The Alliance for Connected Care’s Chris Adamec on Telehealth Access in Healthcare Brew
Christopher Adamec, executive director of industry group Alliance for Connected Care, previously told Healthcare Brew he felt these laws didn’t go far enough to expand telehealth access, adding that the buprenorphine rule’s six-month limit means a doctor could be forced to cut off treatment “in a potentially harmful way when the patient needs it most.” The article […]
Both Sides of the Aisle Agree – Telemedicine is the Future | The Hill Op-ed
Last Thursday, in the midst of the intense debate about the future of ObamaCare, Congress held yet another hearing extoling the virtues of telehealth and remote patient monitoring, and lamenting the barriers in Medicare that are preventing seniors from accessing these new technologies in the same way as patients in the commercial market. The hearing […]
Consumerism is Driving Telehealth Growth and it’s Here to Stay
If you look up the definition of “health care consumerism”, according to Wikipedia, the term means a movement toward patients being more involved in their own health care decisions. It’s more than that. It is also about patients setting the terms by which they will seek and receive health care services. The old paradigm of […]
Virtual Care Identified as “Deflator” of Health Care Costs
PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI) issued its annual projection of the coming year’s health care cost growth. Unfortunately, 2016 is no different than previous years. HRI projects a rise of 6.5 percent in medical cost trend, which continues a leveling of the increases we’ve seen since 2007, but it is still an increase. HRI analyzed […]
2015: Another Unstoppable Year for Telehealth
Offering telehealth to employees or health plan beneficiaries used to be a differentiator in benefits – an added perk for employees or health care consumers increasingly demanding convenience and accessibility. Today, it is rapidly becoming a necessary addition to benefit packages. Not only do employees and prospective health plan enrollees want it, but it’s also […]
Is Ohio About to be a Model for Federal Telemedicine Reimbursement?
The time for telemedicine reimbursement in our country is now. Telemedicine has gone beyond just being a solution for rural consumers who cannot access medical care. It has continually been shown to improve access to care in urban, suburban and rural areas. It also reduces emergency department and urgent care visits, and gives consumers a […]
Commentary: Time for Congress to Make Payments for Telehealth Happen
The reason that telehealth usage among seniors in Medicare is almost non-existent is because the rules were written at a time when telehealth was used primarily to provide access to care for rural patients. To access a physician remotely, Medicare beneficiaries have to be in a rural area and in an “originating site” defined as […]
Telehealth: An Important Tool in Achieving the Goals of the ACO Program and Why Restrictions Should Be Lifted in Final ACO Rule
In the recently released proposed rule related to the accountable care organization (ACO) program1 (or Medicare Shared Savings Program, as it is formally known), the CMS contemplated allowing ACOs to utilize and be reimbursed for an important tool in better coordinating care, engaging patients, delivering services efficiently, and reducing costs: telehealth. Congress adopted the ACO […]
