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Understand the importance, value and use of Telehealth during this pandemic

Understanding Preventive Care Services

Telehealth has become increasingly important and has seen a striking evolution during this COVID 19 pandemic and is especially capable of having a huge effect on how patients communicate with providers and receive care.

Telehealth refers to a broader scope of remote healthcare services. According to the World Health Organization, Telehealth encompasses, “Surveillance, health promotion, and public health functions.”

The National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers has published a video on “Telehealth Policy in a Post-COVID-19 World.” In this video, Center For Connected Health Policy (CCHP) tells what temporary policy changes might remain Post-COVID-19 and what could be issues that policymakers may think merit future action. This will help policymakers, practitioners, payers, and the public understand how to accurately discuss “Telehealth” and its key components.

Understanding the dynamics of Telehealth

Telehealth is presently delivered in 2 major ways:

Video Conferencing (VC) - This is used for real-time provider-patient consultations, PCP-Specialist/ Provider – Provider.

No special software downloads for patients to connect, just click the HIPAA secure link to join the video call, share videos, file, photos, messages, etc.
Patients and providers can connect from anywhere, improved access for remote patients
Easy text or email reminders, easy reschedules, patient self-scheduling.

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) - This is used to provide appropriate support for patient self-management and helps in gathering patient data outside of traditional healthcare settings or helps transmit patient health information to health care providers.

RPM Benefits for patients:

No travel expenses and spending time on travel as the in-person visit is not required
Less interference with personal responsibilities like childcare, elder care, etc
No exposure to other potentially contagious patients

RPM Benefits for Providers:

Increased efficiency and revenue
Better patient care and improved health outcomes
Fewer circumstances that lead to no-shows

Importance, benefits, and use of Telehealth

Telehealth provides valuable features that help providers achieve health care’s triple aim – access to care, improved patient outcomes, and reduce cost to the provider. Telehealth removes obstructions of time, distance, and specialty lack. This includes remote, rural, and medically underserved urban communities.

It helps reduce readmissions, stops unnecessary hospitalizations, and ER visits.
It provides peace of mind to patients' family members as they know the patient is receiving the proactive care they need.
It incessantly captures and analyses real-time data and integrates alert algorithms, and helps identify patients who are at risk of emergency department visits (ER Visits) or hospitalization.
It is more reliable, enhances the quality of care, care coordination, saves costs, and time for both the provider and the patient.

Related Article: Role of Telehealth In Chronic Care

How to implement Telehealth:

Implement Telehealth into your existing operation and it has to be designed to complement your standard practices and workflows.

Plan a workflow analysis to reveal how this has to fit in with standard clinical practice.
Consider this technology as another tool for the delivery of normal services with the only difference of the patient being at a remote location.
Keep it simple.

Implementing sustainable Telehealth is the need of the hour. Talk to HealthViewX solution experts to understand how to instantly launch a Telehealth Program into your practice. Schedule a demo today, get up and run quickly, get started in a jiffy irrespective of the size of the operation.

Preventive Care through Remote Patient Monitoring – Power of RPM

Understanding Preventive Care Services

Preventive Care services are to help people stay healthy and to detect or diagnose health-related issues early while there is a higher chance of recovery. Preventive Care Services include periodic health check-ups, patient counseling, and screening to prevent health-related issues.

Remote Patient Monitoring and Its Acceptance

Remote Patient Monitoring is a method of healthcare delivery that is a part of Telehealth technology to gather patient data outside the traditional care settings. It is the use of specific technology to simplify the interaction between providers and patients at a remote location (home, nursing care facility, remote area or anywhere outside of conventional clinical settings. Remote patient monitoring is one of the tools that can bridge the current gap in patient engagement.

Currently, 88% of hospitals are investing or considering to invest in remote patient monitoring. In fact, 68 percent of physicians “strongly intend” to use remote monitoring technology in the future, according to a new study by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).

How does Remote Patient Monitoring help providers?

Providers can use remote patient monitoring to manage the health of high-risk patients, patients at-risk for hospital readmissions, monitor patients with chronic conditions, track patients post-discharge, check on senior patients, and to increase value-based care adoption. Remote Patient Monitoring helps providers detect any changes in patients before it shows visible symptoms.

How does Remote Patient Monitoring help patients?

Patient participation in the remote monitoring program helps patients avoid unnecessary clinic visits and potential emergency department visits(ER Visits). Remote patient monitoring provides monitoring and support at home to help patients reach their healthcare goals.

