Adapt to Changes in Telehealth Insurance Coverage

Use of telehealth is increasing in response to COVID-19, and it is evident that it will be a permanent and significant component of healthcare delivery. As a clinician, you may like telehealth or dislike it. Either way, DiyaMD, our novel software, can make telehealth easy and remunerative for you.

Pros and Cons

The main advantages of telehealth during the current pandemic are convenience and safety for the clinician and the patient — no leaving home for the patient, fewer personal interactions for the clinician.

The disadvantages for clinicians are several. There is a history of electronic health record (EHR) technology being imposed on clinicians, along with its accompanying inferior software. Frustration with clinical care technology has ensued. Additionally, telehealth does not give clinicians a way to touch and examine the patient. Relatedly, because office staff isn't prepping the patient (i.e. taking vital signs, complaints, and insurance information), the clinician's time is spent less efficiently.

Copayments

At the onset of the pandemic, some clinicians stopped seeing patients due to the risk of contracting COVID-19. In response, insurers, led by Medicare, waived copayments and deductibles for telehealth, and reimbursed clinicians the entire billable amount for services. Clinicians were thereby freed of the need to collect payments directly from patients. This was an effort, in part, to make telehealth more attractive to clinicians and thus encourage them to start seeing patients again.

However, as of October, two of the largest private insurers, Anthem and UnitedHealthcare, no longer waive copayments and deductibles for telehealth. As a result:

• Patients will avoid in-person as well as virtual doctor visits because of safety and affordability concerns.
• Clinicians will lose revenue.
• Health outcomes will worsen.

Despite restoration of copayments, clinicians can make use of other e-services, which will maintain their personal safety and success of their practice:

• Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) allows clinicians to monitor the progress of treatment online, at any time. RPM fosters patient engagement, reduces unnecessary costs, and leads to good health outcomes.
• Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO) (i.e. health outcomes that patients directly report) allow clinicians to more effectively manage chronic diseases and other illnesses. Like RPM, PRO increase patient engagement and improve health outcomes.

DiyaMD Makes Telehealth Easy

DiyaMD is an all-encompassing telehealth and health management tool. Among its unique capabilities, it can:

• Conduct billable e-services, including telehealth and RPM.
• Facilitate communication among patient, provider, and caregiver.
• Capture billable services, automatically.
• Give medication safety alerts.
• Provide mass dissemination of information to patients.

These tools allow clinicians to maintain patient loyalty and maximize revenue, despite restoration of copayments.

About DiyaMD

DiyaMD is a budding telehealth platform that focuses on high efficiency, high throughput, and billable patient care services. Modeled after a medical practice's customary workflow, DiyaMD helps clinicians optimize their time, improve patient care, and increase revenue.

Thanks,
The Diya Health Team