Call for Telehealth Data (Updated)

Building on our important work as part of the Taskforce on Telehealth (Full report of the multisector effort coming soon), the Alliance for Connected Care continues to collect data necessary to make the case for permanent telehealth policies.  We are seeking to understand what we have learned about telehealth utilization and its effect on prevention, urgent care, transportation, and etc.  Our goal is to educate a conversation about what impact expanding telehealth access in Medicare will have on federal budgeting models.

In our efforts to gather data on cost, we are asking organizations, health systems, or providers to submit data on telehealth during COVID-19.

Top Questions:

  1. Utilization data: to what extent is telehealth serving as a replacement for in-person care?
  2. No-show Rates: Were no-show rates reduced, and if so, by how much?
  3. Post-discharge: Were post-discharge transition codes (99495 and 99496) billed at a higher rate?
  4. SNF Transfers: Did telehealth resolve skilled nursing facility -resident issues without transfer, i.e. were transfers to hospitals lower without compromising patient care?
  5. Imaging: What happened to orders for imaging for telehealth visits, were they higher or lower for commensurate in-person care?

Please submit your data/research to crystal.wallace@connectwithcare.org.  We will be sure to attribute any data.  Please feel free to reach out with any questions or more examples.

Example:

See below for a utilization example from Stanford Health Care — Stanford was able to show in this chart how telehealth did not increase utilization, but simply represented a changed modality for the care being delivered.  We are looking for similar information from a diverse range of healthcare organizations.