Telehealth is rapidly becoming an accepted mode of mainstream care delivery. Federal, state and private insurances are covering telehealth services and are encouraging the use of telehealth services.

1. Craft a telehealth strategy for
additional revenue

2. 2
Introduction
Telehealth or Telemedicine provides a means to
offer clinical assistance via telecommunication
channels eliminating the need for the patient
and the care giver to be at the same location.
Although physical interaction at the time of care
giving is vital, this mode comes with a lot of limi-
tations. A patient in a state of sickness having to
commute to the clinic location can cause incon-
venience, but in some cases can also lead to de-
terioration of health. Specialty care providers are
scarce in certain areas, in which case a patient
has to travel long distances or has to compro-
mise on the level of care received.
Telehealth technology is useful across all special-
ties and clinical settings; however, chronic care
and home health settings have to frequently as-
sess their patients, and therefore can benefit the
most from telehealth followed by providers who
provide post-hospitalization care. Telehealth
technology not only includes live video
(synchronous) but also embraces store and for-
ward (Asynchronous) and remote patient moni-
toring (RPM).
Telehealth is rapidly becoming an accepted
mode of mainstream care delivery. Federal, state
and private insurances are covering telehealth
services and are encouraging the use of tele-
health services. Several studies have identified
that telehealth not only optimizes clinical work-
flow and improves revenue, it also improves pa-
tient satisfaction.
Craft a Telehealth Strategy for Additional Revenue 2

3. 3
Benefits of Telehealth
Ϋ CONVENIENCE
 Save travel time - Provider’s time wasted in
travel to distant clinics in rural and remote
areas can be better utilized for serving more
patients.
 Post-discharge treatment - This would re-
duce the burden on patients, to travel to the
clinic location, post hospitalization.
§ MORE DOLLARS
 More new patients - Telehealth facilitates fast
and easy access to patients in rural areas,
hence more patients from rural areas, who
otherwise could not have been consulted,
can now be reached.
 Extend service in after-hours - Incorporating
telehealth technology in the practice allows
providers to consult outside office hours,
without being present on clinic premises. This
not only helps increase revenue, but also
helps clinics achieve value based care objec-
tives of expanding practice access.
 Reduce no-shows - A primary factor for reve-
nue leakage faced by a clinic is “patient no-
shows”. A patient, who for some reason is not
able to arrive at the clinic at the time of the
appointment, causes revenue loss. With vid-
eo consultation facility, a patient can now re-
motely log into a telehealth solution and
consult, thus reducing the clinic’s revenue
loss.
 Minimize idle time - A clinic can schedule
short video consultations for routine consul-
tations between face-to-face encounters. This
allows providers to utilize their free hours
more productively, leading to an increase in
clinic’s revenue.
 Cross state barriers – With telehealth, provid-
ers can service patients across states as well.
A well designed solution can ensure that the
providers ‘pick’ their patients based on their
chosen criteria to maximize their revenues or
get maximum patient volumes.
╬ CHOICE
 Wider choice of doctors - Apart from the
obvious benefit of convenience, a telehealth
solution, which acts as an open portal with
multiple providers available for consultation,
can act as a marketplace for ad-hoc, short
consultations. A patient can consult with a
doctor of their choice and can possibly pay
out of pocket for that ad-hoc consultation.
Barriers to Telehealth implementation
Just like any other technological interjection in
the healthcare space, a significant barrier to tele-
health implementation is retaliation from users
who are not tech savvy. Another few case studies
have identified that providers, initially, find it diffi-
cult to provide consultations using the un-
conventional telehealth technologies. Also, dur-
ing some telehealth implementations users real-
ized that much more human effort was required
in coordinating telehealth encounters, which in-
clude setting up the encounter, assisting patients
and providers with the technology, etc. This led
to an added administrative burden and added
costs for additional staff, and staff time of exist-
ing staff. In addition, technology infrastructure
Craft a Telehealth Strategy for Additional Revenue 3

4. 4Craft a Telehealth Strategy for Additional Revenue 4
About Nalashaa
Nalashaa believes in simple solutions to derive meaningful insights and in exceeding your expectations. Our
clarity of thought has earned us many laurels in this fast paced world where healthcare technology advance-
ments are rolling out continuously.
About the Author
Nisarg Khandekar, Healthcare Consultant
Nisarg has worked on a variety of healthcare IT products and has helped medical profes-
sionals by understanding their pain points and assisting them adapt to the rapidly chang-
ing healthcare IT spectrum, for almost half a decade. Experienced in Meaningful Use and
ONC HIT certification processes and currently holding a keen interest in understanding
how the analytics and population health management areas are shaping up.
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