全球智库信息集成服务系统

All nine centers received funding to increase their telemedicine volume

• Growth in volume was largely achieved by dedicated telemedicine staff who added new service lines, contracted with new vendors and/or purchased additional blocks of time with existing vendors, began offering telemedicine services at new clinic locations, and purchased new equipment.

Barriers included insufficient reimbursement, technical difficulties, and challenges working with remote specialists

• Nearly all health centers reported lack of reimbursement as the dominant barrier to growing their telemedicine programs. Even though most health centers were pursuing telemedicine services that theoretically could be reimbursed, many health centers were being reimbursed for only a subset of their telemedicine visits.

Eight of the nine health centers in the initiative experienced a significant increase in telemedicine volume over the implementation period

• On average, prior to the initiative, health centers had 153 telemedicine visits per month. This increased to an average of 239 visits per month after the initiative began, which represents a 56-percent increase.

Staff from most health centers argued that telemedicine services were likely permanent

• Although there was near-universal agreement among participating health centers that telemedicine would continue after the initiative for a variety of reasons, including ongoing patient need and alignment with strategic priorities and health center values, staff did not specify a particular volume goal. Staff also noted that financial factors would determine the scope of services.

• Chapter One

  Introduction and Background

• Chapter Two

  Staffing, Programmatic, and Process Changes Implemented to Expand Telemedicine During the Initiative

• Chapter Three

  Barriers Experienced in Expanding Telemedicine

• Chapter Four

  Impact of Health Center Activities on Telemedicine Volume and Realized Access to Telemedicine Services

• Chapter Five

  Sustainability

• Chapter Six

  Conclusions