Empowering Patients with Mainstream Telehealth Solutions

Telehealth is different from telemedicine because it refers to a broader scope of remote healthcare services than telemedicine. While telemedicine refers specifically to remote clinical services, telehealth can refer to remote non-clinical services, such as provider training, administrative meetings, and continuing medical education, in addition to clinical services. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) have approved payment by Medicaid to federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in Connecticut for electronic consultations (eConsults) with medical specialists¹. This is a first in the nation.

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In a world where technology is rapidly advancing and user expectations are rising, it’s no longer enough to have an average user experience; to delight your users and surpass your competition you must strive for the exceptional.

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While I am not an expert on CMS payment policy, I do believe that the trend will grow and telehealth solutions will become mainstream much like other industries used “tele” solutions to transform their interactions and business processes. Reimbursement is only part of the picture as well.

Last fall I wrote a blog, “Communicating with Care Givers via a Self Service Symptom Checker“ which provides examples of how KP OnCall is using a “self-service symptom checker” solution powered by Oracle Service Cloud to provide 24/7 integrated programs in remote care management, or ‘telehealth,’ to providers, payers and employers. KP OnCall is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kaiser Permanente and the nation’s leading telehealth provider.

The KP OnCall solution empowers members with a choice of self-assessment versus waiting to speak to a nurse on the phone or go in for an appointment. This technology can be leveraged to build a full contact center to facilitate customer interactions, social media capabilities to extend outreach and improve communications with customers and increase channels for patient engagement.

Perficient specializes in implementing digital technologies in Healthcare and we’d love to talk to you about how we are helping clients solve these challenges. Representatives from Perficient and KP OnCall will be presenting at the 2016 Healthcare Marketing and Physician Strategies Summit (May 23 @ 8:00 am – May 25 @ 5:00 pm in Chicago) on this topic. Please join us!! #empowering

¹ http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160503005404/en/Connecticut-Medicaid-Nation-Approve-Reimbursement-eConsult-Telehealth