The new WesleyCare Telemedicine Network website is now up and running. Those looking to learn about WCTN now have easy access to information, including:

• an overview of the WCTN program
• a definition of Telemedicine and brief summary of its importance
• a bio on Dr. Calvin Olmstead, Medical Director of Neurology
• a map of our WesleyCare Telemedicine Network partner locations
• links to past issues of the WCTN monthly newsletter
• and more

WesleyCare Telemedicine Network Website

 http://wesleymc.com/service/wesleycare-telemedicine-network  

 

The June issue of Telemedicine and e-Health contains an interesting study on how providers are (or are not) receiving payment for Telemedicine services they provide. The investigators sent out a comprehensive survey to potential respondents involved in various roles within the Telemedicine industry, including administrators, clinicians, business managers, and clinical coordinators, among others. The results offer an informative, "in the trenches" perspective of the Telemedicine reimbursement situation.

 

Download the full article here.

 

STUDY ABSTRACT

Background: Significant information is available about government-reimbursed telehealth services such as Medicare and Medicaid across the United States. Although currently 20 states mandate reimbursement for telehealth services and some private insurers have voluntarily covered those services in other states, relatively little is known about telehealth provider experiences with reimbursement from private insurance payers.

Materials and Methods: To investigate this, the American Telemedicine Association's (ATA's) Telemental Health Special Interest Group (SIG), the Policy Group, and the Business and Finance SIG, with the help of ATA staff, conducted a national private payer reimbursement online survey in 2012 using Survey Monkey TM (Palo Alto, CA) (www.surveymonkey.com/).

Results: Survey responses were received from respondents in 46 of the 50 states. The survey found that telehealth services are being reimbursed by private payers but that progress in reimbursement has been relatively slow compared with earlier surveys.

Conclusions: Key findings from this study were that government payers as well as several major private payers are highly influential in payment policies for telehealth private payers, that private payers have administrative rules regarding telehealth reimbursement that are barriers to services and reimbursement, and that some providers would benefit from being better informed about billing and coding for telehealth services and how to advocate for telehealth services reimbursement.

*Sources provided in article.

Download Article

Citation:

Antoniotti, Nina M., Kenneth P. Drude, and Nancy Rowe. "Private Payer Telehealth Reimbursement in the United States." Telemedicine and E-Health 20.6 (2014): 539-43. Print.

Megan Canter

Director of Telemedicine

HCA Continental Division

4900 S Monaco Street, Suite 380

Denver, CO 80237-3487
303-788-2568 (ofc)

303-717-9995 (cell)

Megan.Canter@HCAHealthcare.com