According to a recent IBM Institute for Business Value survey of more than 5,000 U.S. adults, just over 36% of respondents have already taken advantage of telemedicine services to seek remote care for less urgent health issues since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of those surveyed, 59% plan to keep using these services into the future, despite the fact that only one-fifth of those surveyed sought virtual care before.
As patients and their providers increasingly recognize the value of engaging virtually, and as we transition into our ‘new normal’, healthcare organizations will need to expand their virtual capabilities to keep up with increased demand for telemedicine while ensuring personalized, seamless delivery of high-quality care. But how?
Increased adoption fuels greater acceleration
Virtual health services and capabilities have been available for quite some time. But in light of a strained and reconfigured healthcare system due to COVID-19 – and with many patients self-isolating – the rate of adoption and use has increased. In years to come, this adoption is likely to gain momentum as demand continues to grow.
Routine face-to-face medical care is now limited for most Americans due to the pandemic, prompting many to take advantage of remote services to access the care they need. And as many parts of the country plan ahead for a world with less in-person interaction, more consumers may choose to forego the process of scheduling an in-person appointment with their provider if they know that it’s possible to receive the same high-quality care through virtual visits.
More than half of those surveyed in IBM’s latest poll indicate they have had a positive experience using telehealthcare services, such as telemedicine, telenursing and telepharmacy, either before or during the current crisis – and that positive experience must be upheld.
To maintain and build on the increased traction of virtual care, providers need to work to ensure that these platforms and services are easy to use for those who are not technologically savvy. It is also critical that they support these services with robust and secure infrastructure so their digital offerings are available and reliable at all times – to the benefit of both patients and doctors.
Healthcare has a new acronym – OBRHI. Quite a mouthful. Perhaps “Aubrey” is a little easier to say.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the creation of a new office, the Office of Burden Reduction and Health Informatics. It is designed to reduce friction and regulatory and administrative burden between itself and caregivers – “to further the goal of putting patients first, the organization said in a statement.
PER CMS, this office is an “outgrowth” of its Patients over Paperwork (PoP) Initiative, meant to cut administrative red tape across the health system. Additionally, the agency said it seeks reform through the office to eliminate “duplicative, unnecessary and excessively costly requirements and regulations.”
As part of the PoP Initiative — focused on reducing the unnecessary regulatory burden to allow providers to concentrate on their primary mission – these efforts and the office’s creation hope to save clinicians $6.6 billion and 42 million burden hours through 2021.
“As part of our efforts to date, CMS has heard from over 2,500 providers, clinicians, administrative staff, health care leaders, beneficiaries and their support teams through 158 site visits and listening sessions,” the agency said. “Through more than 10 Requests for Information (RFI) combined with stakeholder interviews, CMS also has over 15,000 comments to assist us in our burden reduction efforts.”
CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in the agency’s statement: “Specifically, the work of this new office will be targeted to help reduce unnecessary burden, increase efficiencies, continue administrative simplification, increase the use of health informatics, and improve the beneficiary experience.”
In its effort to streamline, CMS says it’s seeing “significant results,” including removing unnecessary, obsolete or excessively burdensome conditions of participation for hospitals and other healthcare providers previously spent on paperwork and faster processing of state requests to make program or benefit changes to their respective Medicaid programs through the state plan amendment and section 1915 waiver review process.
“The new office will strengthen CMS’s efforts across Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Health Insurance Marketplace to decrease the hours and costs clinicians and providers incur for CMS-mandated compliance,” the agency said.
OBRHI (or “Aubrey”) may also increase the number of clinicians, providers, and health plans CMS engages, it says, to ensure it gains a better understanding of how various regulatory burdens impact healthcare delivery.
Aubrey also will focus on health informatics development, the use and application of health data and clinical information to healthcare, as well as furthering interoperability innovation.
Time will tell if OBRHI is just another red-tape agency or if it reaches its intended goal of improving communication with caregivers and driving healthcare innovation. Lovers of big government, applaud, Those who feel the government-run programs like the DMV are the pinnacle of customer service, furrow your brow.
