Ask the Experts

Ask the Experts

• Telehealth Puts Truckers on the Path to Better Access, Health Outcomes

  Truck drivers don't typically have a healthy lifestyle. But a Texas company that's using mHealth and telehealth to improve access to care and boost health outcomes could offer a model of care for the industry.  Continue Reading

• Deaconess Health Finds Success in Tailoring Telehealth to Specific Patients

  The Indiana health system has fine-tuned a remote patient monitoring program to treat specific chronic care patients and those with COVID-19, and is showing a significant decrease in hospitalizations and total costs of care.  Continue Reading

• mHealth Helps Compass Medical Get a Complete View of Patient Care

  Medical groups like Massachusetts-based Compass Medical are using mHealth platforms to track every healthcare visit that triggers an electronic notification, opening the door to better care coordination and management.  Continue Reading

• Stanford Children's Uses mHealth to Keep Young Patients at Home

  Cardiologists at Stanford Children's Health are using mHealth devices and telehealth platforms to monitor their young patients at home, rather than having the family travel several hours for an office visit.  Continue Reading

• Telehealth, mHealth Tools Smooth Out the Rough Edges for Transplant Patients

  Telehealth platforms and mHealth apps are helping transplant patients and their care teams improve care coordination and management, leading to better life experiences and fewer office visits.  Continue Reading

• Navigating the Benefits - and Challenges - of Telehealth From Home

  New Jersey-based counselor Nicole Glover is finding a new comfort level in treating patients via telehealth from her home office. And she plans on staying there well after the pandemic.  Continue Reading

• Digital Onboarding Uses Telehealth to Start Conversations With Patients

  Jefferson Health's Digital Onboarding Taskforce gives providers an opportunity to talk to patients and understand why they're reluctant or unable to access telehealth.  Continue Reading

• California Hospital Uses mHealth Platform to Automate Contact Tracing

  Methodist Hospital of Southern California is using an mHealth platform to track staff movements through their badges, improving monitoring for COVID-19 exposure and helping to restore patient confidence.  Continue Reading

• Telehealth, RPM Programs Can Benefit Greatly From a Nurse's Perspective

  When the Blessing Health System launched a remote patient monitoring program to extend care for COVID-19 patients to the home, they made sure nurses were involved in every step of the process.  Continue Reading

• Will Telehealth Payment Parity Be Permanent or a Passing Fancy?

  A recent study by Foley & Lardner indicates telehealth reimbursement will be on top of the agenda during the coming year, but will states, private payers and the federal government find an acceptable path to true payment parity?  Continue Reading

• New Coalition, Programs Focus on Establishing Telehealth Equity

  Telehealth has long been seen as a toolkit for improving access to care for underserved populations. The pandemic is now prompting people to ask whether we're making the best use of those tools.  Continue Reading

• Telehealth for Occupational Health Benefits Both Employee and Employer

  Concentra's telehealth service, launched in 2017, is seeing more than 8,000 virtual visits a month, and helping both the injured worker and the company find better health outcomes.  Continue Reading

• Tennessee Health System Looks to Use Telehealth, RPM Beyond Covid-19 Care

  West Tennessee Healthcare has seen success using a remote patient monitoring platform to treat COVID-19 patients at home. Now it's planning to modify the platform for chronic care management.  Continue Reading

• Mount Sinai Extends Cancer Care to the Home With New Telehealth Program

  The New York health system is launching a remote patient monitoring program that will allow care teams to track and communicate with patients at home through an mHealth wearable and telehealth platform.  Continue Reading

• PA Health System Uses College Students to Support New Telehealth Program

  The St. Luke's University Health Network is hiring college students to help in its Virtual Response Center, which supports a remote patient monitoring program serving eight of the health system's 12 hospitals.  Continue Reading

• As Demand Surges, Counseling Clinics Learn How to Adjust to Telehealth

  Kentucky-based MEBS Counseling shifted to a telehealth platform as the coronavirus pandemic took hold last year. Nine months later, the clinic is still learning about the benefits and challenges.  Continue Reading

• Brigham and Women's Sees Telehealth Success With Home Hospital Program

  The program, launched in 2016 and now eligible for Medicare reimbursement, uses mHealth and telehealth tools to create a care management platform at home for acute care patients who would otherwise be hospitalized.  Continue Reading

• Analyzing the Challenges and Benefits of an Inpatient Telehealth Platform

  When COVID-19 hit, Yale New Haven Health launched an aggressive program to use more than 1,800 telehealth and mHealth devices to improve workflows and patient care. Here's what the health system learned.  Continue Reading

• Analysis: CMS Gives Telehealth a Boost, But More is Needed

  Experts say the 2021 Physician Fee Schedule will advance telehealth adoption, but it falls short of giving momentum to remote patient monitoring. Oh, and Congress needs to step up to the plate, too.  Continue Reading

