Narayana Murali, MD Executive VP of Care Delivery & Chief Strategy Officer, Marshfield Clinic Health System (MCHS) https://www.marshfieldclinic.org, and serves as the Executive Director of Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield WI, appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance.
Dr. Murali discussed the importance for permanently supporting telehealth flexibilities resulting from the current public health emergency.
According to Dr. Murali, “Telehealth did not begin in the pandemic as telehealth has been an important part of our clinical delivery of care for rural Wisconsin since 1997. “In fact, telehealth has become an important resource to use to care for patients in remote and distant locations throughout our service area.”
She further pointed out some facts to the Senators on the Committee:
- Telehealth adoption has increased exponentially with the federal waivers and commercial insurance coverage expansion during the PHE. Almost 20% of ambulatory care can be safely provided through telehealth
- Expanded utilization of telehealth by baby boomers and senior citizens has resulted in improved patient access, increased convenience, and appropriate care albeit with less than robust integrated platforms. There is a need to create the platforms within the framework of existing healthcare and EHR systems
- Blanket telehealth waivers issued in response to the pandemic have enabled the industry to continue population health and health promotion initiatives and provide innovative programs such as Hospital Without Walls
MCHS records show that telehealth visits in 2019 registered about 12,500 telehealth encounters. Encounters increased 21 fold by April 2020. Within 4 weeks of the pandemic, MCHS was averaging 3000 telehealth visits per week and by week 8, delivering over 6500 telehealth and phone care visits per week.
During the time, MCHS centers were closed, telehealth and phone care services were ablet to provide access to 22% of the normally expected patient volume. Overall, in 2020, MCHS provided 240,000 telehealth and telephone encounters.