All of the partners in the Heartland Telehealth Resource Center (HTRC) are well established telemedicine entities and have a great deal of knowledge across multiple domains. The partner organizations includes University of Kansas Center for Telemedicine and Telehealth ((KUCTT), Missouri Telehealth Network (MTN), and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center-Telemedicine.
KUCTT focuses on interactive tele-video consultations used across the lifespan. The Kansas program includes Telekidcare, the first known school-based telemedicine program for children. When Telekidcare began, the nurses examined the children for sore throats and ear infections, but now the program provides more acute care and mental health services for children.
MTN located at the University of Missouri, School of Medicine, has expertise and experience in adult clinical care, distance education, and telehealth policy issues. MTN operates a 2 gigabit backbone infrastructure on the MOREnet network.
This network connects to the internet using six major circuits connecting several major population centers in the state. The six major circuits form the network backbone function like an interstate highway. Today, MTN has over 202 sites in 62 Missouri counties funded with federal, state, institutional dollars, and continues to include financial support from MTN sites.
Ninety percent of the patients at the Marshall Habilitation Center located in Missouri are on Medicaid and 400 patients are severely and permanently disabled. The Center finds that it now saves over $500 with every telehealth encounter.
The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center-Telemedicine at the Health Sciences Center has a background with store-and-forward telemedicine and interactive consultation particularly for Native American and pediatric populations and operates a distance education program.
The state provides telepsychiatry which is available through the Oklahoma Telehealth Network. The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services now oversees 140 telemedicine sites in the state.
One of Oklahoma’s most important single focus telehealth networks is called KidSafe Telenet. Today there are 18 advocacy Centers in Oklahoma available to evaluate child abuse, coordinate team efforts, provide forensic interviews, provide medical evaluation and therapeutic interventions, and perform care reviews.
HRTC Program Director Cynthia Scheideman-Miller recently made a presentation to Oklahoma’s Government Modernization Committee to discuss an interim study covering over 600 providers throughout Oklahoma on the subject of technology.
The study “Leveraging Technology to Improve Healthcare Access and Outcomes” was sponsored by Representative Glen Mulready a champion for using telehealth in the state. The study found that 87 percent of providers see reimbursement as an obstacle to using telemedicine.
The ideas for change in the study suggest expanding Medicaid reimbursement for telehealth so that primary care is included, expand reimbursement for eligible health providers, and expand into additional locations by looking more at urban versus rural locations, and further examine sites such as residences and nursing homes.
In her presentation to the Committee, Scheideman-Miller pointed out:
- One nursing home in Georgia saved 354,00 in one year by avoiding unnecessary emergency room visits
- The Oklahoma State Department of Mental Health saved $1 million in 2012 and saved $3.4 million in 2013
- Treating patients via telestroke in several states saved $200 per patient and tripled the number of cases tPA could be administered
The Oklahoma Medical Board is going to hold a hearing on telemedicine rule (435-10-7-13) on January16, 2014. The new rule would allow the doctor patient relationship to be established via telemedicine. The Board is looking to hear public comments on whether the presenter needs to be with the patient at the time of consult and the types of technology needed and should be allowed.