Your typical health care visit used to consist of driving to a clinic or office, filing out some paperwork, and waiting for someone to call your name when your provider was ready for you.
Then, the coronavirus hit. Suddenly many people were attending appointments on the computer or over the phone, and
telehealth became a household word.
While telehealth appointments have been around for decades, they were on the periphery of the health care system. After the pandemic made it impossible to deliver health care in the same ways as before, telehealth became necessary, and barriers to reimbursement, technology, and licensure began to fall. Some health systems had to move from small-scale telehealth implementation to 100 percent virtual encounters overnight. Patients soon began seeing their doctors from within their own homes. Even in the inpatient setting, they increasingly interacted with health care providers through iPads. Telehealth’s recent progress is something “that most pe
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Different pieces of legislation supporting expansion of technology-enabled access to care were the focus on Capitol Hill this week, with bipartisan bills that provide funding for connected social care networks and call for telehealth regulatory reform gained support on separate tracks.
Aligning clinical care and social service
The new bipartisan Leveraging Integrated Networks in Communities (LINC) to Address Social Needs Act was introduced by Senators Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut.
The LINC to Address Social Needs Act would offer one-time seed funding for states to help establish communication between social service providers and healthcare organizations for referral, capacity management, and outcome tracking between social service providers and healthcare organizations.
Three Ways to Bolster Telehealth
In the urgency to deploy telehealth programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers may have overlooked key processes that now need attention, according to
Figuring out how to accelerate virtual care is no longer enough. Health providers also need to consider three things: whether they re delivering the best experience; how telehealth fits into their overall care model; and how to build patient trust, especially as concerns about privacy and data breeches are rising.
Because of the extraordinary circumstances when the pandemic started, people would accept a less than optimal experience, noted Brian Kalis, digital health managing director for the consulting firm Accenture. But that goodwill won t last, Kalis told
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The telemedicine and digital health industry has a new organization, the Telehealth Equity Coalition (TEC), which seeks expanded, meaningful access to health care. Launched in February 2021, the TEC works with nonprofit, academic, and industry partners to offer a unique voice to help transform communities through equitable telehealth delivery and utilization. The Coalition is “driven to improve access to quality and affordable health care by increasing the adoption of telehealth, especially among those communities who have been left out or left behind.” Among the TEC’s initial twelve corporate members are the American Telemedicine Association, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the National Health IT Collaborative for the Underserved, and Foley & Lardner LLP.
Cannabis Sativa, Inc.: PrestoDoctor s Robert Tankson Featured in Forbes Next 1000 Upstart Entrepreneurs
redefining
the American Dream. PrestoDoctor was acquired by Cannabis Sativa, Inc. in August 2017 at a $9 million valuation. Mr. Tankson currently serves on the Board of Directors of Cannabis Sativa, Inc.
PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERT TANKSON
Mr. Tankson and Forbes 30 Under 30 alumni Kyle Powers co-founded PrestoDoctor in 2015 after finding there wasn t a trusted place to access cannabis for daily wellness. PrestoDoctor currently connects 185,000 patients seeking medical cannabis cards via their proprietary online telemedicine platform providing access to licensed physicians to obtain a medical marijuana recommendation. PrestoDoctor currently serves California, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Illinois, and is actively targeting expansion into multiple additional states.