VITALS
Telehealth makes its big pitch Up next: An all-out push to cement gains made under COVID BY KARA HARTNETT
elehealth has been a buzzword in the industry for years — and has seemingly had its progress thwarted for about that long by restrictive regulations and a relative lack of insurance coverage. COVID-19 appears to have changed all that in the space of a few weeks. The technology got to flex its capabilities at scale throughout the pandemic, and providers collected data and invested in infrastructure they plan to leverage in future negotiations with insurers and lawmakers as they seek to make telehealth’s dramatic expansion permanent. The rapid shift to relying on virtual solutions as people isolated in their homes forced the industry to break through multiple barriers that had long held back telehealth’s growth. Greater access to the internet, looser government regulations and broader insurance reimbursements were key factors in the success of the massive ramp-up of telehealth in March. What had formerly seemed like a pipe dream to many in the sector — or at best a mighty long slog — has quickly exploded into a comprehensive delivery platform where spending is predicted to reach $250 billion this year. “We were able to accomplish more in two months than we had accomplished in five years,” Vanderbilt University Medical Center telehealth director Amber Humphrey says.
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As soon as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services committed in mid-March to reimbursing telehealth visits at the same rate as in-person visits, many private insurers followed suit. Other government agencies also loosened restrictive protocols to allow providers some breathing room during the pandemic, paving the way for patients to connect with their doctors without running the risk of contracting COVID-19. On their end, many doctors and other providers jumped on the opportunity and shifted resources to providing virtual medicine where they could, enabling them to stay connected to their patients and monitor their physical and mental health over a phone or computer — and bringing in at least some revenue that otherwise would have been lost entirely.
Humphrey and her team at VUMC were able to mobilize their existing telehealth platform from hosting a mere 10 visits per day to handling more than 2,000 per day across primary care, pediatrics, behavioral health and specialties. Humphrey says only 160 doctors in the system’s network were using telehealth prior to March. By June — and after hosting nearly 3,300 training sessions — more than 1,700 providers and hundreds of staff were on board. The nonprofit medical center also took advantage of loosened state licensure regulations to access out-of-state markets that were formerly unreachable. Humphrey says several doctors have under emergency statutes been granted temporary licenses for bordering states and will likely seek permanent licensing there once regular rules fall back into place.
NASHVILLEPOST.COM | SUMMER 2020
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