By Devin Partida, technology writer and the Editor-in-Chief of the digital magazine, ReHack.com
The coronavirus pandemic has caused massive changes around the world. As people adjust to the new normal, they may notice some differences associated with COVID-19 and telehealth. Here’s an in-depth look at those changes.
Telehealth adoption rising
United States government officials announced changes in mid-March that dramatically increased access to telehealth in the nation. The changes included allowing providers to use everyday technologies to connect with patients, offering more telehealth treatment coverage to Medicare beneficiaries and making such options available at lower costs than traditional appointments.
The increased access and provider flexibility are temporary, intended to remain only for the duration of the country’s health emergency. However, some people believe the changes could bode well for telehealth in general, such as by giving adoption of the technology a sustained boost.
Analysts at Frost & Sullivan predict a 64.3% year-over-year growth increase for the telehealth sector this year. The researchers mentioned the need for social distancing as a central factor influencing the surge. However, they cautioned that the telemedicine industry contains an ecosystem where numerous parties affect adoption rates and healthcare compliance standards.
Medical practices can increase income through telehealth visits
Many people avoid face-to-face treatments now due to the risk of virus transmission. However, even before COVID-19 became a threat, people faced other obstacles that made in-person care more complicated, such as a lack of transportation or mental health struggles that made them nervous in public.
Jason Popp, a partner at Alston and Bird’s healthcare litigation group, pointed out how making telehealth more accessible introduces more revenue streams for medical facilities: “When the pandemic started, physicians in practices were seeing big changes because they couldn’t see patients anymore.”
Popp continued, “Now they’re quickly adapting to the change. Otherwise, they’ve got limited revenue because patients aren’t coming to clinics or certain facilities. It’s been a bit of a wake-up call to practitioners who were previously kind of opposed to telehealth. Now they’re seeing there are immense benefits. After the pandemic, many will continue to provide telehealth.”
A temporary telehealth waiver connected to the coronavirus pandemic expands access to people beyond rural areas. Popp viewed that regulatory change as the most significant and hopes Congress will eventually make it permanent. Other parties familiar with telehealth say the sector is scaling up so rapidly that reverting to pre-COVID-19 healthcare compliance standards would prove difficult.
By Erin Fitzgerald, chief marketing officer, Sermo.
Erin Fitzgerald
This year has presented a continuous string of unprecedented challenges around the world and in all aspects of life. Individuals, organizations and industries needed to adapt quickly to a “new normal,” which in some cases may prove to change the facets of healthcare delivery permanently.
Healthcare, typically known to be slow-moving with all of its complexities, has had to adjust rapidly to meet increasing patient cases and demands, creating problems which are hopefully only short term. For example, independent medical practices have been closing as they struggle to bring in revenue by losing patients “walking through the door.” In addition, over 1.4 million healthcare jobs have been lost since the beginning of the pandemic and the AHA estimated that America’s hospitals could lose $202.6 billion by the end of June.
Conversely, the pandemic has spurred innovation, adoption of tools and galvanized more efficient processes that actually demonstrate better success for patients and physicians. Taking a step back to look at the bigger health system, practices may never go back to their pre-pandemic ways due to this success – whether in efficiency, patient outcomes, physician workload or otherwise – revealing the lasting impact of COVID-19.
While the pandemic has significantly impacted the number of patients coming to the clinic, it has also spurred physician adoption of remote and telehealth treatment. These changes not only serve more people and provide more patient-centric care (e.g. allowing flexibility in scheduling, taking less time off work, filling out paperwork online at a person’s own convenience) but can also aid providers in maintaining a high level of care while streamlining processes and efficiency of their work. For example, telehealth systems can integrate patient records easily into a check-up and physicians can observe environmental factors of a patient’s health that they would not get in-office.
