Lobbyists still don’t have official Congressional Budget Office scores as they are down to the wire to get lawmakers to extend telehealth waivers for one or two years past the public health emergency in the omnibus spending package expected March 11, and several sources told Inside TeleHealth they have heard the unofficial CBO scores are in the low single-figure billions, which they view as surprisingly high. Not having official CBO scores makes it more challenging for stakeholders to lobby...

A practitioner touted the benefits of using a contingency management-based app to help treat patients with substance abuse disorder and called for more providers to consider app-based treatments that are approved by FDA, speaking at a DTX West conference on digital therapeutics. Audrey Kern, global medical director of Pear Therapeutics, discussed real-world examples of app-based treatment with digital therapeutics prescriber Adam Rubenstein, a private practitioner in Chicago. Rubenstein described himself as a “patient-focused” practitioner who serves as a primary care...