Given the opportunity to quickly prove its efficacy and customer appetite for connecting with care providers virtually, telehealth has more than proven the model works and works well. There is also consensus in the industry that the former regulatory and reimbursement barriers that were rapidly removed during COVID will not go back to the old normal. Evidence of this keeps emerging with CMS rulings and clarifications that signal this intent. The question for those in Senior and Long-Term Care who are now looking at their post-pandemic clinical, operational and business environment to make IT strategy decisions is: Where to go next in telehealth and virtual care?
By now, almost all providers have found a way to do virtual visits with the patients and residents they serve. A first step in evaluating your IT strategy for any purpose is to take a critical look at those solutions and workflows you are using with either a full or a targeted assessment. If done well, this assessment should provide you with the necessary insight to confidently map out your short and long term plans based on your current state and an inventory of your telehealth and virtual care capabilities.
This provides the opportunity to determine if you have the capabilities to meet the clinical, technical and operational objectives of your organization. You can examine if there are ways to optimize what you already have and be well positioned for the future.
For many organizations the near term objectives include improving access to care, decreasing the cost of providing care and maximizing reimbursement. Consider if your technology allows you to:
Meet the new and increased demands on your infrastructure. This includes internet, Wi-Fi, connectedness, and the ability to share the needed data through integrations and interoperability.
Optimize your processes and workflows. Consider the operations that can and should be automated. Explore any additional customization and training that would lead to better performance.
Enhance and improve the experience that patients, residents, families, staff and partner organizations have with your organization. Right now, the expectations are especially high and best practices for communication, feedback and recognition have significantly shifted to include having a strong digital presence. Many organizations have moved much of their interactions to a digital or even mobile first model and have rounded out their offerings with quality of life and hospitality elements like wellness programming and education, menus and meals, activities and content that adds value.
Maximize reimbursement for the clinical services you are providing and plan to provide. Changes to the way some clinical services can be billed could significantly increase the ROI for adding increased telehealth, RPM and CCM capabilities for appropriate use cases. Your IT strategy should help you maximize this revenue capture and enable the services that will be provided going forward.
Consider leveraging people with experience and expertise. Strategic Interests can help your organization with a Telehealth and Virtual Care assessment and strategy. Please contact Michalene Kinsler at mkinsler@strategicinterests.com to schedule an introductory call.
Let us help you put the right technology in place so your organization can focus on delivering care to the people you serve.
Telehealth and Virtual Care continues to be a focus of delivering safe, effective care during COVID and a cornerstone of addressing issues of access for rural and underserved populations.
As part of the CARES Act, $200 million was designated for telehealth programs and was quickly awarded to both large and small providers in an effort to rapidly increase the availability of virtual visits, remote monitoring and other types of connected care.
Continuing with that focus, the FCC will make funding available through the Universal Service Fund (USF) as the Connected Care Pilot Program (Pilot Program) to help defray the costs of providing connected care services. The emphasis on supporting these services will be for low-income Americans and Veterans. The Pilot Program will make available up to $100 million available over a three-year funding period and will be separate from the budgets of the existing Universal Service Fund (USF) programs.
For those projects that are selected, the Pilot Program will cover 85% of the eligible costs of
(1) patient broadband internet access services (2) health care provider broadband data connections (3) other connected care information services, and (4) certain network equipment (e.g., equipment necessary to make a supported broadband service function such as routers)
Unlike the FCC Covid Telehealth Program, this will not fund end-user devices or medical equipment and will require a competitive bidding process. The intention is to address a wide variety of health challenges such as diabetes management, opioid dependency, high-risk pregnancies, pediatric heart disease, mental health conditions, and cancer. Information on eligibility and guidelines is available and the timeline is expected to be released soon. Organizations can submit an eligibility determination ahead of the full announcement – see links at end of this post.
Also in the interest of expanding coverage to rural areas, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report on existing and upcoming efforts to improve rural healthcare. This report, the Rural Action Plan, is the first HHS-wide assessment of rural healthcare efforts in more than 18 years and the product of HHS’s Rural Task Force, a group of experts and leaders across the department first put together by Secretary Alex Azar in 2019.
This action plan provides a roadmap for HHS to strengthen departmental coordination to better serve the millions of Americans who live in rural communities across the United States. Eighteen HHS agencies and offices took part in developing the plan, which includes 71 new or expanded activities for FY 2020 and beyond. Efforts that will be undertaken in FY 2020 include nine new rural-focused administrative or regulatory actions, three new rural-focused technical assistance efforts, 14 new rural research efforts, and five new rural program efforts. These efforts build on 94 new rural-focused projects the HHS Rural Task Force identified as having launched over the past three years.
