Push To Adopt Telehealth In Home Health Will Continue In 2006, USA

Main Category: Caregivers / Homecare
Article Date: 15 Jan 2006 - 19:00 PDT

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During 2006, CMS will continue a push toward telehealth for home health agencies (HHAs). CMS has made the Quality Improvement Organizations (QIO) responsible for a number of goals in working with home health agencies in the 8th Statement of Work that began last August. These goals are: reducing the rate of hospitalization; increasing the rate of influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations; transforming corporate culture; and integrating telehealth into home health agencies' services. AAHomecare is working with other organizations, including the American Telemedicine Association, to foster policies that facilitate the adoption of telehealth by home health agencies.

AAHomecare has supported the concept of a telehealth encounter counting as a home health visit under certain circumstances, development of HCPCS codes to use on the home health claim, allowing providers to report telehealth as a reimbursable cost on the home health agency cost report, and reimbursement for the equipment. AAHomecare has collected a number of homecare telehealth success stories demonstrating cost savings to health care systems and the clinical effectiveness of home based telehealth programs. These successful programs tend to focus on congestive heart failure and COPD patients in particular. The savings have accrued to Medicare, Medicaid, insurers, and health care systems more than to home health agencies who have implemented them.

The effectiveness of telehealth, combined with skilled nurse management and evidence based best practices, is demonstrated by a dramatic decrease in the number of hospitalizations and emergency room visits and in reduced hospital length of stay. HHAs have found that telehealth complements - but does not replace - their other services. It facilitates more timely visits based on patient need. Telehealth encounters can consist of collecting and monitoring of clinical data by the HHA nurse (the data may be simultaneously provided to the physician), and can also include interactive real-time video encounters between the nurse and patient.

For resources on effective integration of telehealth into homecare, go to the MedQIC website below. Once in, click on "home health agencies" on the left side and then on "telehealth."
medqic.org/dcs/ContentServer?pagename=Medqic/MQPage.

American Association for Homecare
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Suite 200
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VA 22314
USA
http://www.aahomecare.org

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