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Synchronous telemedicine (i.e., real-time telemedicine) is a virtual alternative to an in-person doctors visit: think FaceTime or Video chat between a patient and their provider or caregiver. Synchronous telemedicine has evolved and expanded in recent years, but two questions remain: one, are video visits cost-effective and two, can providers deliver quality care through video visits?

On May 7, four congressmen introduced the Better Respiration through Expanded Access to Tele-Health (BREATHE) Act into the US House of Representatives. The BEATHE Act proposes a three-year pilot program allowing qualified respiratory therapists to use a telemedicine platform to deliver healthcare services to select Medicare recipients with COPD. 

Health Recovery Solutions (HRS), a telehealth and remote patient software company, hosted its inaugural Telehealth Advancement Conference this past week. The Conference focused on facilitating the spread telehealth best practices, maximizing cost savings, and the future of telehealth reimbursement.

Hypertension - high blood pressure - is a common condition in which the pressure of one’s blood against their artery walls is too great and makes one’s heart work harder to pump blood eventually hardening their arteries. Over time, hypertension can lead to renal disease, heart disease, and kidney failure.

Telehealth methods of care delivery have grown tremendously over the last 20 years. However, despite the growth of telehealth across the medical field, the use of telemedicine for neuromuscular or musculoskeletal outpatients remains less expansive. While historical use of telehealth for neuromuscular and musculoskeletal disorders has been limited, the access barriers faced by these patients combined with the high rates of clinician burnout in the specialty provides a robust opportunity for an expanded application of telehealth.

Of the nearly 500,000 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing dialysis, only 12 percent receive dialysis in-home despite it being preferable and cost-effective to both patients and payers.[i]  In a recent speech to kidney disease patients and advocates, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Alex Azar, stated that Medicare was making a concerted effort to expand the utilization of At-Home Dialysis, including expanding telehealth services.

Urgency as it relates to healthcare is nothing new. After all, who hasn’t complained about sitting in little more than a paper sheet for what feels like hours just to undergo a routine yearly physical? People want to know that they are healthy, and they don’t want to have to wait for the figurative green light before returning to daily life. As such, on-demand care has been a sought-after service for decades regardless of what you suffer from: strep throat, a broken wrist, or something chronic like Congestive Heart Failure.

In 2018, the CDC determined that one in 59 children is diagnosed with ASD in the United States. Often, children with autism and their families live too far away from care and support or cannot access it due to high costs, limited availability, and other circumstances. Telehealth can serve as a wonderful resource for the ASD patient and their family as it can be utilized for diagnosis, therapy/treatment, and caregiver education.

Telehealth offers a remote healthcare solution that can reduce the cost of care and lower hospital readmissions for patients, thus enhancing the quality of care. Monitoring patient vitals, providing medication reminders, and facilitating virtual communication with physicians increases patient engagement, allowing patients to take charge of their health.

Over the past several months, significant changes surrounding telehealth and its role in healthcare have taken place. Changes include, CMS’ new, more generous reimbursement policies and several state laws spurring the progression of telehealth programs to address the opioid crisis. These changes reflect the greater movement towards telehealth as an affordable option to improve healthcare access and quality of care. To meet the rising demand for telehealth services, federal and state agencies, as well as nongovernmental organizations, have expanded their grant funding for telehealth programs.