“Costly insurance scams” loom with rising use of telemedicine sparked by COVID-19, said the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud Friday. It’s warning consumers to steer clear of telehealth visits they didn’t initiate. “Scam artists cold-call people, often seniors,” it said. The callers offer “free telemed exams with a doctor you've never met,” it said. They promise free health benefits in return for giving up “insurance information” or other personal data, it said. “These are ploys to steal your medical identity and falsely bill your insurance.” Report all crimes immediately, it advised.

Some 83% of consumers who use such services had their most recent telehealth visit at least partially paid by insurance, said Parks Associates Thursday. In the past 12 months, 41% of U.S. broadband households used a telehealth service, nearly tripling year over year, it said. The pandemic pushed virtual solutions “to the forefront of healthcare,” said President Elizabeth Parks: Sweeping regulatory changes and changing consumer preferences on remote vs. in-person care created “an enormous shift."

The Patent and Trademark Office granted CTA its third deadline extension Saturday to file the required statement of use (SOU) that would close out its June 2018 application to trademark a certification logo for over-the-counter hearing aids (see 1806250018), agency records show. CTA created the logo to identify reputable OTC hearing aids for consumers with mild or moderate hearing loss. The devices can earn the logo by meeting minimum voluntary performance criteria in the ANSI/CTA-2051 standard approved in January 2017. PTO requires SOUs to prevent applicants from intentionally hoarding trademarks they have no plans to deploy commercially. CTA is hamstrung from filing the SOU because it awaits federal regulations establishing the OTC hearing-aid category under the 2017 FDA Reauthorization Act (see 2001170050). The law requires the FDA to publish proposed rules for comment by Aug. 18, three years from when President Donald Trump signed the measure. It directs the agency to publish final rules no more than 180 days after the comment period closes. The FDA didn’t respond to questions Monday about the release date of the proposed rules. A PTO trademark applicant is entitled to up to five SOU deadline extensions of six months each but must file it within three years after receiving the agency's notice of allowance, clearing the application for final approval. The CTA SOU for OTC hearing aids is due Jan. 29, 2022.

CardieX's AtCor filed a U.S. patent application for measuring “medically reliable” heart and arterial health indicators from a plethysmogram light sensor built into a wearable device, said the Australian tech company Monday. It has a “development agreement” with Chinese smartwatch manufacturer Mobvoi, it said. “We also intend to license the technology to other wearable and smartwatch companies and to include it in our own medical and consumer wearable devices.”

Nearly 90% of patients in a Sony study say they could better manage chronic conditions with a specialized remote health monitoring device. More than half would consider switching doctors to one who provided a remote monitoring device, Sony said. Three-fourths said they would wear such a device, if prescribed by their doctor, and 54% of those managing chronic conditions would make at least three fewer trips to a doctor annually if they could share health data digitally. Some 45% of respondents managing chronic conditions regularly forget to take their medications or treatments; 28% had a health emergency due to tracking lapses.

Smart glasses maker Vuzix received $11.3 million from a stock offering to institutional investors, with proceeds to be used for building inventory to meet increasing demand, it said Monday, citing the uncertain economic, public health and political climate. The company posted Q1 earnings Monday of $1.53 million vs. $1.37 million in the year-ago quarter. CEO Paul Travers said the COVID-19 pandemic “awakened the enterprise smart glasses industry, particularly across telemedicine, field service and remote support and manufacturing.” The company has had an uptick in orders since sheltering-in-place regulations in mid-March, he said. The company expanded its engineering services and OEM programs, Travers said. It's also developing waveguide and display engine technologies around MicroLEDs with new partners.

Janssen Pharmaceutical opened enrollment for a study, with Apple, exploring whether the Heartline Study app on the iPhone and heart health features on Apple Watch can reduce the risk of stroke, said the Johnson & Johnson company Tuesday. Heartline is designed to see if features of the watch can improve health outcomes with earlier detection of atrial fibrillation, it said. U.S. residents 65 and older who own an iPhone 6 or later and are willing to give access to their Medicare claims data are eligible. Participation will span three years.

Healthcare providers face key barriers and challenges to participating in the FCC's proposed Connected Care pilot program, including statutory and regulatory limitations under anti-kickback requirements and Medicare and Medicaid payment and coverage policies, "including the manner in which various federal pilot program requirements might intersect or conflict between one another," said Ochsner Health System in a meeting with FCC staff and a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-213. Meeting participants discussed complexities of using safe harbors available under the anti-kickback statutes via the Office of Inspector General, and waivers from the Department of Health and Human Services under a Medicare Shared Savings Program, Ochsner said. Such waivers "might allow leveraging digital platforms and devices as part of any FCC Connected Care Initiative program to increase overall understanding of the opportunities to improve health outcomes for underserved, hard-to-reach, and/or at-risk populations," it said. Ochsner said it has used patient monitors connected to smartphones and tablets to send data for analysis by its clinical care teams.

Five million U.S. consumers will own a personal emergency response system by 2024, for $1.1 billion in sales, said Parks Associates Tuesday. Future PERS growth will come from alternative devices and home sensor-based systems, said Lindsay Gafford. Alternative devices with emergency response capabilities -- such as mobile phones, smartwatches, smart speakers and residential security systems -- compete with legacy PERS devices in the senior assistive technology market, said the analyst, leading industry players to find ways to integrate more robust emergency response technology into legacy devices. Others are developing new PERS-specific solutions. Eighteen percent of U.S. broadband households -- nearly 19 million people -- are age 65-plus, and that is expected to nearly double by 2050. Four percent of U.S. broadband households report owning a PERS device.

Retail's a small “but growing” sales channel for connected medical devices, reported Parks Associates Monday. Some 41 percent of those who purchased connected medical device bought one either online or at a store, it said; most are bought through care providers, specialty medical equipment stores or insurance-approved online marketplaces. Devices bought most frequently at retail include Wi-Fi scales and smart thermometers, Parks said. Retailers including CVS, Sam’s Club and Best Buy have entered the telehealth space, and Amazon announced Amazon Care this year as its direct-to-consumer online virtual care platform, said analyst Jennifer Kent: “Retailers are in a position to impact the market for virtual care substantially, and data collected from connected health devices could be used during a telehealth consultation to deliver greater insight to both the patient and provider.” Adoption of connected medical devices and usage of telehealth services remain low overall compared to wearables. Some 15 percent of U.S. broadband households used a telehealth service in the past 12 months, but the usage rate nearly doubled between 2017 and 2019, Kent said: “Once users try a service, they better understand the value proposition.” Retailers such as Sam’s Club bundling telehealth visits with additional healthcare services will "encourage more consumers to at least trial telehealth.”