Telehealth not only has the ability to increase convenience and improve care for remote patients, it also improves emergency department throughput, and ultimately can reduce potentially avoidable admissions.

While telemedicine capabilities are some of the most exciting existing in healthcare today, inconsistent reimbursement standards continue to hinder successful program adoption. Challenges continue in navigating the state-level variability in regulations and capturing procedures to receive the appropriate compensation and reimbursement. Because of its potential, it is crucial for organizations implementing telehealth to work closely with legislators and insurance companies to ensure reimbursement occurs in a timely and effective manner. Fortunately, the growing interest in implementing telehealth solutions has prioritized reimbursement evolution.

The purpose of this paper is to review the current landscape of telehealth reimbursement and provide insight into strategies for dealing with the complex regulatory environment. For example, when we asked a renown Academic Medical Center in Dallas about its telemedicine capabilities, they give a semi-standard response: “We would like to offer more, but billing is a significant challenge.” We’ll also take a deeper dive and show how one particular organization’s telehealth services are functioning like a well-oiled machine.

Download our Tactical Report on Telehealth Reimbursement >

While the major shift from inpatient to ambulatory care is allowing healthcare systems to remain at the forefront of medicine, it also creates significant challenges with respect to reimbursement, revenue, and patient volume. Exacerbating those challenges, there isn’t a “one size fits all” ambulatory strategy. Just as there is no single type of consumer, there is no single right or highest use of an ambulatory facility. Every patient is unique in how they want to interact with a health institution. And technology, digital solutions, experience, and patient expectations all play a role in their interactions.

In order to build a successful ambulatory strategy, health systems need to approach ambulatory care similar to how a chef approaches a recipe. While you may start with the same ingredients, the different amounts and ways in which they are mixed together will create very different results. It is essential for health systems to identify those ingredients, and then combine them strategically to create the successful recipe that matches their patients’ expectations.

Our ambulatory care team understands the many questions this “recipe” may pose for an organization, which is why our approach recognizes the uniqueness of each health system – targeting our efforts to identify ambulatory marketing opportunities and tailor solutions that correlate with each client’s definition of value.

We recently created a report that outlines the four major categories of ambulatory influencers and defines the building blocks for an ambulatory care site, to guide healthcare systems in tailoring an ambulatory strategy to their own unique brand of healthcare delivery.

READ OUR REPORT – PERSPECTIVES AND FUTURES IN AMBULATORY CARE >