HIPAA Compliant Primary Care Telehealth
As a primary care physician, you’ve witnessed some huge shifts and transformations in both how patients participate in their own healthcare and how physicians are expected to operate and interact with patients. The movement towards value-based purchasing and an increased rise in consumerism has created an environment where your practice is expected to focus on the management of the health of populations, higher-quality care, improved prevention, and a more careful consideration of resource utilization and expenditures.
Primary care telehealth is a highly effective way to help your practice meet the demands of this evolving healthcare landscape, build and manage stronger relationships with patients and drive your practice’s overall profitability. With access to primary care services further restricted by Covid-19 stay-at-home orders, primary care physicians are realizing that primary care telehealth is a “must-have” for the sustained growth of their practice and the improvement of patients’ lives.
How Primary Care Telehealth can improve your practice
Primary care telehealth, using a simple-to-use, cloud-based and compliant platform like HIPAA Video, can improve your practice by helping you manage costs and drive profitability, expanding access to a larger pool of patients, simplifying your schedule and workflows, and improving patient relationships in ways that weren’t possible before.
Boost your practice’s revenue
Primary care physicians used to be reimbursed solely for the services they delivered to patients at the time they visited the doctor’s office. But they also spent a lot of time making phone calls to patients to discuss test results, answer patient health questions and many other services, for which they weren’t reimbursed…until now. Using primary care telehealth you can bill for what used to be uncompensated phone calls by transferring all of these services to an easy-to-use, compliant primary care telehealth platform such as HIPAA Video, boosting your practice’s revenue. Primary care telehealth also empowers physicians to extend their patient base beyond brick-and-mortar facilities by extending practice hours and capturing more billable time.
Monitor chronic conditions
Patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity need to communicate regularly with their physicians to help manage their conditions. Primary care telehealth is an ideal way to set up frequent check-ins with these patients to discuss important test results, manage medications, monitor the adoption of preventative strategies and more. You can stay closely connected to patients and stay up to speed on their progress while reserving your in-office appointment hours for patients who absolutely must be seen in-person. The HIPAA Video primary care telehealth platform provides simple and efficient calendar scheduling tools to help streamline setting up these frequent check-ins.
Easily handle minor medical issues
Primary care telehealth makes it easy for physicians to handle patients with minor medical issues that don’t necessarily need to be treated in-person. Physicians can now easily conduct exams and diagnose minor issues such as stomach ailments or rashes without having to take up valuable in-office time and resources. A robust primary care telehealth platform such as HIPAA Video provides physicians with high-quality HD Video and simple, but powerful functionalities that make it easy to accurately diagnose common medical issues.
Increase patient access to care
Many patients face barriers to accessing the care they need. Long commuting distances for patients in rural areas, mobility issues due to specific conditions and lack of transportation options can all be factors that prevent patients from getting to a primary care facility. Primary care telehealth removes these barriers by bringing the primary care experience directly to patients. HIPAA Video, with its simple-to-adopt primary care telehealth platform provides patients who have accessibility issues with a viable remote solution.
Teach preventive self-care and provide wellness coaching
Helping patient populations lead healthy lifestyles in order to prevent health conditions has become an important focus for primary care physicians. Primary care telehealth is an excellent way for physicians to teach patients how to engage in self-care in between clinical visits. Whether it’s creating plans for healthy eating, guidance on stress reduction, weight management tips or many other wellness practices, physicians can use primary care telehealth to deliver this important education and coaching to patients in a highly cost efficient way. HIPAA Video’s platform, which includes robust chat functionalities, screen sharing and session recording capabilities, also allows you to give patients always-on access to important wellness and self-care educational resources.
Decrease office overhead costs
For many primary care physicians, office rental costs have made up a large chunk of their overhead expenses, particularly in larger cities. Primary care telehealth gives you the option of reducing the use of an office, which can help reduce this monthly expenditure. This can greatly boost profitability while also giving you the comfort of working from your own home or preferred space. HIPAA Video also gives therapists easy options to add office assistants to office workflows, decreasing the need for in-person, front desk support, further driving down overhead costs.
Include at-home caregivers in appointments
An estimated 53 million people are informal caregivers in the United States and they make up an important part of patient intervention teams. Primary care telehealth allows physicians to partner with one or more at-home caregivers to provide guidance on medicine management, instruction on preventative strategies, solve problems in real time and optimize daily habits and routines.
