Due to the strict control of onsite access to – or transit of – elderly patients to prevent spreading of the Covid-19 / Coronavirus in post-acute care settings, software now enables remote wound care experts to support those onsite, and team together, as if they were right next to them.
Part 2 of 2
In Part 1 of this article, we talked about how remote wound care software is helping healthcare teams fighting the Covid-19 Coronavirus on the front line. We outlined how mobile wound assessment software is bridging the gap between onsite nurses with patients, and remote wound care physician experts and wound care product suppliers potentially doing studies or trials.
In Part 2, we dig deeper into reimbursement and minimizing risk – critically important factors for not only health care providers, but also wound care product suppliers and insurance companies.
MINIMIZING RISK AT THE POINT OF CARE
Nurses and physicians in post-acute settings are working endlessly on the frontline to fight the virus. At the same time, some of their patients have serious non-healing wounds that need immediate care. How do we best minimize risk by limiting visitors or trips to outside experts, while also gaining critical advice on the most effective wound treatment plan? It’s as easy as downloading an app to your iPad or iPhone. Within days you can be trained and going live with an easy-to-use imaging application. Because the data is housed in a secure HIPAA-compliant Amazon cloud, accurate healing progress can be analyzed from any location by authorized users. This minimizes risk to onsite healthcare workers and their patients while enabling the most intelligent actions be taken for the patients.
REIMBURSEMENT FOR REMOTE WOUND CARE EXPERTS
If these remote experts come on-site, they would be exposing themselves and their patients to potential infection. Now they can do it remotely. Insurance companies not only see the opportunity to reduce costs, but in fact, remote wound care consultations are now emerging as an effective and sustainable solution for treatment and healing of chronic wounds. A mobile and cloud-based software solution can actually reduce the burden on wound care experts who are supporting nursing facilities, home health care nurses, and wound clinics. From a reimbursement standpoint, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved payments for 6 consultation CPT Codes (99446 thru 99452). While the payment may not be as high as for an in-person visit, costs to provide a remote support service can be lower also. In addition, due to the virus, there has been a relaxation and widening of video usage to aid in remote care.
“Within days of an order, we can stand up a HIPAA-compliant dedicated site, and implement and train our customers. The solution streamlines remote wound evaluation, builds teamwork, connects remote groups, and is reimbursable under recent virus rules relaxation.”
Gary Ross
CEO
Med-Compliance IQ, Inc.
The bottom line: The virus has limited the face to face wound treatment teams of the past. Now, positive technology trends in hosting and mobile applications are creating opportunities for new models of wound care treatment incorporating talented remote and mobile wound care experts. Wound care product suppliers and healthcare workers have teamed together with technology professionals to design a remote wound care support model that is now playing an important role in helping those on the front-line to reduce the spread of the virus to both elderly patients and frontline wound care medical personnel.
If you are an insurance company, or a wound care expert providing products or remote support to nurses in post-acute settings – or if you are a nurse or physician wanting to connect to remote wound experts for advice – learn more about the technology and see a demo HERE