Telehealth Set For 'Tsunami of Growth,' Says Frost & Sullivan - Remote Care Partners

5/26/2020 Telehealth set for 'tsunami of growth,' says Frost & Sullivan - Remote Care Partners
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Telehealth set for ‘tsunami of growth,’ says Frost & Sullivan

May 18, 2020
As the global COVID-19 Pandemic rages on, confusion continues about such terms as
Remote Patient Care, Telemedicine, and Remote Patient Monitoring
Remote Patient Care
The goal of Remote Care is to provide as much health care service as possible without
the patient visiting the o ce. For some, they think of this as nothing more than a
traditional video chat session between the provider and the patient, conducted over an
existing video chat service. Even just a few years ago Health Affairs made little
distinction between Remote Care Management and telehealth. However, Remote Care
has grown well beyond the simple video chat. It now encompasses Remote Patient
Monitoring as well as automated surveys, interactive messaging and custom care
https://www.remotecarepartners.com/telehealth-set-for-tsunami-of-growth-says-frost-sullivan/ 1/11
plans to help providers spot trends that, if left un-noticed, could result in hospitalization
or death.
Advances in Telehealth
Telehealth has moved well beyond the simple video chat session conducted over a
commercially available service. Dr. John Waits of Cahaba Medical Care in Bibb County,
Alabama states, ““The easiest thing to do would be to FaceTime everybody, but it’s not
as secure.” There is also an issue with exposing a doctor’s cell number to patients. “If
I’m off call for a week, I don’t want them leaving voicemails on my cell phone if they
have chest pain.”
Comprehensive services address the complex system of work ows, privacy

regulations and billing processes that need to be effectively managed to make
telehealth work. Clinicians must have a way to properly track and notify patients of
telehealth visits, whether they are “instant” or “on-demand” appointments, or if they are
scheduled in the future. Mechanisms need to be developed to track patients as they
arrive at their telehealth appointments and that allow them to see multiple clinicians at
one time or move between clinicians for various consultations. They also need the
familiar “post-exam” consultation where they receive follow-up instructions and book
their next appointment.
All this activity must be properly recorded and coded so that the provider can submit to
CMS or the private insurer for proper reimbursement.
Interactive Monitoring
This is one of the newer applications of technology that helps patients manage their
health between visits to their provider. Pre-scheduled surveys (either by voice or by
text) ask questions of the patient to monitor their condition. During the recent COVID-
19 pandemic, systems would call patients every day and ask them questions such as,
“Are you coughing more than usual today?” or “Do you feel out of breath, even when
sitting still?” Monitoring the answers and alerting clinicians when answers fall outside
of the expected range is key to enabling providers to be pro-active in their treatment.
Remote Patient Monitoring
As networking technology has improved, it is now possible to place devices in a

patient’s home that report measurements directly back to a cloud-based system. This
can be done even if the patient has no in-home network or any technical knowledge.
With multiple, machine-reported readings per day, providers can even manage
medication and other complex issues without the patient having to come to the o ce.
Billing and Reimbursement
The recent economic downturn has hit businesses in every sector. Healthcare
providers have not been immune to this. They face both the problem of reduced o ce
visits and the complexity of getting reimbursed for out-of-o ce services.
Dr. Christopher Adams, a rheumatologist at East Alabama Medical Center put it rather
succinctly, “The telehealth reimbursement is tragic.” Rural areas in Alabama are
particularly hard hit, since prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, there was no system in
place in Alabama to pay for telemedicine visits for primary care.
As Remote Care reimbursement is rolled out, many primary care physicians didn’t get
much time to roll out a telemedicine service. “Our whole healthcare system for 70, 80
years is designed around coming into the doctor’s o ce, and now in a weekend we
were trying to implement this thing we’d normally spend 18 months rolling out,” said
Waits.
While many practices have recently attempted to roll-out Remote Care programs on
their own, the reality is that it is just not that simple.
The infrastructure needed for a workable, widely adopted telemedicine system “simply
did not exist” in Alabama prior to coronavirus, said Dr. Adams.
“From my personal experience, we tried two different ways of doing it before our
medical center IT department said to heck with it, we’re going to contract this out to a
third party.”
Remote Care Partners
Remote Care Partners has a comprehensive set of services that answer the needs of
providers who are still struggling with the complexity of rolling out Remote Care. Visit
www.remotecarepartners.com to get more information or request a demonstration.
With the COVID-19 pandemic having already set the stage for a
massive increase in telehealth consults, the research rm sees an even
bigger future – as demand for one-stop virtual visits and remote
patient monitoring grows as much as seven-fold.

