A variety of technologies are used in delivery of telemedicine.

Telemedicine may simply involve forwarding medical images to a specialist by email, or it could use special remote cameras to allow specialists to evaluate patients in remote emergency rooms. Video conferencing can also be used to allow patients to access basic healthcare for routine situations like respiratory illnesses without making an actual trip to a doctor’s office.

It’s easy to see how telemedicine can save time and money, and how it can help patients in certain settings access care that could be unavailable to them otherwise. A recent study by global professional services company Towers Watson says that telemedicine has the potential to save $6 billion per year in healthcare costs.

What the Towers Watson Report Says

Some employers provide telemedicine services as part of employee healthcare benefits, and if all employees and their dependents used telemedicine services available to them as an alternative to in-person visits to their physicians, urgent care centers, or emergency rooms (when appropriate), the savings in healthcare expenditures on the part of companies could reach $6 billion per year. While this level of savings would require a change in patient and physician mindset and increased willingness to participate, it’s clear that even a lower level of participation by patients and doctors could result in significant savings in healthcare expenditures. Towers Watson’s study surveyed employers in the US with at least 1,000 employees.

Employer-Offered Telemedicine and Absenteeism

By 2015, 37% of respondents in the Tower Watson study said they plan to offer employees telemedicine consultations as an alternative to physician visits for nonemergency situations. Currently 22% of surveyed employers offer these programs. Adoption of telemedicine service is expected to continue, with greater participation driven by lower costs and increased convenience as well as increased support from insurance companies.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a Boston-based publisher, was able to cut lost productivity by around half a day of work per employee due to the availability of remote medical consultation. Employees can use phone calls, emails, and video conferencing to access physician services with their system.

Boeing uses a telemedicine company called Best Doctors as a second opinion service, and it has been used nearly half a million times. Around one-third of participants received a change in diagnosis, and 70% had treatments changed after using the service. Caesar’s Entertainment plans to offer telemedicine using a service called MD Live by the end of 2014 to help employees who need after-hours healthcare.

Increasing Utilization Rates

Widespread adoption of telemedicine will require two major changes: a change in patient mindset concerning accessing care, and the development of reimbursement strategies on the part of private and public insurers. In many cases, employees don’t realize they have telemedicine benefits as an option, so employee education is key to increasing utilization.

Private insurers, as well as Medicare and Medicaid are in the process of determining how to reimburse doctors for telemedicine services, and once this becomes more commonplace, utilization is expected to go up. Once insurers know how they want to handle reimbursement, people will be able to, for example, have a video consultation with a physician and have prescriptions submitted to their local pharmacy, saving considerable time and hassle for routine healthcare needs.

The American Medical Association and Insurance Reimbursement

The American Medical Association (AMA) has taken significant steps indicating an increasingly positive attitude toward telemedicine. The AMA recently endorsed telemedicine policies similar to those developed by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), concerning reimbursement, practice guidelines, and use cases.

The AMA recommends several principles for ensuring appropriate reimbursement for telemedicine services:

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• Healthcare providers delivering services must be licensed in the state where the patient receives services.
  
• Physicians and patients must have a face-to-face consultation before telemedicine services are provided.
  
• Patients should have their choice of telemedicine provider, as with all other medical services.
  
• Patients should have access to license and board certification information about providers of telemedicine services.
  

As more people realize the convenience of telemedicine, utilization rates are expected to increase.

Employers aren’t the only organizations utilizing telemedicine. One important type of telemedicine is practiced between healthcare providers, specifically those who need short term help in challenging medical situations. For example, nurses at Philips County Hospital in Kansas have access to telemedicine services that bring in, via telemedicine, additional nurses and board-certified doctors to assist with patient monitoring, offer advice, and document procedures carried out by clinicians attending patients. These services can help new personnel deliver better care without having to leave patients’ sides to ask for advice.

Phillips County Hospital uses a 24/7 telemedicine service operated by Avera Health based in Sioux Falls, SD. The hospital pays a flat yearly fee and has access to unlimited use of the e-Emergency system. Even having an off-site nurse available to take care of charting can greatly assist overwhelmed ER personnel and help them focus on patients.

Another benefit to telemedicine services like those provided by Avera is that second opinions are faster, and providers in rural settings can be more decisive in emergency situations. This can help reduce transfers to bigger hospitals or trauma centers, reducing unnecessary expenditures and allowing patients to recover closer to home, which can greatly reduce stress. Since 2009, Avera’s telemedicine services have resulted in nearly $16 million in savings due to avoided transfers.

Conclusion

Quantifying the savings that could be achieved with telemedicine is complicated, but it’s easy to see that savings can be significant. For the individual who avoids a long drive and a long wait to get help for a child’s ear infection, the savings are more than monetary. For the company that reduces absenteeism by providing telemedicine services, the bottom line shows improvement. And for the rural emergency department that avoids an expensive transfer by using the services of specialists via telemedicine, critical dollars are saved that can be used to help people locally.

AccessRx.com has helped over half a million customers obtain prescription lifestyle medications by partnering with US-licensed pharmacists and trusted shipping providers. AccessRx.com believes that convenience in healthcare services leads to healthier, happier lives, and is dedicated to the technology and customer service practices that serve our customers best.