Telemedicine as the Backbone to HIE
Neal NeubergerOne barrier is the lack of alignment of financial incentives regarding reimbursement for telehealth start-up and capital costs. Neuberger said that the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) was remiss in not including telehealth in meaningful use requirements.Another challenge for telehealth adoption is the lack of standardization for data produced by telemedicine devices, said Yael Harris, Ph.D., director of the Office of Health IT & Quality, Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA). “In order to support the full realization of telehealth, it’s really essential that the data from these remote monitoring devices, video consults, and images that are captured and transmitted through [different] technologies are captured in a standardized format, so they can be incorporated into the medical record and transmitted through the electronic exchange of health information across multiple providers,” said Harris.Gary Capistrant, senior director, public policy, American Telemedicine Association, notes that the definition of telemedicine, itself, within Medicare and Medicaid is fraught with limitations. “Medicare is discriminating the urban underserved,” said Capistrant. “They don’t see that it has real applications in inner cities. Telehealth is a way to serve the underserved, but those that already have services, but they’re not very convenient.”