Tag: telehealth

6 Ways Healthcare Is Adapting to Handle Future Crises

From relying less on federal leadership to making government funding more flexible, discover what the healthcare world might look like post-coronavirus.

by Deborah Swanson

The coronavirus pandemic has upended the world, and it’s affected the healthcare system in a big way. At this point, it doesn’t seem like we’ll ever go back to the way things were before the pandemic, and both individuals and agencies are already planning for the new future. The coronavirus exposed tons of weaknesses in the healthcare system. As a result, many healthcare organizations are thinking hard about how they can better prepare for the next crisis.

Here are six strategies that the healthcare industry might implement, from relying more heavily on regional (vs. federal) leadership to making government funding more flexible. Discover what the healthcare world might look like post-coronavirus:

Leadership Will Emerge on a Regional Level

This trend has already shown itself just in the past few months. Given the conflicting messages from federal leaders and the high variability of the virus across different geographic areas, leadership has emerged on a state and even county level. Governors have worked together across state lines, while mayors have directed their cities’ reopening plans independent of other officials. While this patchwork of leadership can be hard to follow, it does allow for a more tailored approach. This regional-specific approach is necessary because the virus has hit some places harder than others. Expect to see regional and local leaders continue to take charge.

New Types of Care Centers Might Emerge

The pandemic has highlighted hospitals’ vulnerabilities and how both patients and healthcare workers might benefit from alternative care delivery centers. Unless coronavirus patients cannot breathe on their own, they’ve been told to stay away from hospitals and clinics, leaving many very sick people laid up at home. There’s simply nowhere else for sick people to go, and many hospitals are full. Skilled nursing facilities dedicated to coronavirus patients who don’t need the ICU (but would benefit from experts in stretch scrubs) could cut down on infectious transmissions and speed recoveries for moderately acute patients.

Telehealth Is Here to Stay

While some healthcare systems have been quietly implementing telehealth for years, it wasn’t the norm everywhere, and insurance didn’t always cover it. But coronavirus changed everything when care systems across the world eliminated all but the most essential in-person visits. While some of these measures (and the accompanying insurance coverage) were only temporary fixes, the coronavirus will likely turn telehealth services into a fixture of the healthcare landscape. Whether it’s an infectious disease or a natural disaster that causes people to relocate, telehealth connects patients to their providers from a safe distance. Expect telehealth to become more sophisticated as healthcare systems build on their last-minute coronavirus fixes.

Some Workers Might Stay Remote

Some healthcare interactions, like surgeries, simply have to take place in person. But you might see more and more healthcare employees working remotely if they don’t have to be in the clinic physically. This shift is especially true for administrative roles. Even providers might shift more of their patient load to telehealth appointments and only don their cotton scrubs or nursing shoes in-person a few days per week. While the world is changing daily, it’s safe to say that this trend isn’t going anywhere for the time being.

Information Sharing Will Be Widespread

Healthcare is traditionally a slow-moving, siloed industry. Not all that long ago, records were kept on physical papers that had to be faxed back and forth between offices. While hospitals were slowly getting on the digital bandwagon, the coronavirus has kicked these changes into overdrive. Healthcare teams are collaborating across state lines and even national borders to find a vaccine for COVID-19. Meanwhile, digital records are becoming the norm, allowing patients and providers to access them from different locations. And once a vaccine becomes available, this information sharing will need to increase, so offices across state lines can confirm that their patients have indeed received the shots.

Government Funding Might Become More Flexible

Speaking of siloes, it’s hard to find an area in healthcare that’s more separated and confusing than government funding. Right now, every program and department have their own financial regulatory rules. As a result, some states and grant recipients must puzzle their way through a labyrinth of regulations. However, the coronavirus pandemic is slowly but surely forcing agencies to develop ways to work together and streamline their processes. In fact, the federal government has already created a disaster response toolkit that advises states on managing Medicaid and other services during crises like pandemics and natural disasters. While this change will be slow-moving, we will likely see more cohesion as everyone tries to navigate the post-pandemic environment.