• COVID-19 Pushes Telehealth for Veterinary Care Into the Spotlight

  The coronavirus pandemic is prompting pet owners, healthcare providers and even payers to consider the value of telehealth in veterinary care.  Continue Reading

• Guidelines for Marketing a Practice's New Telehealth Platform

  With so many small and solo practices turning to telehealth to deal with the pandemic and build business, a marketing expert offers advice on how to advertise those new services.  Continue Reading

• Geisinger Tests mHealth Platform for Chronic Pain Treatment

  The Pennsylvania health system is participating in a study that uses VR glasses and an mHealth platform to help patients manage acute and chronic pain at home.  Continue Reading

• Telehealth Helps The Mayo Clinic Adjust to a New Healthcare Ecosystem

  The Minnesota-based health system is using mHealth tools and telehealth platforms to re-imagine how it gathers data and delivers care, both inside and outside the hospital walls.  Continue Reading

• Value-Based Care Requires a Balance of Telehealth, In-Person Visits

  In a new Healthcare Strategies podcast, Chris Waugh, chief innovation officer at Sutter Health, explains how the health system is creating a strategy that integrates virtual and in-person care to treat the whole patient.  Continue Reading

• Telehealth Faces New Challenges: Surfing, Snacking and Social Hour

  A new survey from DrFirst finds that consumers may be flocking to telehealth during the coronavirus pandemic to chat with doctors, but many of them are also spending that time multitasking.  Continue Reading

• Memorial Hermann Maps Out a Strategy for Primary Care via Telehealth

  The Houston-based health system is using lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic and a robust approach to innovation to create a primary care platform that enhances both in-person and virtual care.  Continue Reading

• Amid Rising Substance Abuse Rates, Treatment Centers Turn to Telehealth

  Amid a surge in substance abuse issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Desert Hope Treatment Center is using a telehealth platform to screen patients and expand access to sorely needed counseling.  Continue Reading

• Northwell Launches Telehealth Service for Skilled Nursing Facilities

  New York's largest health system is launching a telehealth platform to provide on-demand care at two skilled nursing facilities, and plans to expand to more SNFs in the future.  Continue Reading

• CMS Proposes Significant Changes to Remote Patient Monitoring Coverage

  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has clarified how providers can use telehealth and mHealth to establish and run remote patient monitoring programs, with changes that some feel could hinder care at home.  Continue Reading

• Can Telehealth Help Medical Practices Ditch the Waiting Room?

  Faced with the need to improve patient satisfaction and reduce unnecessary delays in care, hospitals and medical practices are using telehealth and mHealth tools to create a virtual waiting room.  Continue Reading

• A Pandemic Gives Telehealth a New Purpose With Community Paramedicine

  With COVID-19 still rampant, health systems and EMS providers are partnering in mobile integrated health programs that stress telehealth and mHealth in the home.  Continue Reading

• Telehealth Kiosks Give Homeless Veterans a Link to Healthcare, Other Services

  Soldier On has partnered with Let's Talk Interactive to expand a telehealth platform that connects homeless veterans and those in transitional housing with mental health counselors and other sorely needed services.  Continue Reading

• How a Rural Hospital Developed and Launched its Telehealth Platform

  Beauregard Health, a 49-bed hospital in rural Louisiana, recently went live with a telehealth platform for critical care, neurology, psychiatry and cardiology services. Their COO explains how it was done.  Continue Reading

• Seattle Children's Scales Out its PRISM Connected Health Platform

  After a 2-year pilot program, Seattle Children's is expanding its mHealth app and telehealth platform to help more young patients and their families learn how to cope with a serious illness.  Continue Reading

• How CMS Changes, Trump's Executive Order Affect Telehealth Coverage

  Alongside President Trump's call for more rural telehealth coverage, CMS' proposed 2021 Physician Fee Schedule could keep the momentum going for connected health. But is it enough?  Continue Reading

• Student-Based Non-Profit Secures mHealth Donations for Seniors

  Founded by three Yale students and a high school sibling, Telehealth Access to Seniors has given more than 1,100 donated mHealth devices to healthcare providers to distribute to patients who lack access to telehealth services.  Continue Reading

• Expanding the mHealth Platform to Address More Than Just Healthcare

  Pushed by the COVID-19 crisis, health plans like New York's Healthfirst are beefing up their telehealth and mHealth platforms to address a wide variety of member needs - including food.  Continue Reading

• Telehealth Is 'The Best Tool' in the Healthcare Toolbox for FQHCs

  For an FQHC serving an island community off the Maine coast, telehealth gives providers an important platform for addressing not only gaps in care, but other factors that contribute to negative health outcomes.  Continue Reading

