Tag Archives: Telehealth

29Mar/20

2020 COVID19 Telehealth is in the spotlight

Telehealth is in the spotlight as the world combats COVID-19.

Providers need to communicate with symptomatic patients to reduce spreading the virus, while others need to provide routine care for patients with chronic diseases or other ailments to protect patients and their communities.  

If Telehealth can support such an urgent need for practicing medicine, could it be the impetus for the transformation of practicing medicine beyond COVID-19?

It is encouraging to see how the government and private insurances are revising policies to allow the use of telehealth in ways not permitted before. It is a mad race for large hospitals to scale up what they already have, while medium and small practices may be starting from zero.

It’s a no-brainer that such dramatic shift is positioning Telehealth as an integral platform going forward for our healthcare system, however, it requires due diligence and planning to implement even for smaller practices.

To ramp up, a practice needs to take immediate actions on notifying patients, training, scheduling, billing, high speed internet broadband, camera quality, and the overall patient experience to name a few of the actionable items.

Nothing like crunch mode to implement a technology never used before and without even the most basic guidelines. As in war time, you implement, learn as you go and modify accordingly.

The benefits of Telehealth are substantial as providers can broaden their services and improve patient experience. From the patient perspective, surveys have shown that roughly 8 out of 10 patients would select providers who offer Telehealth over the ones who don’t.

Stay tuned for useful resources and guidelines on Telehealth

22Mar/20

2020 COVID-19 Triggers Telehealth and Work from Home

COVID-19 is unexpectedly challenging the world in unprecedented ways and Healthcare businesses are reinventing themselves as they redefine new day-to-day operations in order to survive.

Is your practice, clinic or facility ready for the new normal? … Seeing patients online and having your Back-office staff working remotely? … who would’ve thought!

Seeing patients online and having your Back-office staff working remotely?

Telehealth and working from home may sound daunting, but it is something a practice can no longer postpone. If you don’t have the expertise in house, reach out to reliable technical and clinical coding experts to assist you.

Free HIPAA compliant Remote Work Guidelines Policy Template

Confronting this pandemic is not only stretching the entire global healthcare industry, it is reshaping patient care here in the US in ways not conceivable or even imaginable just a couple of weeks ago.

1) Medicine – Find safe temporary therapies and ultimately a vaccine at the speed of light.

2) Patient Care – The entire population across the globe is being told to stay home.

3) Staff – Employees must have the ability to work from home.

The sad reality is that in the Healthcare industry none of the above could ever be achieved without removing many roadblocks currently in place. There is no fast tracking with the FDA. Healthcare businesses are just not setup or equipped to simply turn on the switch and begin seeing patients remotely or have employees work from home. Not entirely their fault, stringent HIPAA regulations have impeded the healthcare industry from adopting emerging technologies.  

So, what just happened?  In the course of a week, the FDA and CMS have revised and/or removed certain policies, paving the way for innovation, so scientists and medical professionals can quickly develop temporary therapies until a vaccine is approved. New approaches to testing for highly contagious virus such as “Drive-thru Testing” and “Self-Testing” are being explored and physicians can now leverage on telemedicine to drastically improve patient care.     

physicians can now leverage on telemedicine to drastically improve patient care.

The effect of “9/11” impacted the US greatly as well as other parts of the world; the effect of COVID-19 is impacting the entire world so it is highly unlikely that the roadblocks removed will ever come back.

Regulations in Healthcare must foster embracing new technologies, improving patient outcomes, reducing costs, and preparing physicians for the next crisis.   

Free Remote Work Guidelines 

As a way to help you get started, click here to request your free HIPAA compliant Remote Work Guidelines Policy Template.

Stay tuned for the next blog as things continue to develop.