Entries by Jeff Urdan

Emergency Response Day Video from ITS World Congress

It may be several months later, but the ITS has released this wonderful video on YouTube showcasing the Mock Incident exercise. Max Life can be seen starting at the 1:06 mark, with a great showcasing using swyMed’s telemedicine communication platform inside their ambulance beginning at 1:27. However, watch the entire thing. It’s less than three minutes and provides a great example of how telemedicine can play an important role in emergency response.

Hoping CMS’ Proposed ACO Rules Get Better

Recently, CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) released a proposal of new rulemaking asking for comments on easing “telehealth” requirements for ACOs (Accountable Care Organizations). You can find a wonderful press release here from the ATA (American Telemedicine Association), who was instrumental in getting CMS to reconsider their earlier rules. Having reviewed the […]

Maybe You Can get Reimbursed for That…

There are a number of procedures already covered by Medicare without specific telemedicine codes. In fact, of the seven bullet points listing the 22 codes rejected or deleted from inclusion, five noted the included codes were largely unnecessary due to either an existing telehealth code or because Medicare does not distinguish whether the procedure is tele or not.

Here are a few examples:

Regarding electrocardiograms and echocardiograms: “By definition,

ATA Celebrates Halloween Telemedicine Treats for Medicare Beneficiaries

WASHINGTON – Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014 — Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a rulemaking that includes significant additional coverage for telemedicine services. “This Halloween, Medicare beneficiaries got an important treat for home care of chronic care management, remote patient monitoring of chronic conditions, and other services when provided via telehealth,” […]

7 Things We Learned from the 2014 Connected Health Symposium

The issue that does not often rise to the surface is fear that if there is not yet an official code for a process/procedure, it may be perceived as “illegal” or at least not standard of care. So when people talk about reimbursement, cash flow is the easy part. The hard part is the uncertainty of trying an experimental process and not knowing if you are exposing yourself and your organization to risk. When there is a code in the system, or there is a law on the books that it is ok, this fear evaporates.

swyMed at ACEP14 in Chicago

swyMe/swyMed is at ACEP14 (or, as they are also calling it, the Scientific Assembly) right now in Chicago.  ACEP stands for the American College of Emergency Physicians, and is THE place to immerse yourself in emergency medicine.  We’re showcasing our use in ambulances and emergency admissions reduction by bringing the emergency physician’s presence to the home, even in difficult […]

An Open Letter and Call To Action to the Telemedicine Industry

For an industry full of innovators, there’s a distinct lack of innovation in overcoming the reimbursement issue. I believe this is largely because we’ve trained ourselves to continue focusing on reimbursement, rather than discovering how to make the lack of reimbursement work for us or on creating a new model of telemedicine that makes reimbursement an afterthought.

swyMe selected to present at the Innovators Challenge

swyMe, a leader in delivering secure, mobile, high quality video for connected health, mHealth and telehealth through their swyMed product, announced that it has been selected as one of 10 organizations in the Partners Healthcare Innovators Challenge (http://symposium.connected-health.org/innovators-challenge). swyMe will be presenting at the Partner’s Connected Health Symposium 2014 (http://symposium.connected-health.org/) in Boston on October 23rd and 24th, 2014 at the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center.

Hackers and Telemedicine Security – Thoughts?

Today’s reporting (and here, here, and many other places) that Community Health Systems hospital network was hacked for personal information is alarming.  Although no credit card–and NO CARE INFORMATION–was taken, social security, birthdays, and addresses all were.  That is, everything necessary to open bank accounts, sign up for credit cards, and nearly anything else that counts […]