• For Senior Facilities, an mHealth Platform is a Good First Step to Telehealth

  Indiana-based CarDon & Associates launched an mHealth messaging platform in January, and is seeing improved care management and coordination as a result.  Continue Reading

• A Small Medical Group Uses Telehealth to Redesign Care Management

  The Reliance Medical Group has launched a Virtual Office that uses remote patient monitoring to care for patients with chronic conditions. Its creator says the telehealth platform may soon eclipse office-based care.  Continue Reading

• mHealth Sensors Help Hospitals Monitor Vitals in In-Patient Units

  Michigan-based Covenant HealthCare is using a telehealth platform to monitor patients in the hospital. The smart bed technology alerts staff to patients in distress, enabling them to take action more quickly.  Continue Reading

• COVID-19 Concerns Add Value to School-Based Telehealth Programs

  School may not be in session, but telehealth programs across the nation are busy addressing the needs of students stuck at home during the pandemic - including a growing number in need of mental health counseling.  Continue Reading

• CareAsOne Aims to Create a Virtual Forum for Telehealth Collaboration

  The new group wants to create an online platform to discuss and share ideas on connected health collaboration.  Continue Reading

• Telehealth Gives a Free Health Clinic a Lifeline to its Patient Population

  The Order of Malta Clinic of Northern California is using a new telehealth platform to improve access and care for thousands of residents in and around Oakland - many of whom have no other access to care.  Continue Reading

• Experts Weigh in on Post-COVID-19 Telehealth Rules and Policies

  Congress and CMS are being inundated with requests to make permanent telehealth guidelines enacted to expand coverage during the coronavirus pandemic. Here's a rundown of what they're requesting.  Continue Reading

• How One Dermatologist Learned to Launch - and Like - Telehealth

  Amy Witt tells Xtelligent Healthcare Media's Healthcare Strategies podcast how she uses a telehealth platform to augment her small Florida practice and give patients a convenient option to in-person visits.  Continue Reading

• For One Georgia Health System, Telehealth is Definitely Here to Stay

  Augusta University Health converted its direct-to-consumer telehealth platform to handle COVID-19 screening. The success of the platform has health system executives planning for a future in connected health.  Continue Reading

• Telehealth Gives Los Angeles LGBT Center a New Platform to Deliver Care

  Pressed by the COVID-19 pandemic to embrace telehealth, the Los Angeles LGBT Center is now finding a comfort zone with virtual care that will likely show benefits well after the current crisis has passed.  Continue Reading

• Virginia's Fauquier Clinic Pivots to mHealth to Expand Access to Care

  With COVID-19 all but shutting its doors, the Fauquier Free Clinic has expanded its successful telemental health platform, giving patients the ability to access care from an mHealth device at home.  Continue Reading

• With COVID-19 Stressing Providers, PAs Lobby for Their Place in Telehealth

  An organization focused on physician assistants in virtual care is launching a membership drive and shining the spotlight on how PAs can be used to ease provider stress and access issues during (and after) COVID-19.  Continue Reading

• In Wyoming, COVID-19 Propels Telehealth From a Luxury to a Necessity

  The nation's least populous state is seeing a surge in telehealth use - thanks in part to Lisa Finkelstein, who says connected health now has to shift its focus to remote monitoring and wellness.  Continue Reading

• With FCC Funding, ChristianaCare Pushes Telehealth, RPM to Patient Homes

  Delaware's ChristianaCare health system, one of the first in the country to receive funding from the FCC's COVID-19 Telehealth Program, is using its grant to expand and strengthen its remote patient monitoring platform.  Continue Reading

• A NYC Telemental Health Clinic Uses mHealth to Gain New Insights Into Care

  Soho MD, a Manhattan-based virtual care practice focusing on teletherapy and telepsychiatry, is using an mHealth wearable to track heart rate and breathing patterns from patients dealing with anxiety and depression.  Continue Reading

• Carr Details FCC's Efforts to Expand Telehealth, mHealth Networks

  In a Healthcare Strategies podcast taped this week, Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr explains how the agency is helping providers launch new telehealth and mHealth programs to address COVID-19 and transition to a connected care model...  Continue Reading

• Standards Group Unveils Telehealth Accreditation for Autism Care Providers

  With the Coronavirus pandemic curtailing in-person treatment, the Behavioral Health Center of Excellence has introduced accreditation standards for providers treating children living with autism.  Continue Reading

• OSF HealthCare Uses Telehealth, RPM to Treat COVID-19 Patients at Home

  The Illinois health system's Pandemic Health Worker (PHW) program uses a remote patient monitoring platform and telehealth tools to manage and treat high-risk and infected patients at home.  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus Grant Gives Massachusetts FQHCs a Chance to Embrace Telehealth

