The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced this week it will increase reimbursement for those administering COVID-19 vaccines to homebound Medicare beneficiaries by $35 per dose, bringing the total to about $75 per dose or $150 for two-shot vaccines. William Dombi, president of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, called the move a “very positive step forward.” Read more.

Citus Health just released a new study that says offering real-time online communication can mean more repeat customers and a higher survey rating for home health care providers. Almost all respondents said responsiveness influenced satisfaction—but only 40% said they were fully satisfied. Read more.

Also on the technology front, Apple released several new features aimed at an aging population at its developer conference this week, including enabling the iPhone to evaluate fall risk and unsteady gaits and allowing for health data sharing between users. See the new features.

The durable medical equipment (DME) industry has been witnessing shrinking margins and collections—with staffing among the biggest challenges. Why spend additional staff time on revenue cycle management (RCM)? Curasev explains how it has transformed RCM by strengthening billing and claims management, raising operational efficiencies and eliminating the need to ramp up staffing. Download the white paper to learn more.

Join HomeCare and Brightree on June 22 at 1:00 p.m. CDT for a webinar on technologies to help improve patient engagement. Register now.

Does your staff spend too much time on never-ending administrative burdens, especially when it comes to checking eligibility, onboarding patients and managing EHRs and the revenue cycle? You should know about robotic process automation, in which bots take over some of those repetitive tasks. This white paper from Element5 explains how this new technology applies to post-acute care. Download here.