how to set up telehealth to enhance your practice
TRANSCRIPT
Solutions for Unified Critical Communications
Success in Telemedicine
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Our SpeakerA brief introduction for Ranya Habash, MD
Ranya Habash, MDCMO,
Everbridge
Dr. Ranya Habash was named to Castle Connolly’s elite America’s Top Doctors list for 2015, which represents the top 1% of physicians in the nation. She began a successful medical career after the state’s Florida Society of Ophthalmology named her Young Ophthalmologist of the Year “for demonstrating leadership, service, competence, and devotion to the highest ethical and professional standards.” She was then asked to serve as a Board Member and President of the FSO, the governing body for all ophthalmologists in the state of Florida.
Dr. Habash was recently appointed to join the faculty of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the top eye hospital in the country. As a fun aside, she is the official eye surgeon for the UFC organization, providing surgical and trauma care for the MMA fight champions.
Dr. Habash is also Chief Medical Officer of Everbridge and Co-Founder of HipaaChat. She was listed by Becker's Hospital Review as one of the Top Healthcare Entrepreneurs to Know for 2016. As the worldwide leader in unified critical communications, Everbridge has integrated the secure messaging and telemedicine capability of HipaaChat within its suite of products. As Chief Medical Officer, she provides strategic clinical insight for Everbridge's 950+ hospitals and healthcare systems, working closely with partners like Apple and Verizon to deliver the future of medicine.
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Fun Facts on Telemedicine
Smoke signals were the earliest use of telemedicine. African villagers used smoke signals to warn others to stay away whenever infectious disease was ravaging their village. Prisons have used telemedicine heavily since the early 2000s. California prisons provided > 9,000 telehealth consults in 2004 alone, saving taxpayers more than $4 million in transportation & escort costs. Patients will make bizarre sacrifices for telemedicine. What sort of sacrifices? They would give up shopping for a month, forgo their next vacation, and skip showers for a week. The main telehealth users are working moms, business travelers and college kids. Ironically, the very people who didn't plan to sign up for health insurance were those "young invincibles" (ages 18-34). According to another Harris Poll, they want virtual visits from their beds (33 %), while at work (23 %), while driving (20 %), while walking down the street (12 %), and while in the bathroom (12 %). Virtual visits will skyrocket to over 130 million by 2018. Research by Parks Associates revealed that virtual visits have tripled - from 5.7M in 2014 to over 16M in 2015 - and will skyrocket to over 130M by 2018.
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Evolution of Telemedicine
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"Why can’t we just use our phones?"
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What are the best patient use cases for telemedicine?
+Consults+Follow-ups+Patient check-ins
• Mental health• Wellness checks
+Transfers+Patient monitoring
• Chronic conditions• Clinical trials• During diagnostics
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Mayo Clinic Stroke Team Case Study
• Feasibility study to see if triaging stroke patients from the ambulance is possible (It is!)
• NIH Stroke Scale was able to be performed in transit• Time saved on treatment (door-to-needle time) was 7.45 minutes• Decreased hospital stays & complications• Cost savings: $285 vs $1.5M• Lives & brain cells saved: priceless
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How common is telemedicine?
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How do you roll it out to patients in your practice?
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How do you document telemedicine visits in your EHR?
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How do malpractice and telemedicine work?
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• Telemedicine parity laws --> if your state has a parity law, then your private payers must reimburse
• 32 states plus DC now have parity laws. 8 more have proposed laws
• The "big five" cover telemedicine: BCBS, Cigna, Aetna, Humana, UHC
• Every state has some sort of Medicaid coverage for telemedicine
• Verify telemedicine coverage by calling the payer directly
• Live video telemedicine is the covered service. Not store/forward.
• Reimbursement for any E&M service, including new pt & consults, mental health & chronic care
• Coding is CPT code + "GT" modifier
• Reimbursement is 100% of the code billed, same as an in-person visit
Telemedicine Reimbursement & Private Payers:
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