The healthcare industry is already feeling the pandemic’s effects, and changes will continue to come as healthcare evolves. Look out for these six changes as the healthcare industry tries to navigate the new normal.

Deborah Swanson is a Coordinator for the Real Caregivers Program at allheart.com, a site dedicated to celebrating medical professionals and their journeys. When she isn’t interviewing caregivers and writing about them, she’s gardening.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Is Telehealth Therapy the Way of the Future?

As our society continues to move in a more “on demand” direction, will therapy professionals follow suit through telehealth therapy? Maybe so.

As our society continues to move in a more “on demand” direction and technologies allow just about everything we, as a population, could possibly need at our fingertips, will therapy professionals and practices follow suit? Possibly so, given the amount of continued chatter around the concept of telehealth or virtual therapy over the years.

Telehealth therapy has a lot of obvious merits, including:

  • It has huge potential to expand access to care in geographically remote and underserved areas, of which there are many for PTs, OTs, and SLPs alike. This can be particularly helpful in pediatrics, where schools can set up technology for remote therapy for multiple children in one central location, opening access to pediatric patients that might not be able to get the help they need otherwise.
  • Virtual therapy can also work in conjunction with in-office therapy as an efficient way to perform post-discharge checkups, intake of subjective history, quick screens, post-surgical monitoring, management of chronic illnesses, consultations with other practitioners, such as yoga instructors or pelvic floor specialists, and just about every part of therapy that isn’t manual.
  • Telehealth also puts a strong emphasis on education and pain science for patients, their families, and their caregivers to help them understand their diagnoses and steps they will need to take to improve function. This can be especially helpful for home health patients, such as those who are aging in place, mental health patients, and outpatient neuro patients.
  • For therapists, themselves, the benefits are vast. Telehealth affords therapy professionals a flexibility that is not possible with clinical practice. It also isn’t nearly as physically taxing on therapy professionals as traditional clinical therapy practice can be.

Telehealth, despite its many merits, and like anything else, also has drawbacks. At the moment, it is only possible for therapists to practice virtually in the states they are licensed. Also, patient acquisition has proven to be tough for some. Atop that, Medicare does not currently reimburse for use of remote physical, occupational, or speech therapy, though Medicaid does, at least in some states, and third-party payers all come with their own rules for telehealth reimbursement. Though, as telehealth continues to catch on and healthcare, as a whole, moves toward models that involve more immediate, remote care options, those hurdles to successful telehealth practice may be removed.

What are your thoughts on telehealth therapy?

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Telehealth Is on the Rise

Telehealth is gaining in usage, says a new report, but there are still some barriers in place that are hindering wider implementation.

Telehealth is gaining in usage, or so found the State of the States Report: Coverage and Reimbursement from the American Telemedicine Association. However, there are still some barriers in place that are hindering wider implementation.

The report, which offers an in-depth analysis of telehealth laws and policies, was released last week, along with a statement from the ATA. In the statement, Ann Mond Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of the ATA, said, “This year’s ATA report illustrates the increasing recognition of telehealth, and can guide federal and state lawmakers to identify and address policy gaps. Collectively, states are realizing the many benefits of telehealth and are implementing policies that advance utilization.”

Key findings from the ATA report include:

  • The eight most common types of telehealth providers include physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, licensed mental health professionals, psychologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and dentists.
  • Since 2017, when the ATA issued their last report, 40 states and the District of Columbia have adopted telehealth policies or have received awards to expand telehealth coverage and reimbursement.
  • 36 states and D.C. have parity policies for private payer coverage, and only 21 states and D.C. have coverage parity policies in Medicaid.
  • 28 states have Medicaid payment parity policies, and only 16 mandate payment parity for private payers.
  • The majority of states have no restrictions on eligible provider types; ten states have authorized six or more types of providers to treat patients through telehealth.
  • Currently, 29 states do not specify where a patient must be located in order to receive care via telehealth.