How does Remote Patient Monitoring help payers?

Remote patient monitoring connects all involved in the care cycle - providers, patients, and payers. Communication and exchange of information is much quicker and transparent which can help prevent emergencies, hospitalization, reduce readmissions, and mainly reduce costs. According to the KLAS Research report that surveying 25 healthcare organizations found 38% of healthcare organizations running RPM programs focused on chronic disease reported reduced admissions, and 17% cited cost reductions.

With such benefits it’s quite easy to understand why remote patient monitoring is burgeoning. As the RPM technology adoption continues to expand, it helps to have a positive effect on patients, providers, and the payers.

Adoption of various healthcare technology solutions are driven by various underlying factors like increasing healthcare costs, rise in baby boomer population, chronic conditions, and many more. Out of which chronic conditions are considered to be one of the main factors that need attention. More than 133 million Americans representing 45% of the U.S. population have at least one chronic disease. Chronic diseases are responsible for seven out of every 10 deaths in the United States, killing more than 1.7 million Americans every year.

Are you planning for Remote Patient Monitoring, Chronic Care Management, Telehealth, Care Management, Referral Management, or other similar solutions? Schedule a demo today! We are here to help you get started!

Provide uninterrupted care for your chronic patients during a pandemic outbreak

The COVID-19 outbreak has placed an unprecedented demand on health systems. Health systems and health workers on the front line are swamped by a plethora of activities related to the pandemic like identifying and isolating infected patients, providing care to them, ensuring it doesn’t spread to other patients, and themselves. Due to this, the delivery of essential health services which communities expect from providers is at high risk.

Focusing on a pandemic contingency plan and providing continued care for other essential health services are equally important. This will not only help gain people’s trust in the health systems but also reduce mortality from other health conditions.

Why shift to Preventive Care?

Preventable hospital readmissions are estimated to account for more than $17 billion in Medicare expenditures each year, and some of those Medicare costs are passed on to hospitals in the form of penalties. High medicare costs are a direct consequence of low patient engagement. During this time of the COVID-19 crisis, it is more important than ever to manage patients with chronic conditions to reduce costs.

One of the key strategies for providers to help their chronic patients is extending chronic care management to their homes. Providers should take a more proactive role in keeping their patients engaged in the process of care to manage their chronic conditions in a better way.

In a survey conducted by West, only 39% of respondents admitted they were only somewhat knowledgeable, at best, about how to effectively manage their condition. There is a serious gap among patients when it comes to managing their chronic conditions. Patients may not know how to check their vitals, how to follow a specific diet for their medical condition, health alert threshold, might not know their care plan, etc. Getting patients to understand certain metrics is important for reducing complications of their condition.

Chronic care management is necessary for patients because chronic patients contribute to 75% of hospital visits. In one of the articles, it is said that patients enrolled in Chronic Care Management Programs had significantly fewer hospital readmissions than routine care patients had.

How CCM benefit patients?

Patients involved in CCM services are healthier and happier. Patients get involved and engage in the management of the day-to-day activities in their care. Even during this time of crisis, they feel cared and see their care coordinators as a supporter, and they don’t feel alone.

How does CCM help your practice?

By offering CCM practices will not only see improved quality metrics but also high returns. It is great to get paid for something that is already being performed by clinical staff. Chronic Care Management helps increase your practice’s revenue as the CCM program directly translates into higher revenue. The more patients enroll the more the revenue.

Apart from increased revenue Chronic Care Management has several successful outcomes like

Better patient satisfaction and outcomes
Increased patients' compliance with medication therapy
Reduced hospitalizations and emergency department visits
Improved clinical quality and metrics
Reduced clinical staff time

Enrolling more patients in CCM programs is just perfect for providers to take care of their chronic patients during this time of crisis.

Are you looking for Chronic Care Management for your patients?

Partner with HealthViewX to provide Chronic Care management. HealthViewX CCM offers both the solution and end-to-end service.

HealthViewX Chronic Care Solution Alone

Automates and streamlines the entire process, and makes it easier for your staff to provide CCM services seamlessly.

HealthViewX Chronic Care Management Full Service

HealthViewX also provides end-to-end CCM services through our network of seasoned RNs and CMAs that enable you to increase your monthly reimbursements without incurring any additional cost of hiring additional staff or investing in technology solutions.

Interested in learning more? Schedule a demo and talk to our solution experts. Our experts will help you implement the solution or service, and get your practice started in a jiffy to provide uninterrupted care for your patients!

