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Essays on the disadvantages of telemedicine
Advantages and disadvantages of telehealth
Essays on the disadvantages of telemedicine
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Economic Impact
The economic impact of telehealth is a critical factor to examine when looking at the feasibility of incorporating such technologies into practice. Exploration of economics is also essential as it has been posited that telehealth has the potential to deliver care to individuals that is cost saving in nature (Wade, Karnon, Elshaug, & Hiller, 2010). Furthermore, the estimated expenditure on telehealth services and technology is expected to reach into the billions of dollars (Berger, 2010). However, there are myriad individual elements that may be considered in the broad subject of economics, which complicates determining the economic impact in a parsimonious way (Bergmo, 2009; Wade, et al., 2010).
Providers are faced with having to weigh the expense of investing in telehealth technologies with the ability to generate enough revenue to cover these costs. This is often difficult as expenses in the literature can cover those directly linked with the delivery of care (healthcare costs) and those that are not directly related to providing care (non-heath care costs) (Bergmo, 2009). Some of the healthcare costs a practitioner must consider are items such as computers, video cameras, microphones, modems, routers, software and other components such as specialized stethoscopes and imaging equipment needed to assess an individual patient. The cost of these items can add up quickly. As one study estimates, the capital expenditure for the implementation of telehealth video conferencing can reach as much as $80,000. The cost of transmitting data in order to deliver these services can also reach $800-$2000 per month in spoke and hub type telehealth systems (Gamble, Savage, & Icenogle, 2004). These costs incur even more ...
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...ward understanding the cost benefit of telemedicine applications. Hospital Topics: Research and Perspectives on Healthcare
Palmas, W., Shea, S., Starren, J., Teresi, J. A., Ganz, M. L., Burton, T. M., et al. (2010). Medicare payments, health care service use, and telemedicine implementation costs in a randomized trial comparing telemedicine case management with usual care in medically underserved participants with diabetes mellitus (IDEATel). Journal of the American Informatics Association, 17, 196-202.
Shea, S. (2007). The Informatics for Diabetes and Education Telemedicine (IDEATel) Project. Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, 118, 289-304.
Wade, V. A., Karnon, J. Elshaug, A., & Hiller, J. E. (2010). A systematic review of economic analyses of telehealth services using real time video communication. BMC Health Service Research,
Reimbursement policies prevent the total integration of telemedicine into health care practice (Prinz, 2008). Today, there is no overall telemedicine reimbursement policy in the federal health care system (HRSA, 2011 & OAT, 2003). As a result, reimbursement for telecare has been limited and somewhat haphazard. It’s up to each state to specify what telemedicine services, if any, are eligible for Medicaid reimbursement (HRSA, 2011 & OAT, 2003).
Whitten, P., & Buis, L. (2007). Private payer reimbursement for telemedicine services in the United States. Telemedicine and e-Health, 13(1), 15-24.
The Benefits of Telehealth - Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center. (2016). Nrtrc.org. Retrieved 2 August 2016, from https://www.nrtrc.org/telehealth-topic-20
Often the biggest barriers to accessing healthcare are cost and location. Lower income individuals just do not have the resources to have optimal healthcare, or cannot take the time away from employment to deal with health issues. One potential solution to help with these problems could be “telehealth.” Telehealth allows a lower level healthcare practitioner to communicate with a physician or specialists when necessary. Remote rural areas use a Physician Assistant or a Nurse Practitioner on location in remote areas. When procedures call for a physician, an internet or satellite link provides a teleconference with a physician who can prescribe appropriate treatment (Gangon, Duplantie, Fortin & Landry 2006). This could be implemented in lower income urban areas, allowing free clinics to lower costs, and require fewer physicians.
We live in the era of technology and telehealth is becoming a part of our lives. According to Guido (2014), telehealth Is a removal of time and distance barriers for the delivery of health care services and related health care activities. Internet and other communication technologies are the means for health care professionals to practice across state lines.
The Affordable Care Act of 2010 established the Hospital VBP Program. The Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program is a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) initiative that rewards acute-care hospitals with incentive payments for the quality of care they provide to Medicare beneficiaries. A few of the value based purchasing provisions such as pay for performance, accountable care organizations, bundle payments and patient-centered medical homes are designed to improve care quality and outcomes while reducing the cost (cms.gov). Within the iron triangle, the goal of VBP is to improve quality and cost, but it should also help towards providing more access to care. If patients are not able to access the care when they need it then quality is insignificant. One key component of VBP is measuring and reporting comparative performance of providers - allowing patients to select services and providers of high value. Based on provider’s performances, VBP programs pay each differentially, which encourages providers to emphasis more on outcome and care rather than capacity of work. And so, providers cut out unnecessary work and used their resources more efficiently to lower their overall care costs. VBP programs can also inspire providers to advance their work efficiency by implementing and integrating technology into their care. With assistance of the right technology providers can implement telehealth to save time and cost in order to be able to focus on more patients. Access to most patients is possible as long as costs of care are affordable. By adopting VBP programs, they will be able to keep the cost affordable by implementing cost cutting strategies without compromising quality care for
Telehealth is not a new concept. It was first anticipated in 1924 as a fantasy in a Radio News Magazine. Today it is a reality. Even more, implementation of telehealth is becoming a necessity due to increasing aging population and high healthcare costs. What is telehealth? On a federal level, telehealth is defined as “the use of technology to deliver health care, health information or health education at a distance.”
Moffatt, J. and Eley, D. (2010). The reported benefits of telehealth for rural Australians. Australian Health Review. 34. 276-281.
Nations around the world are taking strides in adopting health information technology into their future. Networking and communicating are also ways today’s generations are integrating units of healthcare delivery into their organizations. Over the last decade of innovation, and utilization, high technology has increased both in figures and in terms of population rates. Regarding e- health, many services have become available to electronically submitte prescriptions. Many services are at least in the beginning phases for an informatics solution, and most have already implemented it or are in the roll-out phase. Internet appointments for primary care services were fully implemented in 2009. (euro.who)
M. S. Marcolino, J. X. Maia, M. B. M. Alkmim, E. Boersma, and A. L. Ribeiro, “Telemedicine Application in the Care of Diabetes Patients: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” PLoS One, vol. 8, no. 11, p. e79246, Nov. 2013.
In this article the author compared the changes observed with the use of Teletracking system for a duration of three years starting from 2013 in two different multispeciality chain of hospitals in Florida, the first being Health First, which is a fully integrated health system in central Florida with 900 beds distributed across four hospitals. Its flagship hospital is Homes Regional
Health care is one of the most lucrative businesses in the United States. It is also one of the areas where modern technology has had the most impact. Health care companies make huge investments in technology each year. To justify these investments, it is important to make sure that the monies spent result in highly efficient and effective policies, improve patient safety, and increases the quality and value of health care services.
In this framework, we introduced 6 barriers for implementing telemedicine and then by using factor analysis, we analyzed these factors and their indices. According to research findings, and according to figure 3, we can see that the barriers of implementing telemedicine with respect to their importance are as below:
Rinde, E., & Balteskard, L. (2002). Is there a future for telemedicine?. Lancet, 359(9322), 1957.
Telehealth services are delivered in three main ways: Video conferencing, Remote patient monitoring and Store & forward technologies. Video conferencing allows patients to have consultations with their health care provider and also provider-to-provider discussions. Video conferencing has language translation services. Rem...