Mainstream telehealth needs vendors to address pain points

https://goo.gl/mA8Ria

Many of us are impatient for a future where telehealth reduces our visits to health professionals. Whether you are geographically isolated, tired of waiting hours in a waiting room for an overdue appointment or simply have felt the pain of dragging yourself from your sick bed to a doctor’s surgery to acquire a sick note for an employer, consumers are keen to see a change. Current health providers are expanding their services to include remote health. Health tech startups such as mediconecta and couch are creating new stand-alone services for remote care.

However substantial barriers exist for telehealth in practice according to a new survey of the 114 chief information officers, IT directors, telehealth managers and other professionals by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and KLAS.

About 59% of respondents listed reimbursement as a limitation, noting that some payers have been slow to reimburse telehealth visits1 and or reimburse at rates lower than face-to-face care. Most said integration between their electronic medical record and virtual care platform vendor was nonexistent or unidirectional. They also cited improved patient access as a major benefit, and three-quarters reported that they were actively planning to either expand the number of specialties served or expand patient access to providers using their present solution.  

According to Adam Gale, president of KLAS: “Telehealth holds enormous promise. However, the underlying technology needs to evolve faster. In particular, integration of telehealth with provider EMRs is still at a primitive level. Vendors need to step up in terms of technology and improved support.”