How COVID-19 Aided Telehealth – Expert Opinion

The COVID-19 pandemic has redefined almost every aspect of our lives. The way we buy stuff is different, the way we hang out with our friends is different, working is different and most important of healthcare has become different. It can never be denied that the pandemic has had an adverse effect on our lives, it has made us fear for our lives and it has almost decimated the economy. However, it is also true that the pandemic also paved the way for massive adoption and development of new tech that was once considered way out there. 

In the wake of COVID-19 healthcare has become more accessible, all you need is an internet connection, an app and you can connect with physicians for a quick consult, settle your payment in the application and you’re done. The astounding fact, however, is not the discovery of telemedicine or how effective it is, it is that telemedicine has become one of the fastest growing technologies of our time and is being aggressively implemented in a massive way. 

This very topic, the effect COVID-19 has had on telehealth and reimbursement for virtual services was discussed during a very informative and interesting session at the Becker’s Healthcare Payer Issues Virtual Summit on Aug. 3., and was discussed by:-

Kelly Cavin, RN, VP of social determinants of health at Change Healthcare

Rodrigo Cerdá, MD, VP of clinical care transformation at Independence Blue Cross

Eric Hoag, VP of provider relations at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota.

Question: What telemedicine challenges and opportunities have been spotlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic?

Dr. Rodrigo Cerdá: Independence was an early adopter of telemedicine on this, especially in the setting of the pandemic. From March, we really expanded the number of services that could be rendered by audio visual or audio, and now we’ve extended most of our business lines through the end of the year. There’s been a really significant uptick — we were just looking at some of those statistics and almost 60 percent of primary care physician and behavioral health visits were done through telemedicine in the period of March to May. We’re submitting a manuscript where we found that the average weekly virtual visits increased from 300 a week to almost 50,000 a week after social distancing measures were put in place. So there are a ton of opportunities associated with that.

The fact that people are being forced to try telemedicine, people who may not have ever thought of themselves as somebody who would use it, both on the provider side and the member side, means that there are actually a lot of people who are trying it and liking it.

Kelly Cavin: We’ve identified some disparities as we’ve moved into COVID-19, and the access to broadband hardware for telemedicine is one of those things. I think, as a society, we need to look at how we better enable individuals to have access to these types of things going forward, especially if we’re moving to deliver care in a different way. And so, in a planning way, maybe start equipping people with monitoring tools as well as figuring out ways to make sure people have access to Wi-Fi hardware and that type of thing. 

We @BillingParadise, understand the need for Telemedicine and other virtual services. That is why we don’t just support our clients in implementing virtual services, but we also ensure that it is provided with end-to-end support and at an affordable rate.