Reduce scheduling mishaps and no-shows
You’ve been there. You have a patient in your calendar for Thursday but his calendar has the appointment for Wednesday. Now the patient has no alternative time and you have to scramble to fill up the empty slot. HIPAA Video helps you avoid these headaches by providing integrated calendar tools that help with accurate scheduling and automatic appointment reminders, both of which reduce no-shows by up to 30%.
Improve practice workflow efficiency
Primary care telehealth shouldn’t complicate the day-to-day operations of your practice. The right telehealth platform will provide easy-to-use features that seamlessly integrate into your existing workflows and software tools. HIPAA Video integrates (via API) with EMR/EHR (Electronic Medical Records) and popular practice management software so you can add HIPAA compliant telehealth easily to your existing office management platform(s). HIPAA Video also allows physicians to easily add an assistant to the primary care telehealth workflow which can help reduce your workload. They can assist with scheduling appointments, managing the lobby, and adding updates, allowing you to focus on delivering quality care to the patient.
Adhere to state-mandated Covid-19 social distancing guidelines
Many states now have social distancing rules in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic which make it difficult to see patients in a physical office. Primary care telehealth is a reliable alternative that allows you to continue seeing patients while adhering to these state mandates. HIPAA Video’s platform is cloud-based and easy to use meaning you can get up and running quickly with your clients in a way that’s compliant with state-mandated guidelines.
What are the benefits of primary care telehealth for patients?
Patients have high expectations when it comes to healthcare. They are looking for more convenient, high-quality healthcare options from physicians who are responsive and great at building strong relationships. As a primary care physician, you definitely don’t want to add complexity to their lives by deciding to use a complicated primary care telehealth platform. HIPAA Video provides benefits to your patients by removing any additional burdens for them that might get in the way of improvement through a platform that everyone, no matter how tech savvy, will find easy to use.
Convenience and cost savings
For parents and busy professionals, the hassle of battling traffic, finding parking and sometimes finding childcare are all huge headaches associated with in-person primary care appointments. Primary care telehealth cuts out all of these issues, makes accessing care far more convenient, giving patients one less thing to worry about.
Greater access to to primary care services
Primary care telehealth can be a dream come true for patients in less populated areas, who may lack transportation or who suffer from mobility issues and end up without access to the healthcare services they need. Primary care telehealth opens up access to primary care services in ways that were not possible before. Patients can also be in the comfort of their own home or any other environment they choose, so long as they have their preferred device handy.
No more time spent in waiting rooms
Sick patients are already feeling miserable and sitting in waiting rooms just makes them feel worse. Primary care telehealth gives patients the option to completely avoid waiting rooms by attending appointments remotely. With HIPAA Video, patients simply log-into appointments with a link and if they need to wait, they do so in their own home. Primary care telehealth also means that patients who are already sick don’t need to worry about contracting or transferring germs to or from patients in waiting rooms.
Easier involvement for at-home caregivers
Primary care telehealth also provides a seamless way for patients to involve their at-home caregivers in their appointments. Many patients who rely on at-home caregivers to help manage medications or implement preventative routines can use primary care telehealth to make sure patients, physicians and at-home caregivers are all on the same page.
Protection during the Covid-19 pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced patients to balance their healthcare needs with the need to stay safe and socially distant. HIPAA Video’s cloud-based primary care telehealth platform provides a simple interface that requires no training or downloads and works with any device and operating system, so patients can easily transition to primary care telehealth without any headaches.
Avoid frustrating schedule mishaps
Scheduling mishaps can cause major disruptions to your patient’s well-being as well to their progress. HIPAA Video provides integrated calendar tools and alerts that help patients avoid schedule mishaps or conflicts, ensuring that patients continue to reap the benefits of their therapy.
What are the challenges of primary care telehealth?
Results of randomised controlled trials indicate high client acceptance and positive outcomes with this method of delivering primary care. Nonetheless, doctors wishing to deliver primary care by telemedicine face a number of challenges.
Lacking the personal touch
Not all conditions can be diagnosed accurately through a screen. While a rash or difficulty breathing can be diagnosed through primary care telehealth, many conditions will require a physical exam to get to the heart of the issue. Additionally, many patients are not convinced that primary care telehealth can truly substitute for the rapport built between physicians and patients during in-person visits.
Here’s the reality: Primary care telehealth isn’t necessarily something that all physicians will want to transition into entirely, particularly given the variety of conditions that primary care physicians deal with. Patients with more complicated issues will still require physical exams to treat their conditions.