This report outlines the key challenges facing rural communities related to issues such as emerging health disparities, chronic disease burden, high rates of maternal mortality and limited access to mental health services. The plan lays out a four-point strategy to transform rural health and human services, with a number of actions that can be launched within weeks or months. The four points of the strategy are:
Building a sustainable health and human services model for rural communities
Leveraging technology and innovation
Focusing on preventing disease and mortality
Increasing rural access to care
More funding through programs like these and improved coordination across agencies and providers could provide the foundation for truly addressing how to deliver care when and where it is needed – especially for those most in need.
Telehealth has always been viewed as a key pillar of the technology-enabled care delivery… of the future. Each year, we have said “This is the year for Telehealth” and that could not be more true than at the current moment. There is an urgent need for solutions that serve and protect patients and providers at the same time. As we know, Telehealth helps hospitals, health systems, LTC and group practices deliver quality care while gaining efficiency, improving patient care and satisfaction, increasing provider satisfaction, reducing risk and decreasing costs.
As 2020 unfolds, with the COVID-19 pandemic severely testing our health-system capacity, telehealth is providing solutions. Virtual care and remote monitoring have taken centerstage during this crisis. Keeping patients home but engaged is especially important along with tracking the health of employees and their return to work status.
Many of the regulatory and reimbursement constraints that have created barriers to telehealth adoption prior to COVID-19 have been eased. There is increased grant funding available as well. Our hospital systems and other organizations need to leverage technology to deliver care during social distancing efforts to prevent the spread of the virus. Many vendors are offering low cost and deeply discounted plans to help meet these needs.
Finding the right Telehealth vendor to best meet your organization’s needs can still be a challenge. How do you find the right vendor during a crisis? Can you afford the time to research and vet those companies so you don’t make a mistake that costs time and money?
Strategic Interests, LLC has extensive experience and knowledge in Telehealth. SI can help you select a vendor, implement a program, training your staff, and identify revenue and/or funding sources. SI will quickly learn your use cases and requirements and propose appropriate solutions. If you would like to explore how Telehealth could benefit your organization during this unprecedented time, please use the contact us page on our website or email SI at info@strategicinterests.com.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) that passed on March 27, 2020 was the largest in US history, representing a $2 trillion aid package. Congress was encouraged to provide increased access, funding and guidance for Telehealth and related health IT from the eHealth Initiative (eHi) and other leading organizations. The CARES Act addresses and relieves some of the immediate challenges in delivering quality healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Telehealth and other health related technology is a natural solution to some of these current healthcare delivery challenges. The CARES Act provides increased telehealth grants by reauthorizing the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant funding for 2021-2025 making $29 million per year available. It also eases some of the previous restrictions on Telehealth visits including the requirement that the patient was seen within the past three years for an in person visit.
The range of Telehealth solutions has expanded considerably. The CARES Act acknowledges this by redefining Telehealth beyond just real-time video technology. In particular, the ability to monitor the health and symptom status of a patient remotely will prove to be life-saving technology for patients and providers.
The CARES Act also allows the designation of FQHCs and some rural clinics as Medicare Telehealth “distant sites” to make reimbursement for Telehealth visits easier. Additional appropriations provide funding for specific Telehealth activities and initiatives.
Strategic Interests worked tirelessly with Rochester Regional Health and Datos to rapidly deploy a COVID-19 remote patient monitoring solution in under a week! See the press release below for more details…
The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States is accelerating rapidly and if you or your organization is responsible to monitor these people, you know it requires immediate efforts to practically manage patient care. Hospitals soon will be swamped with patients and we need, as much as possible, to keep the ill and those suspected to be ill at home while providing them with care and the ability to monitor them closely.
Datos, a leading digital health startup from Israel, in conjunction with Strategic Interests, a health tech consulting firm, are offering a capability to your organization to implement and begin monitoring your patients in as few as two days. The Datos Automated Remote Care Platform utilizes proven technology and is already monitoring and caring for COVID-19 and flu/virus symptomatic patients in Israel. (See the video: Datos Automated Remote Care Platform – You Tube)
Jointly we are now offering this service in the United States, at a very low cost to help our providers care for us. We prioritize community care over profits – especially at this critical time.
The Datos Automated Remote Care Platform features capabilities via our HIPAA Compliant, private cloud-based solution with a mobile app that can be private branded for your practice, IPA, health system.
Patient Monitoring
Two electronic patient reported outcome (ePro) surveys – Assessment form and daily symptoms
Clinical Data – Temperature/Blood Pressure/Pulse Oximetry
Built-in/configured reminders and automatic messages to patients
Virtual visit capabilities
Care Team – Patient Management
Fully configured COVID-19 dashboards
All patient views, sorted by alerts based on symptoms severity
Detailed statistics on vitals and symptoms, including locations updates if/when needed
Virtual visit capabilities
Strategic Interests will work with your organization/practice to implement in as few as two days. Please visit https://www.strategicinterests.com/covid19 and let’s schedule a short conference call to get started. If you know of someone who can use this platform to save lives and manage scarce resources, please let them know.
Stay safe, stay home (if you can), and wash your hands.
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