The use of telehealth services is expanding rapidly – driven both by patient demand and provider-to-provider interactions. Over 800,000 web-based clinical visits were made in 2015. It is predicted that there will be 7 million telehealth encounters of all types by 2018.
As fast as this industry segment is growing, there are few performance benchmarks, thresholds, and measurements. There is a need for shared expectations for safe prescribing, uniform evaluations of effectiveness, and agreed upon professional practice compliance standards. Telehealth opponents fear lower quality of care, lack of continuity, and privacy risks; thus telehealth stakeholders are seeking pathways to greater acceptance by policy-makers and payers. Advocates say telehealth makes geography irrelevant.
In addition to expanding consumer access, telehealth brings the promise of more effective and efficient use of resources in both primary and specialty care. The conversation surrounding added enhancements in care delivery through technology-enabled practice includes ways to address not only consumer protections, but also improving patient-provider communications, safe medication management, patient participation in self-management, and coordination of care.
Join us on Wednesday, October 26 2016, noon-1:30 pm for a free URAC-hosted webinar, Panel Discussion: Challenges and Outlook for Telehealth in the Changing Healthcare Economy, and discover what these top telehealth experts envision for the future of telehealth, the challenges that telehealth providers face, how accreditation may help strengthen these organizations, and more.
The last 30 minutes of the webinar will be dedicated to a live Q&A session, in which you’ll get a chance to ask questions directly to any of the panel members.
Speakers
Robert Bernstein, MD, MPH
Robert is vice president for clinical affairs at Carena, Inc., a nationally recognized provider of virtual clinics for health system clients. Dr. Bernstein, a long-time family practice physician, is a pioneer in creating and advancing standards for delivering quality virtual care. He created Carena’s Virtual Practice Guidelines and oversees the company’s Quality Assurance Program.
Adam D. Romney
Adam a partner at the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, supports healthcare providers in areas including telemedicine services and technology; complex healthcare regulatory, reimbursement, and compliance; and clinically integrated networks, ACOs, bundled payments and other innovative payment models.
Deborah Smith, MN, RN-BC
Deborah, a vice president at URAC, spearheaded the design of the telehealth accreditation standards.
URAC’s Telehealth Accreditation is the first independent, third-party national program to offer comprehensive oversight of diverse telehealth programs. URAC also offers Telehealth Vendor Certification for vendors that provide services, including software platforms that support the capabilities of URAC-accredited companies. Click here to learn more.