FEATURE · TELEHEALTH
that do not promote patient access, con- tinuity of care, and quality medical ser- vices must be avoided. State and federal policy should ensure effi cient licensure during public health emergencies. • Ensure Access to Non-Physician Pro- viders. Healthcare providers at all levels must be able to participate effectively
• Ensure Program Integrity. Public and private payers and healthcare providers must ensure guardrails are in place to protect patients and ensure program in- tegrity of virtual care programs. Federal and state policies should leverage tech- nology to optimize program integrity measures and prevent fraud and abuse without providers being required to see patients in person.
Recently, Healthcare Innovation Editor- in-Chief Mark Hagland spoke with Ann Mond Johnson, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association, regarding her perspectives on the challenges and oppor- tunities of the current moment. Mond Johnson will be a keynote speaker at the Healthcare Innovation Southeast Summit, to be held in Nashville on Thursday, September 23 and Friday, September 24. Below are excerpts from that interview.
Ann Mond Johnson
across care teams and leverage telehealth to reach patients where they are. Artifi - cial regulatory barriers on non-physician healthcare providers that do not contrib- ute to quality, patient safety, or improved outcomes are unnecessary impediments to expanding the healthcare workforce, ensuring access to care, and reducing healthcare costs. • Expand Access for Underserved and At-risk Populations. Underserved rural and urban communities, tribal nations, and the uninsured must equally benefi t from telehealth and digital health ser- vices. Health disparities should be ad- dressed and refl ected in state and federal health programs and policy makers must support robust investment in telehealth infrastructure, including broadband, to ensure universal access for the benefi t of all communities. • Support Seniors and Expand “Aging in Place.” State and federal policy should ensure seniors have access to high-quali- ty, affordable virtual care wherever they reside. Age-friendly healthcare policy should ensure autonomy and expanded access to seniors and caregivers while ensuring continuity of care. • Protect Patient Privacy and Mitigate Cybersecurity Risks. Patient privacy, and the protection of patient data, are a prerequisite for connected care. State and federal regulatory schemes should allow for innovation and support the advancement of technology-assisted care; however, telehealth and virtual care platforms, systems, and devices should be required to mitigate cyber- security risks and provide for patient safety and confi dentiality.
When you look at the current landscape around telehealth in U.S. healthcare right now, what do you see? As you know, with regard to the ability for people to connect with their providers when in-person contact isn’t necessary or possible, this has been going on for a long time. And, through the pandemic, we’re delivering on what we’ve wanted to deliver on for some time. And some of the rules that prevented broad adoption, were implemented in nine- teen ninety-seven, fourteen years before the iPhone was invented. And this is how healthcare can be delivered. And the third thing is that we had really pressing prob- lems with access to care, with where you live defi ning your healthcare destiny, and the uneven distribution of high-quality care, those issues cannot be addressed without telehealth. There’s an urgency, and now we have an obligation.
There has been this self- fulfi lling prophecy of slowness in healthcare, and that was proven to be at least somewhat false last year, as the leaders of patient care organizations were able to ramp up their telehealth capabilities very quickly. I think that necessity is the mother of invention. And we had urgency, which drove innovation, responsiveness, quick turns of knowledge. Think about the back- and-forth dialogue about the best ways to treat COVID—things in the clinical sphere like putting patients on their stomachs. I think we demonstrated a willingness to collaborate, to innovate, and to turn on a dime. And as it relates to telehealth, there were so many clinicians, so many consumers who had not used it before. But when patients started to get communica- tions from their physicians saying, would
you like to talk, even audio-only, it was remarkable what could be accomplished
Do you believe that the fl exibilities introduced last March will be permanentized? Well, from your mouth to God’s ear. We have over four hundred organizations that are members of the ATA,, that represent diverse aspects of this space. So we’re advo- cating for permanence. So Kyle Zebley, our vice president of public policy, and other colleagues, are advocating in Congress and in the state legislatures; we clearly are hop- ing for permanence. And what’s interesting is that the average American wasn’t aware of this; and it’s not because we’re stupid, it’s because we just didn’t know better.
Much has been made of consumers’ overwhelmingly positive experience with telehealth, beginning early last spring. It turned out that consumers loved remote care delivery, and still do. Are we fi nally seeing the long-awaited proof of the empowered healthcare consumer, making empowered choices around what they want and how they want it? My attraction to joining the ATA—I’ve always been focused on meeting people where they are. This is what telehealth is all about. Americans need access to safe, reliable care wherever they are. And we can’t meet it by having one doctor to one patient; we need other modalities. And I think people understand that. If you’re young and healthy—you know, people just don’t pay attention any longer to healthcare brands. And if you have needs, you want to see your clinician when you need to. What is astonishing is the growing number of people who are insisting on see- ing their clinicians remotely, on messaging their physicians. So do I have hope around the growing consumer experience? Yes. At the same time, if you think about
the vision of the ATA and where we’re headed, it involves acknowledging that we had deep-seated issues in healthcare before the pandemic happened, and it’s our obligation to eliminate the dispari- ties and inequities in healthcare. And I’m encouraged because the cost of technol- ogy has dropped, and the connectivity has increased and is increasing even more. And fi nally, there is consensus around this: there is such benefi t to all of us if we ensure that all Americans get access to care.
Do you think the policymakers in Washington, D.C., and the state legislatures understand this? I think so, the fact that Senators Schatz and Scott [Brian Schatz (D) of Hawaii, and Tim
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