Say Bye To Waiting Rooms, Time To Chat With Doctors Online

By Author: garretflaubert
Total Articles: 2
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Nearly $4 billion: that's how much America spends on healthcare. One way to reduce this cost while increasing patient interaction and improving preventative care is through telehealth. This medical advance is predicted to increase by $5 billion in the coming five years. Because it can cover about 70 percent of physician appointments and 40 percent of trips to the emergency room, it is a potential solution for reducing healthcare costs. This isn't some pie-in-the-sky concept that requires advances in high technology. Telehealth is a healthcare alternative that is available now. However, changes are needed in everything from physician scheduling and patient interaction to insurance reimbursement before telehealth works smoothly for both patient and doctor. Telemedicine offers several advantages and challenges. Advantages Lower costs Telehealth frees up the physician's material resources such as the waiting room, staff such as nurses, and time. Instead of rushing from room to room and trying to glance at a patient's medical records, the physician is able to sit behind the desk, examine patient information more thoroughly, and ...
... click through on his desktop to see patients. The average appointment time of half-an-hour to an hour goes down to ten minutes or less. This savings in overhead reduces the doctor's costs, which ultimately translates to lower medical bills for the patient. Better engagement The process of making appointments by phone, traveling to the physician's office, and scheduling followups takes both time and effort, which can frustrate patients so much that they avoid tending to their health needs. Online doctors provide one-click access to scheduling and avoids physical travel, allowing patients to more easily integrate healthcare into their hectic lives. Greater reach Companies that focus on telehealth, such as Chat Live MD, join with healthcare systems and insurance companies to develop additional health options for their subcribers. This increases communication between telemedicine providers and their members, allowing for greater awareness, knowledge, and eventually, acceptance of the service. Removing barriers Location can be a significant barrier to quality healthcare, not only for the elderly and disabled who can't reach local doctors and hospitals because of lack of transportation, but for a patient that needs a specialist who may be practicing halfway across the country or on the other side of the world. Telehealth eliminates that disadvantage by allowing anybody with an Internet connection to contact any physician virtually. You can literally consult with the exact medical professional who specializes in your condition. Chronic care management According to Medicare, the new CPT code 94490 gives greater reimbursement to doctors who are in the process of "developing and implementing a care plan for a patient with at least two chronic conditions that are expected to last at least 12 months or until the death of the patient; or that place the patient at significant risk of death, acute exacerbation/decompensation, or functional decline..." About a quarter of the nation's adults suffer from multiple chronic conditions. Their care represents about two-thirds of the national spending on healthcare. Using telemedicine to treat these multiple conditions reduces doctor and patient time as well as office overhead. Employer healthcare savings How much time do patients need to take off from work to schedule appointments by phone, follow up on their care, and travel to and from their physicians? As patients become sicker, they may use the emergency room too much, taking more time from work and costing their employers more money. With telehealth, workers don't even have to leave the office to chat with doctors online, which avoids the loss or productivity and costs employers less. Challenges Reimbursement Only about half of states today reimburse telemedicine claims. About 11 states provide for telehealth consultation but do not allow online prescriptions to be written from such virtual visits. Future legislation will be needed to address this issue, hopefully driven by improved telehealth services and increasing patient and doctor demand. Licensing A doctor who wants to practice in remote locations requires licenses in all those locations. The process of licensing takes about 90 days to complete, which can deter many physicians from considering telemedicine to begin with. Trust For telehealth to grab hold, it requires education and acceptance on the part of patients and doctors. The technology and procedures are new and unfamiliar. So they require time before people trust online doctor consultations to work as well as the current medical visit process works. Presumably, the savings in both time and money will hasten that acceptance.