Telemedicine has been thrust upon the American healthcare system in 2020 due to coronavirus. It is something that was inevitably coming; yet, doctors’ offices wished they could have had a little more warning to be able to implement into their traditional workflow. There are many impacts on doctors around payment levels, technology and security that actually have some consideration in implementing virtual care such as telemedicine. We are here today to encourage telemedicine and convince you of its future profitability beyond simple video check-ins to truly transforming your practice to focus on virtual care in a variety of ways.
Not only is telehealth convenient for patients, there are also reasons why your medical practice will actually make more money using telemedicine services:
- Eliminating Wasted Appointments: Every minute counts at a busy practice. When there are patients that don’t show up, there may be a cancelation fee, but the cost of them not completing their visit is more than that fee covers. Every second wasted is a second the doctor could have spent with another patient. With video consults, within the first 60-seconds, if the patient is not there, the doctor can cancel the call and hop onto the next one. Now that payors are reimbursing for eConsults, you can actually get reimbursed for working with your patients asynchronously, so there are multiple opportunities throughout the month to make sure patients complete their ‘visit’
- Recapturing Valuable Billable Time: All of the time spent at doctor’s offices dealing with calls, appointment scheduling, and prescription refills can be put towards more valuable engagements. Those billable hours can be used to improve patient flow, offer more services, or come with other value-added options that can make particular offices more alluring to patients. With virtual care solutions like Welby Health, much of that work can be automated. Once you have patients into a digital channel, so much information can be captured electronically that is eliminates the need for much of that manual work from office staff.
- New Patient Consideration: Within AHA research, it shows that the majority of Americans would be more than happy to try telemedicine for minor ailments. That means that offering this kind of virtual care will make it more likely that new patients will call and sign up with your services. It’s all about convenience at the end of the day. Another great benefit of virtual care is that it can expand your practice into locations that you may not traditionally look for new patients. Now that patients can be managed remotely, not just for check-ins but also management for chronic conditions like diabetes, they are looking beyond just their local communities for healthcare providers.
- After Care Costs: Many times, patients can suck up hours of free billable time to call after an appointment and ask questions. Since your patients are now on a digital platform, much of that follow up work can be sent electronically without the need for any of your staff time. Confirmation of follow up visits, medication management and post visit follow up can now all be automated and pushed to your patients’ phones. This makes follow up care more convenient for patients and more cost effective for doctors.
- Accommodate Last Second Appointments: In the past, doctors offices were not able to accommodate same day appointments. People had to wait, at least, until the next day to check in and receive help. In that time, they may have just opted for urgent care or a hospital visit. With telemedicine, doctors can squeeze 10-20 patients in that day who didn’t previously have an appointment, and still be able to collect reimbursement for those last minute appointments..
Telemedicine Services Increase Clinic Revenue
If telemedicine mobile apps intimidate you or your staff, know that they stand to increase your yearly revenue immensely. These five points are just a simple synopsis of what this kind of technology can do for your practice moving into the future. It’s time to get in on the potential revenue.