Most physicians and patients, however, can take full advantage of a hybrid approach between in-person primary care appointments and primary care telehealth. Physicians can also complement in-person visits by offering all the benefits of primary care telehealth like the monitoring of patients with chronic conditions, handling minor medical issues and making more wellness and preventative resources readily available to patients.
Use of diagnostic instruments
Scheduling mishaps can cause major disruptions to your patient’s well-being as well to their progress. HIPAA Video provides integrated calendar tools and alerts that help patients avoid schedule mishaps or conflicts, ensuring that patients continue to reap the benefits of their therapy.
Lack of patient privacy at home
Primary care telehealth provides patients with the benefit of participating in appointments from the comfort of their own home. But many patients struggle to find a quiet, private space in their home so that sensitive medical conversations are often within earshot of parents, roommates, partners, children and others.
In these situations, patients may end up logging into sessions from locations with poor internet signals such as their cars, garages, outdoor decks and patios which can result in choppy or dropped sessions. For these patients, physicians can open up extended hours, providing patients with the option to schedule their sessions during less than ideal times that allow for more privacy with access to a strong internet signal.
Common primary care telehealth FAQs
How does primary care telehealth work with insurance?
Reimbursement across Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurance varies. Please visit the following sites for for more detailed information and resources:
My patients are all currently residing all over the United States due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Will primary care telehealth allow me to continue providing services to them?
Generally speaking, your patient must participate in primary care telehealth appointments from the state/jurisdiction where you have a license. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however, many state licensing boards have loosened certain practicing restrictions which may provide you with more flexibility in terms of where your patients can be located when receiving treatment. We recommend that you check with your state’s licensing board and/or the American Medical Association’s (AMA) website to understand the specific changes.
I’ve never done telehealth and I’m worried about coming across as cold through a screen. Do you have any tips?
Many therapists are rethinking their “bedside manner” as they turn toward telehealth. While speaking through a screen can’t ever replicate in-person interactions, there are certain basic tips to consider as you begin to conduct occupational therapy telehealth sessions.
- Practice in front of the web camera: Speaking to a camera doesn’t
come naturally to everyone. You might find it helpful to have a few practice sessions to get used to being on camera before fully diving into
teletherapy. - Pay even more attention to eye contact: It’s easy to get distracted
when you’re sitting in front of your computer so it’s even more important
that you pay attention to maintaining eye contact when speaking and
listening through the computer camera. - Maintain the right environment: You’ve put effort into making your physical office a safe, comfortable and relaxing space for your patients. Take the same approach with your teletherapy location. Maintain a background that is professional, uncluttered and calm and keep yourself well-lit and visible during sessions.
HIPAA Video Capabilities for
Primary Care telehealth
- 5.0 from 5 reviews
- 2021-02-10
Susan Blum, LCSW, New York, NY.
I am thrilled with how robust and simple the system is, and with the clarity of both the video and the audio transmission. Best by far of any platform I've tried! I know this will enhance my practice, and I am very grateful to you and to the rest of the team for doing all the behind the scene work so that we therapists can focus on our patient.
- 2021-02-07
Dr Bob Goldberg, New York, NY.
It probably goes without saying that this experience was completely different from my outreach to Zoom to learn more about their HIPAA-compliant platform. It's been over a week since I got a form email from them saying that someone would be back in touch with me "as soon as possible." Not holding my breath… Any colleagues I speak to have found Zoom to be confusing and/or unresponsive. All this, for Zoom's outrageous charge of $200/month.
- 2021-02-07
Dr. Stephanie Wellon, M. Ed, PA
I am forever grateful for the day that I made contact with you by phone. It was to my surprise (amid a public health crisis due to Covid -19) that I was able to actually speak with a live person that is and after scurrying through many websites and contacts to inquire about tele-counseling options to support the students in our school district.
- 2020-09-01
Dr. Efi Inyang, Clinton, MD.
Thank you for helping us to make a smooth transition to HipaaVideo with the sudden change we had to make in light of the Corona virus pandemic. Our clinicians are able to hold their therapy sessions and the doctor is able to see her patients for medication management with ease. It is also great that your system is Hipaa compliant. We are already recommending HipaaVideo to others and will continue to highly recommend it.
- 2020-04-08
Dr. Terry Martin & Bob Cayne Scottsdale, AZ.
HIPAAVIDEO.NET fits perfectly with our digital practice, NoCouchTherapy.com that conducts telehealth sessions globally. Thank you, Frank and Marlene.