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]]>National reactions to COVID-19 are causing long-term changes to the healthcare industry. These changes, whether implemented by the federal government or the population itself, include:
Patients need to be able to take their healthcare information from one organization to another with ease. Access to one’s personal health records should be a basic right, and with new guidelines around the CARES Act, it will be. Sharing medical records has been an essential need during the COVID-19 pandemic as patients have flooded hospitals in search of care.
As the virus continued to spread across the nation, the federal government continued to relax regulations regarding healthcare information sharing. This process ensured the best possible outcomes during the pandemic, allowing hospitals to share patient data, potentially saving lives.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients are taking a more active role in their healthcare. With expanded access to telemedicine, patients are able to shop for physicians in ways they were previously unable. A practice’s ability to quickly adapt to telehealth can shape its future as patients increasingly seek care through virtual visits.
Through a simple Google search, patients are able to seek out the very best care for their need, whether its primary care, physical therapy, orthopedics or dermatology. Physicians who take an active role in marketing their telehealth services online will have a “get online care” link next to their Google result, increasing the likelihood of converted leads.
As patients avoid hospitals whenever possible, there is an increased reliance on ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) for elected procedures. As hospitals continue to host COVID-19 patients, those individuals seeking surgery will need a less hazardous location for their procedure. Hospital ICUs remain overrun with COVID-19 patients, leaving ASCs as the only open option for many operations.
ASCs have proven prepared for the influx of new patients, and as they continue to deliver quality care, it is likely they will remain the location-of-choice for many surgical operations.
Are you a physician seeking to revolutionize your practice in the COVID-19 era? LEVO Health’s team of specialists can help launch your telehealth business. Call us today at (855) 234-0232 or fill out a meeting request to get started.
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]]>Recognizing the monumental influence telehealth is having on the healthcare community, Google has launched a tool to help physicians streamline their telehealth implementation. This tool helps physicians clearly market their virtual care offerings on their business profiles, allowing patients to sign up for telehealth options directly.
Once set up, patients would be able to click a “get online care” option through their Google Search and automatically get connected to the provider’s virtual care website to schedule their visit. Google’s tool also makes it easy for patients to find their provider’s COVID-19 information page where they can view regular updates on policy and telemedicine services.
Utilizing this Google tool is a fast and efficient way to increase a practice’s telehealth awareness and utilization.
Here is how to get started:
Step 1: Access Google My Business. Make sure that your account is listed as a “Healthcare Provider.” If you need to change it, you can do so in the Information tab.
Step 2: Once you are listed as a healthcare provider, you will see fields called “Virtual Care Link” and “COVID-19 info link.”
Step 3: Enter the appropriate URLs from your website into those fields.
Step 4: The “get online care” link will now appear on Google Search and Google Maps results for your practice.
Are you a physician looking to implement telemedicine services in your practice? LEVO Health’s Telehealth Activation team has experience in successfully integrating telemedicine into a variety of medical organizations. Get quality serviceline expertise and assistance with new patient acquisition when you trust the leaders in healthcare marketing, LEVO Health.
Call us at 855-234-0232 or email info@levohealth.com for more information.
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]]>Patients are beginning to avoid routine care due to the virus, which has left doctor’s offices with empty waiting rooms. Many healthcare providers are now adopting telehealth so that patients can get medical care right from the comfort of their own home.
Telehealth is the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support and promote long-distance clinical health care. These technologies include videoconferencing, internet and streaming media. Healthcare professionals are able to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients via telecommunications. The rise of telehealth and telemedicine has the potential to improve the quality of care and make healthcare accessible to more people. This is crucial especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adding telehealth to your practice can help bring healthcare services to those who need it most. Not only are you treating patients, but the continued expansion of telehealth services also keeps providers safe and prevents them from spreading illness to other patients.
Telehealth provides the following benefits:
With telehealth, you are capable of expanding your reach to include more patients than ever. This allows you to reach those in rural areas as well as outside the normal care delivery systems. Since COVID-19 is changing the way we live, integrating telehealth into your practice allows you to be readily available for those who need medical attention.
Telehealth can help increase clinical workflow efficiency, meaning that it can improve communication by capturing, storing and using patient data for greater medical decision making.
A trip to the doctor’s office is no easy commute in most cases. Patients spend a lot of time and money when seeking healthcare. Fortunately, with telehealth, patients can seek professional medical attention by using their smartphone or laptop.
Many telehealth applications empower patients to take a more proactive role in their healthcare. Patients can also stay in their home and get the support they need from their family members.
With the increase of state-wide lockdowns and stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19, air pollution has drastically decreased. Telehealth helps decrease the air pollution by reducing travel to obtain necessary care.
Your healthcare goals mean everything to us. Get started with telemedicine today with LEVO Health’s Telehealth Activation team. Call us at 855-234-0232 or email info@levohealth.com for more information.
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]]>The post CARES Act Strengthens and Expands Telehealth Availability appeared first on Levo Health.
]]>The CARES Act includes a number of policy changes to telehealth services to increase access to care during the COVID-19 crisis. Now, patients no longer need a pre-existing relationship with a healthcare provider to use telehealth services. Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) may be used as sites of care for telehealth for patients in at home or in other facilities like nursing homes and hospice care. More grant programs are being developed to promote telehealth technology in healthcare delivery and education. Additionally, the Act allows FQHCs and RHCs to be reimbursed at a rate under the physician fee schedule that is similar to payment for comparable telehealth services.
