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Hello ,
For many if not all of us the past couple of weeks have been surreal on a number of fronts. The ever-increasing number of newly infected patients. The somber pictures from New York City. The literally un-be-lie-va-ble rapid-fire regulatory and legislative changes making it possible to virtually see any patient anywhere for almost anything.
Today’s newsletter is a little bit different than the past, in that I’m resending an updated version of the “special edition” checklist I sent to the subscribers of Telehealth Tuesday on a Thursday a few weeks ago.
In addition, I’d like to take a moment to highlight a number of free resources we are sharing so that as many people as possible have good information to act on.
MGMA Webinar, April 7
Today, Tuesday, April 7 at 1 PM Eastern, the MGMA is hosting my colleague Kathy Letendre and me to share with hundreds of healthcare professionals our insights for “Rapidly launching, then optimizing telehealth services in response to the COVID-19 health crisis”.
You can find information on how to sign up below.
Open Forums
If you’d like please join us at one of the upcoming sessions. You can find more information on how to register below.
Telehealth Community
I am especially excited to share with you the launch of a project that has been in the making since April of 2019: A Telehealth Community for all telehealth practitioners including program managers, program directors, medical directors and practitioners.
Given the deep expertise and longtime experience of building and running dozens of communities healthcare, mostly around government initiatives, I have teamed up with my newly-made friends at CSI (spreadinnovation.com).
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Most of us are not doing Telemedicine (yet)
One of the most important distinctions we’ve been emphasizing, thanks to my colleague’s Kathy insights, is that what most organizations are standing up is NOT telehealth or telemedicine. What most organizations are doing is to “connect with patients at a distance”, or what we are calling “Remote Care”.
Over the next weeks and months, if we truly want telehealth “here to stay”, we have to ensure we are retroactively putting all the right steps and processes in place that are the hallmark of a well-designed telemedicine service, that allows providers to practice excellent medicine at a distance.
Stay tuned over the next weeks for guidance on how to first expand and then optimize your “remote care” services.
With kind regards,
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P.P.S.: Do you know a colleague who might enjoy reading this newsletter? Please send them this link to see an archive of past newsletters and an opportunity to subscribe:
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As practices respond to new telehealth legislation amidst hashtag#COVID19, effective implementation processes, while crucial, can prove overwhelming.
Join us for a premiere VIP webinar, open to all today at 1:00PM EST where hashtag#MGMA20OC | The Operations Conference speakers Christian Milaster and Kathy Letendre of Ingenium Digital Health will share key steps for rapid launch, as well as optimization strategies to ensure that your services are clinically and financially sound in this quickly evolving healthcare climate: https://bit.ly/2wa4AGa
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Free Open Forums: Telehealth during the COVID-19 crisis
Expertise Initiated by a German engineer who spent 12 years at the Mayo Clinic improving healthcare delivery, Ingenium
Healthcare Advisors is a consortium of 11 pragmatic advisors each with decades of experience in healthcare delivery, particularly the implementation of telehealth solutions. We bring the deep and broad expertise in telemedicine, remote patient monitoring, eICU, telehealth technology,
regulatory, legislative, billing, marketing, change management, etc.
Free Open Forums Multiple Times a week As a service to our colleagues in the industry, we are offering multiple free Open Forums for healthcare practitioners and leaders to get their questions about telehealth answered and receive pragmatic advice on best practices when standing up a new telemedicine service quickly.
Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Telehealth Tuesday, the weekly newsletter of Ingenium's founder, Christian Milaster, that is now exclusively focused on implementing telehealth in the context of the coronavirus pandemic: https://ingeniumdigitalhealth.com/newsletter
MGMA Podcast Listen to an interview of Christian Milaster and Kathy Letendre recorded by the MGMA, published on March 20: COVID19: What Healthcare Leaders Need To Know About Telehealth and the CMS Policy Changes (Our part starts at 14:45 minutes)
Contact Us To schedule a complimentary Zoom call to find out how we can best help you and your organization, email Christian at christian.cv@ingeniumdigitalhealth.com or
call 657-464-3648.
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COVID-19 Remote Care Checklist
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For organizations around the nation that are shifting to a remote care model by connecting with patients at a distance, here is a helpful checklist (in no particular order) of the various aspects of this new clinical service to keep in mind.
1. Clinical Guidelines: Clearly define clinical criteria to decide which patients and which chief complaints are suitable for remote care and which ones are not.
2. Medical licensure: While reimbursement regulations have been relaxed, medical licensure requirements still may apply at the state level.
3. Emergency Procedures: Ensure that in the case of an emergency on the patient end (harm to themselves, to others, by others, etc.) you can alert the appropriate authorities.
4. Privacy: Ensure that the patient’s privacy is protected during the consults.
5. Billing: The rules and regulations around telehealth reimbursement have and will
continue to change frequently. You need to establish a central authority that internally pre-authorizes any telehealth visit.
6. Scheduling: Telehealth appointments should be scheduled as designated telehealth visits with their own appointment type to allow for appropriately billing and tracking of telehealth visits.
7. Telemedicine Consent: Depending on your state’s statutes or the requirements of the payors, patients may need to consent to this form of care orally or in writing and processes need to be in place
capturing that consent was obtained.
8. Technology Testing (Patient): Confirm and test beforehand that the patient has adequate technology (smartphone, tablet, PC), adequate, reliable connectivity, and the ability to operate the technology.
9. Telehealth Technology: Consider using different technical solutions for delivering remote care, based on the clinical specialty and the patient population.
10. Support Processes: With an increasing number of telehealth users comes the need for
having a first line of contact to address telehealth-related questions. You need to establish both, operational and technical support.
11. Provider Training: All providers offering telemedicine need to be trained on a variety of aspects of telemedicine. This training should be delivered just-in-time on an asneeded basis. It can be conducted in person or remotely or via a pre-recorded video/ presentation. This training should cover clinical guidelines (inclusion and exclusion criteria), policies (licensure, consent, emergency contact, privacy, etc.), billing rules, webiquette/webside manners, use of the telemedicine technology, the process for prescriptions, post-visit documentation and follow-up visit scheduling as well as access to support.
12. Allied Health Staff Training: Similarly training materials (documents, presentations, etc.) should be developed for the various audiences affected by telemedicine, including, but not limited to schedulers, patient service representatives, medical billing staff/coders, MAs & RNs, providers and leadership.
13. Communication/Publicity: Lastly, and very importantly, you need to clearly communicate your vision, your objectives, your directives and processes regarding the use of telehealth to all staff members as well as to your patients and the public at large.
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Send me your comments by replying to this email.
To discuss how you can use telehealth to optimize the delivery of care, contact Christian by phone or text (657-464-3648), email, or video chat.
            Like or share this article with others on LinkedIn: tiny.cc/ing-checklist
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This edition of Telehealth Tuesday was sent to _t.e.s.t_@example.com. Ingenium Consulting Group, Inc., 1173 Bayview Vis, Annapolis, MD 21409, United States If you no longer wish to receive weekly updates, I'm sorry to see you go. Unsubscribe
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