Capitalize on the Benefits of Telehealth to Ensure Care and Business Continuity Amid COVID- 19

The adoption of telemedicine shifted into hyper-drive over the past month, with virtual health-care interactions on pace to top 1 billion by year’s end, according to analysts at Forrester Research.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many barriers obstructed the lack of adoption of Telehealth. Cost/ budget, different opinions in consensus decision-making, implementation challenges, migration from the current process, upkeep of old technology, delay in decisions, many physicians seeing technology as impersonal, etc. were all some of the barriers to adoption. But now all of those barriers have dramatically collapsed.

Shift in care delivery mode amid the COVID 19 Pandemic

Hospitals and health systems everywhere are staring at a sharp slump in revenue. To stay afloat healthcare systems are exploring and evaluating a variety of virtual care models, and ramping up Telehealth adoptions. Their technology teams are working around the clock to deliver infrastructure support to facilitate Telehealth. Health systems are urging their physicians and patients to obviate the need for in-person visits, and instead use Telehealth visits to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

March Telehealth visits surged 50% amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to research from Frost and Sullivan consultants.

Virtual Care is the need of the hour:

Virtual care/appointments have quickly become one of the most important tools to ensure care continuity for patients while keeping safe during this pandemic. One of the Telemedicine providers has reported a spike in video requests to more than 15,000 per day. Forrester expert analysts estimate that virtual visits could top 900 million this year based on the current projections for coronavirus infections in the US.

Enabling Change – Telehealth into the spotlight

The care that used to take place only in brick-and-mortar settings can now occur digitally. Telehealth is stepping up into the spotlight and helping providers to ensure care continuity. Hospitals are enabling changes to assure care delivery, provide uninterrupted care, meet the needs of their staffs, and complement their existing workflows in the current scenario. It is evident that hospital CIOs should invest in Telehealth technology to help care continuity while also ensuring business continuity.

Telehealth is part of a larger digital transformation in health care. Telehealth technology benefits hospitals and health systems in many ways and some of them are enumerated below:

Improves patient engagement, builds capacity to expand access, improves outcomes & reduce costs
Increases specialist access availability and capacity, provides 24/7 access to care, improves access & fill gaps in care
Enables virtual care and virtual appointment
Enhances clinical relationships with partners and within specialty networks.
Implementation/expansion of value-based care models.

Apart from the ones listed above, Telehealth helps in point of access for urgent care, specialty consults, post-discharge management, health counseling, chronic care management, referral management, and many more.

Telehealth usage has expanded recently in many use cases. Some of them are listed below:

eConsult - Templated communications where PCP’s consult with specialists to send and receive information on patient care and discuss patient care.

Virtual Care - Distant specialists connect in real-time to a PCP or a clinical setting to deliver care.

Remote-patient Monitoring - Providers remotely monitor patients via connected/mHealth devices.

Virtual Appointments/ Video Visits - Provider connects directly with the patient via video to conduct the equivalent of a visit.

eVisit - Provider connects with patients via email or secure messaging to provide clinical advice or support.

Patient Acceptance of Telehealth Services - Among patients surveyed after their initial encounter, 97% were satisfied with the experience and would recommend the program, and 74% felt that the interaction actually improved their relationship with their provider.

Why Telehealth?

Health care providers saved almost $2,750 per patient when using Telehealth instead of in-person physical therapy when discharged after knee-replacement surgery.

Health systems that don’t address the expectations of their patients will be challenged by competitors and new market entrants. Telehealth helps to treat patients in a more effective way, and is an efficient way to use limited staff and resources. Telehealth will help reduce costly readmissions, improve clinical outcomes, and make healthcare services even more impactful.

Development or strengthening of health systems or hospitals can be leveraged across multiple sites by connecting physicians, specialists, imaging or diagnostic centers, hospitals, etc. Virtual care will not only improve the care quality and health outcomes but also will improve timing by eliminating travel and as well bringing in specialized care as and when needed.

Are you looking for Telehealth Services for your patients?

Schedule a demo and talk to our solution experts. Our experts will help you implement the solution and get your practice started with Telehealth Services in a jiffy!

How Can Price Transparency Impact The Healthcare Industry?

Patient financial responsibility is the greatest challenge of healthcare industry. For a long time, healthcare experts have argued that price transparency will help patients in making informed healthcare decisions thereby decreasing healthcare costs.

