• Quality reports: Review quality reporting metrics, such as avoidance of antibiotics in adults with bronchitis, preventive care screening (colonoscopy, mammogram) and readmission rates. If certain quality scores are less-than-optimal, a telehealth partner might have a positive impact.
Money: A major myth to dispel is that allowing a virtualist to see their patients will hurt providers financially. In reality, by shifting their routine patients to telehealth, physicians can actually increase their panel size and revenue per visit as office visits can be allocated toward new patients and those with more complex issues that create more value to the health system.
Since health systems might benefit more directly than individual physicians in this situation, they would also be wise to create new financial incentives that contribute to the overall success of their telehealth programs by aligning physician compensation with telehealth-program goals. For example, consider implementing the following policies:
• Paying your own virtualists equal to what they would make in an office visit.
• Awarding bonuses to PCPs based on lower emergency room (ER) admissions, thus incentivizing them to encourage their patients to try telehealth rather than the ER for certain issues.
• Providing small RVU bonuses to PCPs who review charts of their patients seen online by a virtualist partner.
• Paying bonuses for office-based, higher complexity visits and/or decrease RVU credits for lower-complexity visits.
eMotion: What’s most important to your providers? What are their biggest challenges? Though physicians are indeed scientists with a strong appreciation for data and evidence, it’s still important to appeal to their hearts. They want the best for their patients and are willing to support disruptive changes such as telehealth — as long as these changes will result in better care and satisfaction for their patients.
Help your physicians understand how telehealth offers potential to relieve some of the most common problems they confront. Certainly, not every physician has the same challenges and goals, but many will likely be interested in helping mitigate the following problems:
• Access: Leading telehealth providers deliver access to care 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and 365 days per year with nationwide coverage for adults and children.
• Patient experience: An online visit can take a patient about 10 to 15 minutes of their time, compared to the two-hour average for a patient to travel and be seen in an office setting.
