61% of people in the US have a smartphone, yet we are still using technology from the 80's to communicate with doctors. TeleMedicine is starting to gain some serious traction in the healthcare industry, within the backdrop of the recent healthcare reform. The benefits that come to mind are quite attractive; receiving treatment from the couch versus a waiting room full of sick people. Coupling the "comfort of one's own home" with receiving faster diagnoses, and more access than ever before to doctors and specialists, makes for a very compelling suite of offerings.
Pros:
Patients:
-Telemedicine will reduce unnecessary admissions and readmissions by consulting with patients from their own home
-Will lift geographical limitations of care for patients by enabling them to consult with specialist anywhere
-Will experience reduced cost due to more efficient use of specialists.
When the patient is not in their home:
-Telehealth will allow staff to gain access to a specialist support network to provide better care for patients while allowing them to remain with their primary doctors in which they feel comfortable with.
-Practices will retain more patients rather than shipping them off to specialist which would cause a loss in revenues and/or cause the patient to receive care at a location that doesn't accept their insurance.
-Practices will also see an immediate increase in the amount of ailments and injuries they will be able to treat through their network of specialists. This would result in an increase in the quality of care across the nation
For Physicians:
-Each physician will be able to care for about 1,000 patients so more people can benefit from each doctors expertise
-Allows doctors to earn "On-call pay"
- Reduce time spent traveling between facilities to treat patients resulting in an increase in productivity and quality of life.
-Implementing Telehealth capabilities will lead to referral patients causing an increase in revenue from new patients.
The Healthcare System as a Whole:
-Helps the increasing number of patients needing care access the decreasing supply of doctors
-Helps lower overall cost of care by increasing access to the right doctors more efficiently as well as decreasing the amount of people that acquire illnesses from within a doctors office or hospital.
After reading all of these benefits that would result in the implementation of Telemedicine you're probably wondering why isn't this the way we normally receive treatment. Unfortunately, good things take time.
Setbacks:
State Licensing and Proscribing Laws:
The problem here is that different states have different protocol when it comes to treatment and prescriptions. In 2009 a doctor in Colorado was convicted for prescribing a patient anti-depressant medication to a patient in California that later committed suicide. If telemedicine were to experience significant growth you can see how problems like this would become the norm.
Lack of Highly Developed Protocols and Guidelines:
The American Telemedicine Association is currently working on a set of guidelines to help overcome skepticism of regulators and payers. They claim physicians and organizations need to step in to get the ball rolling. The CEO of the ATA surprisingly stated that the Government is the "Lagging Partner" in the move to Telehealth. They must be busy making to sure the ACA rolls out perfectly. That must be more important than reforming the system...
HIPAA Privacy and Security:
This is the biggest threat to the future of Telehealth. Since the services revolve completely around technology. It makes records more accessible and harder to secure. Steps have to be made in order keep patient records in the hands of the right people before we can move forward with Telemedicine.
EVERA. Everyone should feel this good about healthcare.
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