It is clear that COVID-19 is changing how medicine is practiced, such as what technology is being implemented, how patients are receiving care and figuring out adjusted treatment regimens that may be more successful. So, how will the pandemic permanently change medicine and the patient-provider relationship? How do providers feel about this time of transition and what will healthcare look like after the pandemic?
Telehealth has been an essential tool that has demonstrated its full value during this time. Physicians recognize the loss of revenue of not having patients coming into their practice, so they have used different telehealth tools to create a “virtual front door” to continue treating patients and keeping their business afloat.
If you or a loved one has reached a life stage where using a mobility aid, like a walker, becomes a necessity in maintaining a sense of normalcy and independence, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the mobility aid market. Once you outline a list of must-haves, you can purchase a walker suited to the physical needs and the lifestyle needs of the operator.
Scrolling through the wide range of models available on the market can make choosing the right walker unnecessarily challenging. Though the traditional walker is, typically, the most popular choice among buyers, the upright walker (the traditional walker’s upgraded counterpart) is gaining rapid popularity, and in recent years, has been marked as a personal favorite for the immobile and physically-disabled.
There are many reasons why you should upgrade your traditional walker to an upright walker. Here are some of the most common bonuses.
Maintain mobility
Upright walkers are designed to enhance walking comfort, which in turn, allows the user to remain mobile for longer durations of time, without assistance. Unlike the standard walkers that force the user to hunch over, exerting uncomfortable pressure on your back and wrists, the upright walker is designed to encourage a sense of independence, while supporting better posture, especially for seniors.
The most noteworthy feature of this mobility aid is its adjustable height, meaning you can adjust the height settings according to the operator’s stature. Whether the user needs to stand upright or bend over at a more dramatic angle, the upright walker can be adjusted to accommodate your specific needs. These customizable settings are not only convenient but have the power to alleviate any existing back and/or wrist strain the operator may have experienced with their former mobility aid.
More Customizable
Traditional walkers are engineered with a select few customizable features for their users to enjoy. However, the traditional walker can’t compete with the upright walker’s much-longer list of adjustable features that make it easy-to-use and a perfect match for your mobility restrictions. The upright walker’s incredibly flexible features conform to the operator’s daily, weekly, or monthly needs, as their physical strength slowly deteriorates or as flare-ups appear. Regardless of the state of their physical condition, their upright walker will address the user’s specific needs, even as they age or as the injury progresses. With an upright walker, you won’t have to worry about replacing your loved one’s mobility annually, which can save you a significant amount of money in the long-run.
Ideal for indoor and outdoor use
Upright walkers are designed for use in both indoor and outdoor spaces and can easily adjust to different terrains. If you only need a mobility device that helps you move freely around your home or want a walker that’s built to conquer the non-level surfaces and unpredictable weather conditions of the outdoors, an upright walker is up to the challenge.
Have you always dreamed of getting into the healthcare industry, but hesitated for fear of high-costs and years of education? While it’s true that doctors, surgeons, registered nurses, and other healthcare professionals are required to have several years of schooling and training, not all careers in the medical field do. In fact, there are some medical careers you could jump start fairly quickly. Check out this list of career options listed below:
Medical Coder
Medical coders are an essential part of the medical team. It is your responsibility to review patient files and charts, assess the diagnosis and treatments recommended by the physician, and enter them into the database using medical codes. If this is something that interests you, you can take a certification course and complete it in six months or less.
Pharmacy Technician
As a pharmacy technician, you would be assisting the pharmacists in filling patient prescriptions. You would essentially bottle, label, and stock medications for patient pickup. Other responsibilities include contacting physicians for prescriptions or questions, consulting with patients who have questions or concerns, maintaining the register, managing medication inventory, and resolving insurance issues. It takes approximately 24 weeks to complete training as a pharmacy technician.
Medical Interpreter
If you’re bilingual, you might want to put your language skills to the test and become a medical interpreter. It will be your job to interpret for patients who do not speak English very well. You will be present during exams, screenings, and other medical procedures to assist with communication between the patient, doctors, and nurses. This ensures that they understand what’s going on with their health and the next steps the doctor recommends to treat it. You’ll be surprised to learn that you can complete online medical interpreter training in just 60 hours.
