Telemedicine: There are enough times when both patient and doctor would benefit from a quick video chat rather than an office visit. And EMR Patient Portals will likely be the superhighway that makes such visits possible.
Telemedicine is becoming very real for remote locations where there are not enough doctors to go around. But it will become real for everyone else, because for medical practice management and for the patient, it offers the advantage of speed, no travel, less overhead, and efficiency. Though there are obviously many situations where the patient must be seen, palpitated, and examined by human hand and eye, there are many situations where the obvious issues are obvious.
Last Year the USDA provided $14 million in grants to companies and other entities in order to develop providing telemedicine and medical education options for rural counties in 29 states. But it is not yet a viable option for regular medical groups or hospitals.
There is currently no medical billing and reimbursement option worked out between government and medical agencies, and thus EMR vendors have not yet written provisions into their software to allow for care and reimbursement. HIPAA issues must also be worked out. But since it is in everyone’s interest to have a telemedicine option, the time will come, and it will be soon…
I am sure that digital scan testing for strep throat is not that far off. And by that time, versatile EMR patient portals will become the pathway to Telemedicine visits. The technology is already there. We need only will, new software to be written, and a reimbursement scheme that is fair and makes sense. Alas, easier said than done!
What does this mean for you, as a doctor who is purchasing EMR /EHR today? It means you need to go with a forward looking vendor, not an outdated package that is cheap because it hasn’t thought about the next step in EMR. If you are talking to vendors, ask them what they will do when telemedicine happens, and whether they have thought about incorporating this function into their EMR. It will be interesting to hear what they have to tell.
