Telehealth involves the distribution of health-related services and information. Distribution is via electronic information and telecommunication technologies. It allows long distance patient/clinician contact and care, advice, reminders, education, intervention, monitoring and remote admissions. As well as provider distance-learning; meetings, supervision, and presentations between practitioners; online information and health data management and healthcare system integration.
Telehealth could include two clinicians discussing a case over video conference; a robotic surgery occurring through remote access; physical therapy done via digital monitoring instruments, live feed and application combinations; tests being forwarded between facilities for interpretation by a higher specialist; home monitoring through continuous sending of patient health data; client to practitioner online conference; or even videophone interpretation during a consult.
Telehealth is more time efficient and therefore, less expensive.
Telehealth visits free up doctors’ time to focus on more urgent patient needs. A majority of medical needs can be assessed and referred via telemed, giving docs in the emergency room the resources and bandwidth they need to address the most severe cases. For normal visits, instead of running from room to room, quickly reviewing patient information on the fly, telehealth docs are provided relevant patient information prior to the call, thereby reducing appointment time of 30-60 minutes, to less than 10. This drastic time and overhead savings (office rent, staff, and often even malpractice insurance) allows doctors to do more, with less.
Telehealth increases patient engagement.
Knowing where and with whom to schedule an appointment, getting there, and scheduling followups, referral appointments, etc. is a labor intensive and frustrating process, thereby discouraging patients from putting their health first. Efficient, transparent and cost effective telehealth visits keep patients engaged, satisfied and encouraged to incorporate preventative health measures into their busy lives.
Telehealth – Insurance Partnerships reach more people.
Telehealth companies like Doctors on Demand (who uses PokitDok to submit insurance claims) are partnering with insurance companies and health systems to provide additional ways to offer medical care to their subscribers. This opens a direct and trusted line of communication from telehealth companies to insurance network members, increasing awareness, education and adoption of the service.
Telehealth supports the democratization of healthcare.
Widespread telehealth adoption eliminates location as a barrier to accessing specific, quality healthcare. That means that if there is a specialist across the country – or the world for that matter- who is an expert in the condition you have, it is now possible to access that physician virtually. This opens up an entirely new realm of targeted doctor-patient relationship opportunities, giving docs the ability to have anyone with an internet connection as a patient, and vice versa. Further, it provides, perhaps for the first time, a viable, cost effective solution for ‘medical deserts’ in rural areas.
Medicare now covers remote chronic care management.
A new CPT code has been added – 99490 – to offer greater reimbursement for physicians, “developing and implementing a care plan for a patient with at least two chronic conditions that are expected to last at least 12 months or until the death of the patient; or that place the patient at significant risk of death, acute exacerbation/decompensation, or functional decline,” according to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This code was introduced along with seven other procedure codes for wellness, psychotherapy and longer office visits. 25% of the nation’s adult population has multiple chronic conditions, the care of which accounts for 66% of the nation’s overall healthcare spending. If the appointments needed to treat these could be conducted via telehealth solutions, both the cost of patient and doctor time, along with office overhead would be dramatically reduced.
Telehealth saves employers money.
Perhaps surprisingly, absenteeism, due to doctor appointments, is a major financial burden to employers. From the time spent scheduling a consult, regular appointment and follow-up, and travel to and from those, employers stand to lose hours of paid productivity. Similarly, when employee ailments progress, overutilization of the emergency room becomes a time and cost intensive issue (especially if the employers are self insured). Telehealth solutions offer proactive options to all of these burdens. Employees are not out of the office for hours on end and they can address health needs proactively, thereby saving time, sick days and advanced health issues in the future.