TeleMedicine

With the rise in the area of technology, telemedicine comes with convenience for the tech-savvy population.

It is reported that telemedicine is overgrowing with an increase of 16.8% from 2020 to 2023. Moreover, more than 50% of hospitals in the United States uses telemedicine due to its cost efficiency and easy access to healthcare services. 

Telehealth reduces healthcare costs and waiting time. For healthcare providers, it increases productivity and profitability also encourages more patient engagement.

These Advantages, Then Why Isn’t Everyone Doing It?

Over time it has been observed that the healthcare providers are being hesitant in taking the telehealth service as their possible preference. Possibly there can be many reasons for this.

As technology advances, healthcare innovation has expanded its usability. However, there are new increasing pains for programs at every level of care.

At times of high demand for medical services, telemedicine services are becoming more and more popular. 

In the world of unprecedented changes, health treatment centers have been challenged to develop telehealth services quickly- care patients remotely when health care providers and patients are not physically present.  

However, today’s environment has completely changed from face-to-face to screen-to-screen experience. 

Currently, telehealth covers the majority share of the market today. For this reason, there are important and reasonable concerns that healthcare providers and patients should overcome. 

In this blog, we addressed solutions to the top 7 concerns of telemedicine. let’s have a look.

Reimbursement

With telemedicine services, it gets difficult for providers and physicians to get reimbursed. For instance, Medicare provides telemedicine reimbursement coverage along with limitations. 

It is possible to reimburse expenses for services included in the Medicare Chronic Treatment Program, such as services for patients with at least two or more chronic diseases. 

These diseases must persist for at least one or more years, or until death, to consider reimbursement claims.

To overcome barriers to cost recovery, it will help to own a settlement program that comprises using technology to better track down the reimbursements claims.

You can make use of a platform that monitors those costs to correctly record the receipts required by insurance companies while, at the same time, being conscious of reimbursement claims.

Lack Of Integration

You probably face difficulties in your workflow due to a lack of EHR integration. Your electronic health records (EHR) doesn’t properly integrate with the platform that you are using to deliver telehealth services. 

If you outsource your telemedicine then the outsourcing company will help you in integrating the EHR. Thus helping you record the workflow and ensure that each visit is correctly recorded and upgraded for future appointments.

Lack Of Information

The absence of platform integration can also disrupt the continuity of care. 

For example, suppose a patient receives telemedicine from one service provider but chooses another for the next electronic visit. In that case, the second doctor may not have all the information needed to diagnose the patient’s problem. 

However, to overcome this obstacle, you have to find out where your patient has received previous telemedicine services, including those established in hospitals and organizations that provide services with other health care providers.

Patient Awareness

The most important concern of telemedicine is patient awareness. If your patients are not aware of your telemedicine services, then they can’t use that service. 

About 96% of large companies intend to offer telemedicine solutions with their own employees. This is just a missed opportunity when your patients aren’t aware that you’re offering those services.

For this reason, it is important to plan for patient awareness. If your practice includes the platform like social media platforms, blogs, or email, you will not find any difficulty telling your patients about your telemedicine services. 

Lack of Technical Skills

Telemedicine services are provided even in remote areas where there is a lack of technical skills. Mostly in these areas, patients don’t understand how to use telemedicine services. 

However, it can reduce utilization and hinder accessibility. To facilitate this, it is best to survey your patients before the beginning of telemedicine services.

Ask your patients about which device they use while accessing your telemedicine services.

Also, it is equally important to train your staff to assist patients who need help easily. 

High Equipment Cost

Adding up the cost of equipment and services to provide medical care, the cost of telemedicine can be a problem for doctors, hospitals and medical practices.

You might be able to reduce costs by choosing a package of services or those that offer a fixed fee while keeping in mind that as the use of telemedicine increases, the cost of technology and services will continue to decline.

Security Concerns

Most of the time with telemedicine services, your patient data is not protected, causing privacy issues while accessing patient data through the internet. 

However, to overcome privacy issues, there are security rules provided by HIPAA. By following these rules, your information gathered through a telemedicine service is encrypted. Or as a healthcare provider, you should choose an outsourcing platform like Med Miles LLC which complies with each rule set by the HIPAA.

If you have just started and need to overcome, these concerns contact us at +1 888-598-9181. We at Med-Miles assist you in telemedicine services concerns so that you can easily deliver quality care to patients. 

By overcoming these obstacles, you can transform and modernize your practice. With these solutions, you can attain better practice performance and enjoy happy patients.