Healthcare Innovation in 2014
The following article was submitted to Federal Telemedicine News by Roy Schoenberg, MD, MPH, Chief Executive Officer of American Well Systems.
The next year will bring highly accelerated reform to our healthcare ecosystem. Monumental changes are underway, driven jointly by the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, millions of newly-eligible Americans flooding an already heavily burdened health care system, and a continued drive to strike the balance between increasing access to a limited pool of providers and addressing costs which continue to rise.
Over the course of 2014, there will be a common thread emerging from the various solutions being tested – EMRs, PCMH, ACOs, and any other in-vogue healthcare trends will all place innovation front and center in trying to crack the healthcare code. And sitting clearly at the center of innovation, technology and healthcare is telehealth – a solution custom designed for the challenges facing our nation.
Telehealth, real-time video encounters between patients and providers, is becoming a widely accepted practice across the United States. By removing barriers such as distance, mobility, and time constraints, telehealth is invaluable in helping to resolve our nation’s greatest health care burdens.
Telehealth presents the opportunity to leverage technology to bring health care directly to patients when they need it – akin to the old-fashioned “house call.” By moving appropriate care to lower cost settings including the home and workplace, telehealth offers the promise of reducing unnecessary ER utilization, hospitalizations and even general overhead, and support preventative care efforts for chronic care patients.
Momentum for telehealth is accelerating at an undeniable rate. In a post reform environment, hospitals and delivery networks are challenging themselves to examine their existing business models. Capitation has led to an active exploration around managing the cost of care, treating the patient as a “whole,” and gone so far as to spark a race to lead in innovation.
The result – hospitals and networks of all shapes and sizes across the nation are actively considering the value of online medical care, both for urgent, acute, symptomatic care, as well as chronic care, and interest is on the rise.
They aren’t alone. Physicians in both hospital and private practices are embracing telehealth to extend their reach and follow up with their patients at home. Even retailers are getting on board, offering their customers access to medical services by combining onsite nurses with off-site telehealth-based physicians.
And the dollars are following the interest. As we enter 2014, nearly all state Medicaid programs now reimburse for some form of telehealth service. Nearly half of all states mandate telehealth reimbursement for commercial plans, often on par with in-person visits. These policies are rapidly expanding, with new proposals emerging on an ongoing basis.
On the federal level, 2014 will, no doubt, set the tone. Three critically important and bi-partisan legislative proposals that seek to address major barriers within the telehealth ecosystem are currently before Congress.
The Telehealth Enhancement Act seeks to improve telehealth coverage within Medicare and Medicaid; the TELE-Med Act would remove licensure barriers that prevent Medicare patients from receiving technology enabled, modern healthcare, and most recently, the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2013.
Filed this past December by Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA) and Congressman Bill Johnson (R-OH) The Telehealth Modernization Act of 2013 (H.R. 3750) acknowledges the increasing number of states contemplating the question of how to both increase access while ensuring safety.
The bill provides states with clear definitions and principles they can look to for guidance when developing new policies that govern telehealth. These principles are consistent with the existing standards for in-person care so as to ensure the safe and secure use of telehealth in medical practice, while upholding the concept that telehealth can be used to both establish and extend the physician patient relationship.
In this discussion, you can’t underestimate the value of the consumers, who are driving the discussion more now than ever. The retailing of healthcare, healthcare exchanges, and the battle for numbers puts the patient in the driver’s seat, while mobile technologies puts their decision making in the palm of their hand.
Mobile devices will completely eliminate time and distance barriers, regardless of location, socio-economic status, or mobility issues. iOS and Android devices literally make on-demand, affordable healthcare available anytime, anywhere.
By the end of the decade, this entire discussion will be moot. The terms online care, virtual care, telemedicine, and telehealth will all be consigned to the history books. Just as this generation conducts its banking transactions on their iPhones and has access to nearly every product and service online, providers currently in medical school will enter practice in a healthcare ecosystem where technology and care delivery are intertwined.
Telehealth will simply become healthcare, and replace a significant portion of in person care. As these technologies are proven to improve outcomes and reduce costs, they will become the status quo
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American Well systems, a telehealth services company uses their web and mobile telehealth platform to connect patients and clinics for clinically meaningful visits through video, secure text chat, and phone. For more information or for other inquiries, go to www.americanwell.com or email Catherine.Anderson@AmericanWell.com.