COVID-19 Funds Help Kansas Health Centers Expand Telehealth Services

The Community Care Network of Kansas is distributing more than 44,000 connected health devices to 18 community health centers around the state to help expand a telehealth program serving thousands of underserved residents.

The organization, which oversees dozens of federally qualified health centers and look-alikes as well as community-based primary care clinics and rural health clinics, received $3 million in coronavirus relief funds from the state for the purchase of mHealth-enabled blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters, thermometers, glucometers and scales.

They’ll be used to help care providers at the community health centers improve care management for patients with chronic care needs. Officials say the network saw more 80,000 patients in 2019 who fit that profile, and many of them have curtailed or avoided necessary care because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“While COVID-19 underscored the importance of increasing telehealth capabilities, growing these services will benefit Kansans long after the pandemic is over,” Governor Laura Kelly said in a press release issued earlier this month. “I’m pleased that Community Care has used these Coronavirus Relief Funds to bolster telehealth services and increase access to health care for all Kansas.”

Community health centers, FQHCs and RHCs are often the sole source of healthcare for underserved populations. Propelled by emergency measures enacted during the public health crisis that expand access to and coverage of telehealth, they’re using new tools and platforms to reach patients in their homes.

They’ll need to prove the value of those services in the long run, as the emergency measures will end with the pandemic, putting back in place federal guidelines that restrict how these centers use and are reimbursed for telehealth services. Telehealth advocates are hoping that Congress passes legislation before then that would give the centers more opportunities to use telehealth.

“It truly gives you an opportunity to meet patients where they are, especially when you’re talking about underserved populations who face a number of challenges to get access to care,” Trish Harkness, a health information technology and systems specialist with the organization, said in the press release.

Denise Cyzman, the organization’s CEO, said they’d originally hoped to reach 10,000 people through the program. The size of the donation means they’ll be helping many more.

“Based on the blood pressure monitor order alone, 21,147 patients could benefit,” she said in the press release.