Southwest Telehealth Resource Center Blog

Telehealth measurement has recently received renewed attention as healthcare organizations rapidly adopted and deployed telehealth programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the pandemic started, the need to measure utilization and its temporal variations accurately has increased as the rate and type of telehealth visits grew substantially and is now stabilizing. Measures that interact with utilization, like cost, have also not been effectively quantified to understand the financial impact of telehealth utilization variation during and since the pandemic and are only recently being rigorously assessed. This may be due to challenges accessing complete, reliable data, especially at the organizational level. As health services researchers who conduct evaluations in various areas of telehealth, these limitations restrict how health services researchers, who conduct evaluations in various areas of telehealth, define and measure telehealth among hospitals to inform accurate comparisons of utilization and care provision via telehealth.

As a geriatrician, I serve as a primary care physician for older adults. In my practice, there are patients across the continuum of medical complexity with all levels of physical and cognitive functioning. A universal theme I see in practice is that it’s hard to keep up with health, healthcare, and health insurance plans. It can be challenging for my patients to come into the office for an in-person visit. They may have to drive a long distance, their medical appointment may interfere with their routine, such as a weekly exercise class, or if they have limited mobility, leaving the house is a feat and getting into the clinic can be quite burdensome. 

The current and future potential impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on healthcare, particularly in relation to telemedicine, is huge. Presented here are just a few of the more exciting technologies and their potential for use and impact in telehealth applications.

With ambient clinical listening technologies (AI-based scribes), advanced, voice-enabled AI tools automatically document patient encounters and free-flowing conversation between physicians, patients, and families. An advantage of using AI scribes in a telemedicine setting is that providers can focus more continuously on their consultation with the patient, eliminating the need to divert their attention away from the patient for note taking. Using AI scribes can save providers significant amounts of time as the burden to create accurate notes or encounter summaries in the electronic health record is reduced as it can be done automatically with minimal editing. Some AI scribe products also include predictive tools that can analyze the conversations, provide feedback, and assist with order placement, future appointment scheduling, or prescriptions, which can help reduce provider burnout, save time, and help ensure that all topics discussed are properly coordinated.

On February 2, 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), published a final rule that expands on, and makes permanent, certain opioid-related telehealth flexibilities initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the rule, authorized providers will be able to start patients on buprenorphine or methadone—medications used to treat opioid use disorders—pursuant to a telehealth visit and without needing an in-person visit.

In the ever-evolving landscape of Medicare coverage, the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) brings crucial updates to telehealth billing and reimbursement.

During a recent Southwest Telehealth Resource Center webinar presentation, “`Tis The Season: For The 2024 MPFS Telehealth Billing & Reimbursement Updates,” Carol Yarbrough, MBA, CCA, CPC, OCS, CHC, a healthcare compliance and reimbursement specialist, discussed the intricacies of the 2024 MPFS changes affecting telehealth along with their impact on providers and patients alike.