Telehealth’s Role in Healthcare’s Future Explored in HLC Hill Briefing
On October 7 the Healthcare Leadership Council hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill in which leading private sector innovators discussed the latest developments in telehealth initiatives and challenges. Each panelist provided a unique perspective on the benefits of telehealth, the next steps in achieving progress and the possible challenges to overcome in getting there.
The first panelist was Dr. Richard Fessler, the Chairman of the Department of Surgery at St. John Providence Health System, a member of HLC member Ascension Health. Dr. Fessler spoke about stroke telemedicine and the mutually beneficial relationship it creates for patients and physicians. Telemedicine, he said, provides almost immediate access to specialists for vulnerable populations. He stated that audio/visual communication is infinitely better than simply talking over the phone. The barriers he listed included significant resource requirements and inconsistent state and federal policies and regulations.
Elaine Manieri, the Vice President of Pharmacy and Medical Vendor Programs at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee discussed telehealth from a payer perspective. The desired outcomes from the use of telehealth, she said, are improved access, maintained quality standards, and increased affordability. Manieri stated that there is a tremendous opportunity to lower wait times and keep non-emergencies out of the emergency room. She cited a Forbes projection that telehealth services will grow exponentially over the next five years. She noted that telehealth does not replace, but rather supplements, the patient/physician relationship.
Focusing more on the technological side of telehealth was Joe Vengco, the Chief Information Officer for Baystate Health, affiliated with HLC member Premier healthcare alliance. He said that in order to enable population health initiatives we need data liquidity, knowledge and insight, and methods to take action. Baystate’s framework moves from data to action, and one of the big challenges is interoperability so that the proper connections can be made and information exchanged. He recommended for standards-based APIs (Application Programming Interface) to be published in order to enable evolution and innovation.
Forest Blanton, the Chief Information Officer of Memorial Healthcare System, another member of Premier healthcare alliance, highlighted population health and telehealth initiatives. Despite the benefits of such initiatives, payment systems have not figured out how to effectively reimburse providers for them. The interoperability issues he mentioned were data silos, gaps in care with disparate systems, and the need for standardization of nomenclature. Blanton stated that these problems affected the ability to effectively research as well. He also recommended open and public APIs and suggested the need for prescriptive emerging standards including Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR). Standards, he said, should be market driven but facilitated.
