NOVEMBER 1997 PRESS RELEASE
Telemedicine Begins to Pay Off
Jacksonville, Oregon (November 12, 1997): Several new telemedicine trends were identified at the Executive Summit and TeleMed III conferences held last week in Anaheim, California, by Applied Business Telecommunications. One important conclusion was that telemedicine can generate significant revenues from non-radiology clinical uses. Two examples of financially rewarding telemedicine applications are:
(1) Provision of second opinions to overseas health care providers and
(2) Referrals for additional medical services as the result of initial telemedicine encounters.
In the Executive Summit, speakers focused on business models for telemedicine while also addressing issues such as the establishment of practice standards, licensing, and reimbursement. Everyone seems to agree that health care must be more accessible to patients, with Internet advances providing one new direction. Health care information processing technologies and medical services are also becoming more integrated, with "birth-to-death" tracking capabilities being explored in Malaysia. Meanwhile, federal and state telemedicine legislation continues to be adopted in the United States, with an important influx of financial support ($400 million) available in 1998 as a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The goal is to support improved access and lowered transmission costs for health care provider networks operating in rural areas.
To a large degree, telemedicine is advancing despite commonly-cited obstacles such as patient confidentiality and physician licensure across state lines. With regard to payment issues, some conference participants suggested that reimbursement problems may be perceived rather than real barriers to telemedicine implementation. In fact, one highly successful California telemedicine network supports consultations between a major medical center and a rural hospital without any reimbursement being provided, even though the California Telemedicine Development Act of 1996 was specifically enacted to provide a payment structure for such services. Surprisingly, no claims for reimbursement have yet been filed statewide as a result of this new law (through last week), an indication that further efforts are needed to inform health insurance and managed care administrators about the new payment policy.
Conference speakers also emphasized the wide variety of tools that can be considered forms of "telemedicine", ranging from an ordinary telephone or facsimile to e-mail and real-time or store-and-forward video images. In the near future, e-mail may become a more important method for communication between doctors and patients as comfort and familiarity with the Internet progresses. One benefit is documentation of patient problems which can eventually be added to a medical record to provide a more complete assessment of care outcomes.
This is a very brief overview of some of the highlights from the Executive Summit and TeleMed III conferences. This press release material has been provided by Feedback Research Services, a company that publishes and sells market research reports such as The U.S. Telemedicine Market, U.S. Home Care Monitoring and Telemedicine, Telephone Triage, The World Market for Telemedicine Products and Services, U.S. Mental Health Telemedicine, and U.S. Rural Health Telemedicine. For more information, contact us 541.899.8088. Questions about the Executive Summit and/or TeleMed III conferences can be directed to Applied Business teleCommunications at 510.606.5150.