Telehealth is more in demand than ever during the coronavirus crisis, and a new report from Frost & Sullivan suggests its
uptake will increase by 64.3% nationwide this year, given the disruptions of COVID-19.
But in the years ahead, virtual care and remote monitoring should truly take off, according to the report.

WHY IT MATTERS
According to the study, Telehealth: A Technology-Based Weapon in the War Against the Coronavirus, 2020, researchers
predict that the pandemic will continue to reshape care delivery – and open big opportunities for virtual care in the near
term future.
Frost & Sullivan forecasts a seven-fold growth in telehealth by 2025 – a ve-year compound annual growth rate of 38.2%.
This poses huge opportunities and challenges for providers and vendors alike. Among researchers’ predictions: more
user-friendly sensors and remote diagnostic equipment, enabling better patient outcomes. They also see more practical
applications of AI and robotics, with advancements such as interactive virtual assistants enabling more opportunities for
care.
Frost & Sullivan also sees more mature deployments analytics, both now, during the COVID-19 emergency, and in the
future; better adherence to cybersecurity and privacy regulations and measurable data that shows telehealth’s ROI –
in uencing even more lasting regulatory changes, beyond than the expansions, enforcement
discretion and allowances during the pandemic.

THE LARGER TREND
The research report’s forecasts of enormous growth are borne out by some real-world stats, such as the ones seen
recently at NYU Langone. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Informatics Association, virtual
urgent care visits at the health system grew by 683%, and non-urgent virtual-care visits grew by a staggering 4,345%
percent between March 2 and April 14.
“We will never go back to 50 [telehealth] visits a day,” said NYU Langone CMIO Dr. Paul Testa. “That genie’s out of the
bottle.”
At MedStar Health, meanwhile, the volume went from about two daily telehealth visits to 4,150 in just two months, with
the health system rapidly rolling out tech that has enabled 100,000 virtual visits between March 13 and May 1.
Consumer opinions are changing too: Almost three-quarters of patients polled for one recent survey said they’d consider
using telehealth to be remotely screened for COVID-19, and two-thirds said the pandemic has increased their willingness
to try virtual care.

ON THE RECORD
“The critical need for social distancing among physicians and patients will drive unprecedented demand for telehealth,
which involves the use of communication systems and networks to enable either a synchronous or asynchronous session
between the patient and provider,” said Victor Camlek, Healthcare Principal Analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
He noted, however, that more education is needed: “Not all stakeholders need to remember that many people use the
terms ‘telehealth’ or ‘telemedicine’ without understanding the ecosystem that is involved.”
Going forward, he predicted, “virtual visits and remote patient monitoring will propel the overall market of telehealth,
followed by mHealth and personal emergency response systems. Further, patients will bene t if data from RPM is fully
available to virtual visit providers. This trend will demonstrate the bene t of integrated services. The trauma resulting
from the COVID-19 crisis will lead to a clear growth opportunity for one-stop virtual visit and RPM solutions.”

This article originally appeared at https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/telehealth-set-tsunami-growth-says-frost-

sullivan
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Telehealth set for ‘tsunami of growth,’ says Frost & Sullivan
REMOTE PATIENT CARE MOVES BEYOND TELEMEDICINE
RCP Board Member Buddy Ortale appointed to board of Waitr Holdings
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5/26/2020 Telehealth set for 'tsunami of growth,' says Frost & Sullivan - Remote Care Partners

1-855-686-1000 COV ID -1 9 LOGIN P RO DUCT TRAINING

Telehealth set for ‘tsunami of growth,’ says Frost & Sullivan

Remote Patient Care

Comprehensive services address the complex system of work ows, privacy

Remote Patient Monitoring

As networking technology has improved, it is now possible to place devices in a

Billing and Reimbursement

Remote Care Partners

This article originally appeared at https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/telehealth-set-tsunami-growth-says-frost-

Telehealth set for ‘tsunami of growth,’ says Frost & Sullivan

REMOTE PATIENT CARE MOVES BEYOND TELEMEDICINE

RCP Board Member Buddy Ortale appointed to board of Waitr Holdings

205 South Hoover Blvd, Suite 203

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