  Community Care Cooperative, an ACO comprised of 19 FQHCs, is using a $1 million grant to expand its telehealth platform to meet demand caused by the Coronavirus pandemic - and to plan a long-term connected health strategy.  Continue Reading

• PTs Seek Medicare Coverage for Telehealth During the Pandemic

  CMS has loosened its telehealth coverage guidelines during the Coronavirus pandemic for a wide range of care providers, but not for PTs, OTs and SLPs. And they're not happy about that.  Continue Reading

• Telehealth Gives Providers a Platform to Treat Children With Special Needs

  With the Coronavirus closing clinics and eliminating home visits, providers are using telehealth to help children with special needs access therapeutic and developmental services - and give their families some comfort.  Continue Reading

• Using Telehealth in a Pandemic: Focus on Flexibility, Scalability

  Executives from three different health systems talk about how they've used telehealth to meet the demands created by the Coronavirus pandemic - and how those services are laying the groundwork for 'the new normal.'  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus Scare Gives Telehealth an Opening to Redefine Healthcare

  With the coronavirus threatening to become a pandemic, health systems and telehealth vendors see this as an opportunity to bring connected health to the forefront - and reshape the future of healthcare.  Continue Reading

• New Clinics Use Telehealth to Bring VR Treatments to the Patient's Home

  This March, payers and care providers in eight states and the District of Columbia will be able to prescribe VR therapy through a telehealth clinic, giving patients the chance to receive treatment at home.  Continue Reading

• Regence Emphasizes Quick Access With New DTC Telehealth Service

  Regence has launched a telehealth platform that promises members access to a doctor within seconds. It's part of a new wave of connected health platforms that puts the emphasis on triage.  Continue Reading

• States Lead the Way in Adapting Telehealth to Meet Mental Health Needs

  Faced with care providers wanting to use telehealth to deliver mental health services and a growing population in need of better access to care, state medical boards are taking the lead in crafting telemental health guidelines.  Continue Reading

• A Telehealth Project in Cleveland Combines Hair Care and Healthcare

  A handful of urban barbershops in Cleveland are using telehealth to test patrons for hypertension, part of a new program designed to bring mHealth monitoring directly to an at-risk population.  Continue Reading

• Providence St. Joseph Gives DTC Telehealth a Boost With Video Care

  The multi-state health system has launched ExpressCare Virtual, a direct-to-consumer telehealth service that gives consumers on-demand access to providers through an audio-visual platform.  Continue Reading

• UPMC Uses Telehealth to Help New Moms Dealing With Hypertension

  Two years after launching a remote patient monitoring program for new mothers dealing with hypertension, UPMC is looking at lessons learned and making plans to expand the telehealth platform.  Continue Reading

• Rhode Island Hospital Tests mHealth Wearable to Track Eating Habits

  The Miriam Hospital is using an mHealth wearable designed at the University of Alabama to monitor patients' eating habits in a clinical trial that could someday help providers with chronic care management.  Continue Reading

• Lowell General Hospital Turns Amazon's Alexa Into an mHealth Coach

  The Massachusetts Hospital has partnered with mHealth company Frontive to create a connected health platform that helps patients with care management tasks both before and after their hospital stay.  Continue Reading

• MAVEN Project CEO Links Telehealth Consults to Value-Based Care

  At Xtelligent Healthcare Media's recent Value-Based Care Summit in Boston, Lisa Bard Levine explained how the MAVEN Project's telehealth consult platform helps providers improve clinical outcomes and their workflows.  Continue Reading

• How eConsults Could Transform Care Coordination and Access

  eConsults could improve care coordination and reduce costs, but adopting the telemedicine service will require changes in communication and practice, experts at the Value-Based Care Summit said.  Continue Reading

• Asynchronous Telehealth Gives Providers An Alternative to DTC Video

  At this month's Value-Based Care Summit on Telehealth, noted telehealth attorney Nate Lacktman explained why asynchronous - or store-and-forward - telehealth could be poised to take over the direct-to-consumer market.  Continue Reading

• Telemedicine Helps Hospitals Gain Infectious Disease Expertise

  Infectious disease specialists are few and far between, yet every hospital needs their expertise on a regular basis. Telemedicine technology is making that possible, especially for smaller and rural providers.  Continue Reading

• Intermountain Touts the Successes of its NICU Telehealth Program

  Intermountain Healthcare's NICU telehealth program, launched in 2012, is reducing transfers and saving money. It's also improving outcomes for infants, reducing stress on parents and helping rural caregivers improve their skills.  Continue Reading

• Debating the Pros And Cons of Licensure Compacts for Telehealth

  Experts explain why licensure compacts are good or bad and how they may affect telehealth.  Continue Reading