In August 2018, CMS stated in its updates to the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH PPS) final rules that price transparency will become a nationwide industry standard.

With effect from January 1, 2019, hospitals across the country are responsible for full price transparency. As per the IPPS and LTCH PPS rules, hospitals must list their prices online in a “machine-readable format.”

CMS approach to enforcing price transparency

Previously, hospitals were required to make their prices publicly available, but not necessarily in a digital format. In the new rule, CMS has mandated that these new price transparency resources be in a machine-readable format. CMS analyzed public comments on the most efficient way to achieve this. Finally, CMS called on all hospitals to list their chargemaster prices on a publicly-available Excel spreadsheet. The searchable spreadsheet will make it easier for patients to use.

Hiccups in the existing approach by CMS

Many questions have been raised about this approach.

Critics claim that charge master prices are not ideal for patients. Between insurance, subsidies, and other payment design, patients usually pay less than chargemaster price.
The feasibility of an Excel spreadsheet having all prices is a big question.
As more organizations publish their price transparency lists, more difficulties may come to light.

How can price transparency help patients?

Digital price transparency will enable patients to more easily access this information.
Price transparency will enable patients to make more informed decisions about care access that minimize their out-of-pocket costs and total expenditures borne by Medicare and Medicaid.
Increased price transparency will improve the patient experience of care.
Although price transparency itself cannot lower healthcare costs, but it may create market pressure that in turn lowers patient costs.
Additionally, price transparency will allow patients to choose the best care option for their needs.

The healthcare industry is still debating about the efficacy of price transparency. Healthcare price transparency tools have already made their mark in the healthcare industry. Do such tools improve patient experiences with healthcare or cut costs? How can organizations reconfigure these tools to increase its effectiveness?

Can price transparency reduce healthcare costs?

According to a 2016 study published in Health Affairs, it was found that price transparency tool actually increased out-of-pocket outpatient spending by about $59 per patient. The researchers suggested that it must must have been due to low patient awareness or perceived need of the tool.

Moreover, cost compare tools did not show many meaningful areas for cost savings.

Other studies have also shown similar results. A 2017 report by the American Journal of Managed Care found that though patients liked the idea of a cost comparison tool, they saw little use of the tool. They either forgot to use the tool before seeking care or did not see any use because they were already beyond their deductible or saw consistent copayments at their doctor’s office.It also touched on the idea of patient loyalty. Although patients could use price transparency tools to find a less expensive care option of equal quality, a sense of loyalty kept them going to their current clinicians.

Payers who offer price transparency tools have also had little luck with the tools. A 2017 report published by Health Affairs found that although scanning a cost compare website could result in 14% cost cuts for imaging services, only 1% of patients actually use the tool, making it of little use.

What do industry professionals say?

Although price transparency tools are not currently impacting the rising healthcare costs, these tools still have the potential to reduce spending and improve patient experience.

If properly utilized, cost compare technology should help patients cut their own healthcare spending because they know the lower-cost providers to visit. Patients with access to a price transparency tool have the opportunity to compare cost and quality and make their preferred treatment selection based on that data. Ideally, this will lead patients to a lower-cost option.

Clinics have little incentive to lower their costs when patients do not know how much they’ll pay before they receive the service. But if all clinics knew patients were visiting a high-quality facility with substantially lower costs, area competitors could be forced to change their prices, as well.

How can organizations make price transparency work?

Making price transparency tools that are attractive and usable for patients will be critical for delivering on the promise of cost compare. Simply offering a price transparency tool will not lower costs. Patients must actually use these systems to select lower-cost care.

As the healthcare industry continues to place more financial burden on patients, it will need to adopt strategies that help patients. High copay and high-deductible health plans have put patients in the role of the healthcare consumer. Price transparency tools are a key retail-style engagement strategy that will help consumers make better decisions about where to access care.

But in order to make those price transparency tools effective, industry leaders must keep the patient at the center of their design. Making a usable cost compare tool that uses simple language and factors in metrics that are important to patients will be integral going forward.

Reference

https://patientengagementhit.com/news/myhealthedata-patients-over-paperwork-key-in-cms-final-rules

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2518264

https://patientengagementhit.com/news/price-transparency-tools-receive-tepid-patient-reactions

https://patientengagementhit.com/news/4-patient-engagement-strategies-to-improve-patient-retention

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2016.1636

Why do Federally Qualified Health Centers need a Referral Management Software In Addition To An EMR?