Front Desk Specialist
If you have general clerical knowledge and don’t mind working behind a desk, becoming a front office administrative specialist might be something you’re interested in. As the title implies, your desk is positioned at the front of the healthcare facility. Patients entering the facility will speak with you first.
Your job will be to check them in, obtain copies of insurance cards and driver’s licenses, collect payments, and direct patients on where to be seated. You also handle a bunch of other administrative tasks. You may be responsible for gathering patient files, scheduling appointments, answering phones, filing, making copies, and providing other clerical support to medical staff. You can find courses to complete in as little as 13 weeks.
Q: What is the state of artificial intelligence (AI) within healthcare organizations and services now?
Patel: In a 2019 DXC survey of more than 600 global companies, we found nearly half (48%) of healthcare executives and board members expect artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to play a significant role in their digital strategies three years from now — the most of any technology or industry practice. Nearly one in three (32%) expect that assessing and adopting new digital tools, such as AI and blockchain, will be one of the three most critical aspects of digital decision-making in the coming year.
Of course, while discussion about AI has become ubiquitous, and while the promise has been great, adoption in healthcare has been slow. Yet AI has the potential to address multiple shortcomings in healthcare, such as misdiagnosis, treatment errors, wasted resources, process inefficiencies and physician burnout. As the need for high-quality, affordable healthcare mounts, using data to make better-informed healthcare decisions is essential. Healthcare organizations will accelerate the use of AI to better anticipate patient needs, improve treatment decisions and reduce health risks in select cohorts moving forward.
Q: What’s an example of a way in which AI is already changing healthcare?
Patel: Some healthcare organizations’ prioritization of AI is focused on facilitating the rise of precision medicine, which aims to tailor medical treatment to each individual’s specific profile by employing digital analytic tools.
The goal of precision medicine is to provide more accurate information about the patient’s condition, the population subset they belong to, and the treatments that are most effective for that group. This enables both doctors and patients to decide on a course of action that’s more precisely suited to the individual’s profile. AI, and in particular ML, takes precision medicine to the next level with the ability to read large datasets and improve accuracy and prediction of outcome for patients.
Q: How can AI and providers work together to improve health outcomes?
Patel: There is a concern among some providers that AI will replace the need for human workers; however, AI should be viewed as a tool to enhance and scale providers through the automation of simple tasks, freeing up time for providers to spend with their patients (“high tech, high touch”). AI empowers doctors and other healthcare professionals to take better care of patients by identifying and streamlining the who, what, how and where of healthcare, giving providers more time to connect with patients and deliver personalized, compassionate care.
The golden years are becoming that much easier with each passing year thanks to quality of life improvements made possible through technological breakthroughs. Tech is empowering seniors to age in place much longer than anticipated. Furthermore, tech innovation is enhancing medical equipment and medications, ultimately improving seniors’ quality of life.
Data Analysis for Improved Care
Machine learning and artificial intelligence is significantly enhancing healthcare for seniors across the United States as well as the rest of the world. Tech is now capable of analyzing information in an incredibly efficient manner. Between health monitoring systems, smart watches for seniors and in-depth data analysis, there are all sorts of new and creative ways to monitor senior health.
Predictive analytics will likely prove quite important in the future for regular doctors, dentist for sale practices and others, ultimately empowering healthcare workers to predict seniors’ health challenges. It is quite possible predictive analytics will soon accurately predict a patient’s likelihood for a potentially devastating fall, a heart attack, stroke or other medical problem. The prudent use of such predictive analytics will make it easier for seniors to obtain the care they need for high-quality living throughout the entirety of the golden years.
If you or a loved one has reached a life stage where using a mobility aid, like a walker, becomes a necessity in maintaining a sense of normalcy and independence, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the mobility aid market. Once you outline a list of must-haves, you can purchase a walker suited to the physical needs and the lifestyle needs of the operator.
