The California Department of Healthcare Services has policies for teleheath that align with the California Telehealth Advancement Act of 2011 for all healthcare providers in California, including Medicare and Medicare beneficiaries. According to the American Telemedicine Association’s 2016 50 State Telemedicine Gaps Analysis, “Patients and health care providers may encounter a patchwork of arbitrary insurance requirements and disparate payment streams that do not allow them to fully take advantage of telemedicine.” Insurance coverage for telemedicine consultsĮach state varies on regulations and reimbursement in regard to the use of telemedicine. Payment and coverage for services delivered via telemedicine are some of the biggest challenges for telemedicine adoption. The physician must meet the same state guidelines as if you were seeing him or her in their physician office for are regular visit. Yes, in most cases a physician can prescribe a sleep study or CPAP therapy through a telemedicine consultation. Remote CPAP usage monitoring (now required by many insurance companies, learn more here)Ĭan a physician prescribe a sleep study or CPAP from a telemedicine session?.Follow-ups with respiratory therapists or technologists to help patients with on-going compliance, mask fittings and device troubleshooting.Consults directly between a patient and a sleep specialist (referred by the PCP or self-referred).Consults between a patient and his primary care physician and the sleep specialist to assess a suspected sleep disorder.What does telemedicine for sleep disorders look like? Learn more about online resources for CPAP support here.
This includes online support groups that provide peer-to-peer support. Using the internet and wireless devices for consumers to get specialized health information. Remote CPAP (sleep apnea therapy, learn more here) compliance monitoring falls under this (learn more about how this works here). Examples are measuring vital signs like blood glucose or heart ECG for home-bound patients. Uses devices to remotely collect and send data to a healthcare provider for interpretation. It may involve sharing images, files or other data such as an x-ray or photos.
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This may involve a primary care doctor or other healthcare professional consulting directly with a patient or with another physician or specialist about that patient’s care. Some examples of the services provided and the mechanisms used to provide those services are: Primary care and specialist referral servicesĭoctor-to-doctor or doctor-to-patient. Telemedicine is not a separate medical specialty but can be used to electronically communicate or deliver clinical care for a wide spectrum of specialties from dermatology to psychiatric care. It has since expanded rapidly with improvements in technology and dropping prices for technology for both healthcare providers and patients. Telemedicine started out over 40 years ago in hospitals trying to reach patients in remote areas. Telemedicine is defined as the use of telecommunications technology such as telephone, email, two-way video such as Skype and other tools to exchange medical information. If telemedicine can increase access to specialists, can it help the millions of undiagnosed Americans suffering with sleep apnea and other sleep disorders? Telemedicine has been embraced by primary care physicians in rural areas who struggle to arrange for specialist consultations for their patients who have limited access due to the cost or convenience of traveling to the major cities where these specialists usually reside. Telemedicine was a hot topic at this year’s Sleep conference, a joint meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, in Denver, Colorado.
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