Leading telehealth provider, the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) has said that as healthcare moves towards value-based care, the national reimbursement framework has to improve for telehealth in general and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) in particular
“Remote
patient monitoring allows providers a way to educate, engage and empower
patients to improve their overall health status,” Michael Adcock of UMMC
told HealthManagement.org.“The move towards value based care will drive more focus to these
types of technology enabled programs. Until then, improvements under the
national fee for service models are needed.”
Mississippi
has been in the spotlight for having some of the highest diabetes rates in the country
as well as being amongst the highest spenders on care for this disease.
Addock said limited access to healthcare services in parts
of the state and poor nutrition had exacerbated the high figures until a viable
telehealth programme was introduced to fight the trend.
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One of the sticking points was the limitation on telehealth in the U.S. when it comes to reimbursements for care which takes place at the patient's home, a venue insurers do not always regard as legitimate. But with strong backing from UMMC, in 2014 Mississippi introduced a law in 2014 requiring insurance parity for both “store-and-forward telemedicine and remote patient monitoring”. The law applies to both Medicaid and commercial insurance.
Telehealth was scaled up for diabetes patients and a trial of
100 patients conducted earlier this year showed a 96 percent compliance rate on
diets prescribed to battle the condition.
The success has spawned expansion into other diseases. “We are actively enrolling patients
with congestive heart failure, adult and pediatric asthma, and hypertension,”
Addock said. “We also are working with our providers to build content for other
diseases that could be managed remotely that aren't being reimbursed such as
kidney transplant and bone marrow transplant.”
Multiple other chronic diseases that are in development, include asthma, COPD, and others. “We will use the same basic RPM framework for these, but will use additional peripherals and disease specific education and health sessions.”
Source: HealthManagement.org Interview, MedCityNews
Image Credit: caltrc