“It’s clear that more states are adopting telehealth solutions, but some lack the authority or resources needed to fully deploy telehealth across the state. ATA supports expanding research opportunities to increase innovation and reduce costs, to help incentivize states to continue to adopt telehealth services,” added Mond Johnson.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

FCC Sets Vote on $100M Telehealth Program for Rural U.S.

The FCC will vote next month on a $100 million program that aims to expand telehealth to rural patients and veterans by funding technology for providers.

The Federal Communications Commissions will vote next month on the Connected Care Pilot Program, an effort to develop and expand telehealth programs for the United States’ underserved rural residents and veterans that comes with a $100 million price tag. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr announced the July 10th vote yesterday during a visit to a rural health clinic in Laurel Fork, VA.

The three-year program, which has the backing of multiple health organizations, focuses on funding healthcare providers through the Universal Service Fund to secure broadband services to enable low-income patients and veterans to access telehealth services.

“With advances in telemedicine, healthcare is no longer limited to the confines of traditional brick and mortar health care facilities With an Internet connection, patients can now access high-quality care right on their smartphones, tablets, or other devices, regardless of where they are located. I think the FCC should support this new trend towards connected care, which is the healthcare equivalent of moving from Blockbuster to Netflix,” Carr said in a statement released yesterday. He went on to explain that the program, which was revealed nearly a year prior to the proposed vote in July of 2018, “will focus on ensuring that low-income Americans and veterans can access this technology.”

The Connected Care Pilot Program aims to expand access to care, improve outcomes, and reduce costs by creating a “a model for the adoption of connected care technologies and bridging the doctor divide in rural America,” per the statement released by Carr.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

New App Connects Patients with Advanced Practitioners, RNs via Text

A new app is taking aim at the telehealth space–not to diagnose, but to triage–and advanced practitioners and RNs are the ones on call.

A new startup has taken aim at the telehealth space. However, unlike other apps, the focus is to connect patients with physician assistants and nurse practitioners, as well as registered nurses, instead of physicians. The app, which offers a 24/7 chat-based model, also aims not to diagnose or prescribe, but to triage and inform.

Developed in the Harvard Innovation Lab and launched earlier this month, Nurse-1-1 is designed to offer patients a better and more reliable resource than being left to their own devices, such as Googling symptoms, to determine whether or not they should seek medical attention. It is HIPPA-compliant and encrypted, and offers patients a low-cost model of $12.50 per chat, with or without insurance—which is undoubtedly cheaper than a wasted co-pay, if medical attention isn’t deemed advisable.

To use the service, patients only need to download the app, answer some simple questions, and then they are paired with either a physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or registered nurse, who can triage their situation through photos and information shared via the chat.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Telehealth Saved Providers $2,750 per Patient, New Study Says

The results of a long-awaited study has found that telehealth saves providers nearly $3K per patient when used for post-discharge knee replacement PT.

Telehealth saves healthcare providers nearly $2,750 per patient when used in place of in-person physical therapy for post-discharge knee replacement patients, according to a long-awaited study by the Duke University School of Medicine’s Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI).

The VERITAS (Virtual Exercise Rehabilitation In-home Therapy: A Research Study) project began in 2016 and followed nearly 300 people who had undergone a total knee replacement surgery. Researchers split the group into two groups; half of participants received traditional in-person physical therapy, and the other half received physical therapy via a remote patient monitoring platform known as VERA.

Researchers found that both methods of treatment were similarly effective in reducing knee instability and improving knee function, but that providers using the telehealth platform with clinical oversight saved an average of $2,745 per patient.

The findings of the study strengthen the case for physical therapists who are considering telemedicine as a way of expanding their businesses and boosting patient engagement.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Does Telemedicine Save or Cost Money?

Telehealth companies have long asserted that increased access to physicians via video or phone saves money by reducing office visits.

from KevinMD

Over 1 million virtual doctor visits were reported in 2015. Telehealth companies have long asserted that increased access to physicians via video or phone conferencing saves money by reducing office visits and Emergency Department care. But a new study calls this cost savings into question. Increased convenience can increase utilization, which may improve access, but not reduce costs.

Read More →

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.