The question of reimbursement is very, very important. But not as important as you might think. As promised a couple weeks ago, we want to look more in depth at the third of our takeaways from the 2014 American Telehealth Conference…especially in light of new developments that have popped up in the news since then.
First, to bring new readers up …read more…
I wonder if this might become a monthly feature? After all, the ATA webinar I’m talking about was titled: This Month in Telemedicine.
I won’t go into great detail about legislation and such. For that, I highly recommend the replay which can be found here.
The three items I’d like to look at are:
1. The FDA has released draft guidance for devices for review and comment. It can be found here. What’s notable is …read more…
Last Thursday I promised to discuss our takeaways from the ATA conference individually in more detail, starting with
#1 We’re past the tipping point.
I won’t belabor the point of the overall importance of this takeaway, as you can read about it here. However, I will re-quote ATA CEO Jonathan Linkous because his numbers make a good launching point: “Today, 20 million Americans get some part of their healthcare remotely, and that number will grow as telemedicine expands its reach.” And the ATA President, Edward Brown, believes that mHealth/Telemedicine will grow by 50% every year.
According to a study by IHS Technology and published in January, the almost 350,000 telehealth patients in 2013 will swell to Read more
Yes, we’re perhaps a little late with this posting. However, we think the key takeaways (for us) from this year’s ATA (American Telemedicine Association) conference are important enough to immortalize anyway.
#1 We’re past the tipping point.
This was such a key point that the ATA itself made sure to quote a speaker mentioning it before the conference even started:
Speaker Joe Peterson, CEO of Specialists on Call, said: “In 2013 telemedicine started passing many ‘tipping points,’ in multiple industry segments, making it a true moment in time to found, scale …read more…
Almost 4 months ago, I wrote that TelePsychiatry is the Killer App for Video Conferencing. It may put a kink in Lucy’s walk-in practice, but the benefits to the rest of society are clear. (And if Lucy would like to Expand Her Presence, there is a place she can go)
Who should come along to back me up, but the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). Their July 2011 issue of ACEP News includes an article titled “ED Telepsychiatry Cuts Admissions, Saves Money.”
The article tells the story of implementations in South Carolina and includes a commentary by the vice chair for Emergency Medicine at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania where a telepsychiatry program is also in place.
The following data are from the South Carolina study:
Per the study, “the patient receives a higher quality of care, and the hospitals have reduced costs.”
VeaMea (now swy|me) visited the American Telemedicine Association Annual Conference in Tampa this past week. It was an interesting conference with thousands of participants, and hundreds of vendors.
We had some interesting conversations with people who are, or are going to be, practicing Telemedicine as well as a variety of support organizations.
Here are a few highlights:
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a division of Health and Human Services (HHS) has a database where you can search for information about shortages of access to primary care, dental and mental health services. A quick search for mental health services reveals a significant shortage in almost every area across the nation.
Top 5 Reasons Why TelePsychiatry is a Killer App for Video Conferencing
1) Mental health services means different Read more
Ever wish you could wave a magic wand and reduce healthcare expenses ? You don’t need to, TeleHealth / TeleMedicine technology is already working to do just that ! (I wonder if Congress reads our blog…)
Software video collaboration, video conferencing and web conferencing technology are being used to improve the efficiency of medical education and service delivery…TODAY.
How ?