Patient Referral Management is crucial for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). With the advent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act, Electronic Health Records have been widely adopted across many FQHCs. There are many benefits to EHRs like improved,

Accessibility to patient data
Charge capture
Preventative health

Let us look into each of them in detail to understand an EMR/EHR implementation better.

Pros of EHR/EMR

1. Improved data accessibility

Before EHRs, access to medical charts required a fair amount of physical labor. For example, every time a patient visits the physician’s clinic or hospital, physician physically pulls their file from a storage space. As a result of this back and forth exchange, there was a greater chance of human error and charts would sometimes be missing information or be chronologically out-of-order.

EHRs, on the other hand, have eliminated the physical transporting, sifting and filing charts, making data available at all times. Additionally, for systems that allow remote access to charts, clinicians can even be offsite and still securely access patient files.

2. Computerized physician order entry

CPOE allows physicians to place lab and imaging orders, prescriptions and other notes electronically. This reduces the error of handwritten orders and allows the patient’s other physicians within the same network access to the order.

3.Preventative health

EHRs allow prompts for preventative health screenings. During routine doctor or urgent care visits, the physician has access to preventive health records conveniently in one place. If the patient is due for a cancer screening (such as mammogram or colonoscopy), or blood pressure testing, the referral coordinator can easily look this up via the EHR system and schedule an appointment for the patient.

4. Ease sign off for PAs and NPs

While this varies from state-to-state by law, physician assistants and nurse practitioners are typically required to have their notes approved and signed off on by their supervising physician. EHRs allow the revision and cosigning of notes to happen electronically as opposed to physically moving and signing the paper.

5. e-messaging between providers

As any referral coordinator can attest referral information, telephone tag between providers can be common and is a big time-waster. With EHR software, physicians can e-message across practices. One situation that benefits in particular from e-messaging is referrals. Rather than playing telephone tag to get an appointment scheduled, the physician electronically sends a message to schedule the appointment.

How can a Patient Referral Management Referral Management work in cohesion with an EMR/EHR system?

FQHCs prefer working with EMR/EHR systems because they are comfortable with it. So they do not wish to move out their EHR/EMR system.

How great it would be if a Patient Referral Management software could integrate seamlessly with an EMR/EHR system? It can help in ensuring end-to-end Patient Referral Management without disturbing the existing system.

An EHR/EMR system has many advantages but when it is complemented with a Referral Management software practices can experience many more benefits.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution provides easy steps to integrate with a practice’s EMR/EHR system. The patient demographics, diagnostic reports, test results or any sensitive information can be transferred safely. The solution is HIPAA-compliant with complete data security. It has the following features,

Outbound Referrals – HealthViewX Referral Management Solution can integrate with both the receiving and referring end. For inbound referrals, it helps in channelizing various sources into one single queue. In case of outbound referrals, it facilitates integration with the existing system to read the patient data and send out referrals.
Referral Timeline – In HealthViewX Referral Management System, any referral has a timeline, to capture and notify the progress of the referral to all the stakeholders. A referral will be mapped to a status which helps in tracking it better. For e.g. – If a patient does not show up for the appointment, the status of the referral can be changed to no-show and an appropriate reason can also be given. With the help of a referral timeline, the providers can always be aware of what is going on with the referral.
Workflow and Task Management – A workflow can be defined on how the referral flow must be(business rules). Providers can create tasks to manage referrals by assigning it to the respective person.
Improved communication – HealthViewX Referral Management Solution supports messaging and calling features for the referring and the receiving providers to stay connected.
Data Management – The solution is HIPAA compliant and enables secure data exchange of all patient-related documents.
Seamless Integration – The solution can seamlessly integrate with any EMR/EHR/RIS or Third Party application thus providing minimal disruption in the existing referral flow.
Referral History Consolidation – The consolidated data regarding the referrals and the referral history of any patient can be printed as a hard copy at any time in pdf/excel.
Smart Search – HealthViewX Referral Management solution has a smart search facility that helps in finding the right provider for the treatment required.
Referral Data Analytics – Referral data-centric dashboard gives complete data regarding the number of referrals flowing out, the number of referrals in various status, patient follow-ups, etc.

HealthViewX Referral Management solution helps in building a secure referral network in no time. Our expert team will guide you in changing to a Patient Referral Management Software with minimal effort. Schedule a demo with us to know more about our solution.

Reference

University of California—Davis. “UC Davis study finds e-medical records have varying effects on productivity.” Dec. 2010. http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=966