or promote abortion. Democrats included language in the bill that would prevent the rule from taking effect, although it was already stayed by a federal judge. The bill also includes other health measures, such as boosting U.S. funding for international family planning and requiring the State Department to report to appropriators about countries that produce fentanyl but don’t enforce strict protections.