With new legislation, patients have complete access to telehealth from a wide range of providers. The Act excludes the requirement that a professional must have treated a Medicare beneficiary in the last three years in order to provide them with telehealth services during COVID-19. For veterans, $14.4 billion is allocated to support telehealth, medical equipment and supplies, testing kits, and personal protective equipment (PPEs).
The expansion of telehealth services is more important than ever during this global pandemic. The CARES Act provides bold action and expanded coverage to provide patients greater access to care through telehealth. Provisions allow distant or “medically vulnerable” individuals to communicate with their doctors without having to travel to a healthcare facility, limiting the risk of exposure and spread of the virus. The CARES Act ensures an increased “flattening of the curve” and has pushed the importance of healthcare telehealth services to the forefront of patient treatment worldwide.
The future of remote provider-patient care is here. As Ann Mond Jackson, MBA, MHA, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), based in Washington, D.C., states, “We believe the bill reflects the scale of challenges we face as a country and recognizes that expanding virtual care is necessary to defeat COVID-19.” In an interview with HealthLeaders last week, she further emphasized how the CARES Act delivers on expanding and strengthening healthcare, “All of a sudden people are realizing that telehealth can be an incredible tool to get people access to care, to speed diagnosis, to get them treated if necessary, and to limit the risk of person-to-person exposure and spread of the disease.”
The CARES Act provides a number of provisions making telehealth services more accessible during the COVID-19 outbreak. Allow LEVO Health’s team of specialists to help launch your telehealth business. Call us today at (855) 234-0232 or email info@levohealth.com to get started.
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]]>The post Optimize Your Healthcare Practice During the Coronavirus Outbreak appeared first on Levo Health.
]]>Despite fewer possibilities for face-to-face care, physicians are granted an opportunity to optimize their care strategies and business practices. COVID-19 is giving some physicians a valuable resource they rarely had before: time. What you choose to focus on during these pivotal weeks may provide critical momentum for your practice. Rather than stress about the lack of patients walking through the door, focus on these more essential aspects of your business that you can control.
Healthcare is a quickly changing business with new technology systems released and assessed quarter after quarter. How long has it been since you reevaluated your patient approach? How long have you been doing things exactly the same way? If you think things can run smoother, now is the time to implement that change.
Planning is an essential part of change. Begin by identifying the problematic process that you want to streamline in your practice. Maybe you want to increase the amount of patients you see in a day or cut down on wasted resources. Analyze and define the purpose and goals of any new processes. Elicit the help of a business partner or marketing team, such as the expert consultants at LEVO Health, to help implement and monitor the change you desire.
Your community won’t be in quarantine forever, and when your practice reopens, you will amaze your patients and staff with perfected processes and optimized systems.
More than anything, your patients want to feel safe and secure during a time of global uncertainty. How you transmit information on the COVID-19 outbreak to your patients will make all the difference in their engagement. It is crucial during this time to keep your patients updated regularly on the facts of the pandemic without instilling unnecessary fear.
Your patients want to know how you are handling the outbreak, whether you will remain open, and what services you will be providing to keep your community healthy. Now is not the time to relax and diminish your efforts for continued excellence. Keeping your patients engaged in their health and your practice requires you to have an active online presence and remain openly available.
The demand for telemedicine is higher than ever. Telemedicine was already a rapidly growing business, but in the face of COVID-19, patients are looking to it now more than ever. If you ever considered expanding your practice to include telehealth services, now is the time to do so.
Implementing telehealth now ensures two things: 1) you can continue to treat patients from the social distance of your home while securing profits for your practice, and 2) you’re prepared for the future, which is favoring telemedicine regardless.
Starting a telemedicine service for your practice in the face of a global pandemic can seem overwhelming, but the payoff is well worth it. By implementing this service now, you will already be familiar with the necessary processes to streamline this service later. If you need assistance launching a telehealth platform, LEVO Health’s Telemedicine Activation team is here to help.
Allow LEVO Health’s team of specialists to set your practice up for success. Call us today at (855) 234-0232 or email info@levohealth.com for more information.
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]]>Telemedicine is the practice of clinicians using smart technology to deliver care from anywhere. Telemedicine is an alternative to traditional office visits. Healthcare professionals are able to evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients via telecommunications such as Skype, audio, or text-messaging through computers or smartphones.
There are many benefits of telemedicine that the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) has listed. These include:
Telemedicine has been able to bring healthcare services to patients across all locations. This means someone who lives in a rural area – far from the nearest hospital – would be able to receive care from the comfort of their home. “Given the provider shortages throughout the world — in both rural and urban areas — telemedicine has a unique capacity to increase service to millions of new patients,” states the ATA.
Telemedicine has been able to reduce the cost of healthcare significantly. Some health concerns could easily be resolved in a single consultation. By giving patients the option to have a consultation done via telecommunications, patients are spending less than they would for an in-person visit for that same consultation.
With the use of telemedicine, healthcare providers are able to follow-up with patients as well as monitor patients remotely in a more efficient way than ever before. It can be as simple as a 5-minute video call to check up on a patient or answer any pondering questions.
“The greatest impact of telemedicine is on the patient, their family, and their community,” writes the ATA. Telemedicine is something consumers have such a high demand for because it reduces travel time, money, and related stress for the patient.
Telemedicine has been around for a while, but as technology evolves, telemedicine is becoming increasingly available to patients at a lower cost and with improved quality of care. The benefits of telemedicine are expanding every day, and we will start to see it as a way for medical practices to gain a competitive advantage in the healthcare field.
Your healthcare goals mean everything to us. Allow LEVO Health’s team of specialists to get the job done right. Call us today at (855) 234-0232 for more information.
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