How Telemedicine Saves Money for Patients and Medical Practices

The concept of telemedicine is not a new thing. With advancements in technology, telehealth has become cost-effective and more efficient for patients and medical practices. Even big medical billing companies like UControl Billing have begun to provide telemedicine billing services. Read on to learn more about how it saves patients and medical practices money! 

What Is Telehealth?

Telehealth can be defined as remote communication between physicians and diagnosed patients via telecommunication devices. Although it has been in medical literature since the 1950s, it is now in these pandemic years that technology got connected with this idea. 

Due to pandemics, most people avoid going out of their house, so the doctors and patients use phone, text, and video chats to keep in touch outside of the office. Also, with the widespread use of EHR, now all records are kept in a secure digital cloud, which has made telehealth services easier. This is because patients' health records can directly be accessed from anywhere. With all these new technical advances, let us see how offering telehealth can save patients and practices money. 

How Telemedicine Saves Money For Medical Practices?

We will begin with how telehealth medical billing specialists can save money for medical practices. Below are the five ways in which telemedicine saves the money of medical courses.

Keeps Patients In Your Practice

As soon as the patients need medical care, they are required to come to the healthcare practice. Yet there are times when the patient needs immediate care that you practice or office hours may not provide. This has become one of the issues of our healthcare system. 

Even now, several patients show up in the urgent care units, ER, or clinics for issues that their physician can easily address via call. So those visits are not necessary, because in many cases, only a quick inspection and some reassuring words of the doctors can do the magic and save the patients money, time and hassle. 

In addition to that, it also helps you earn more money than you would not have made if the patient sought the physician outside the practice or after office hours. To save you from such loss, telehealthcare services enable you to extend your hours and be available for urgent care. It is very straightforward to develop your timing for 3-5 minutes eVisit to address, for instance, a patient’s UTI. 

Optimizes Your Time

If you begin to offer a telehealth option to patients, this will reduce missed appointments. This is because telemedicine provides the patients a convenient way to get care, no matter what comes up. If the patients get convenience, then they will show up more, which will boost your patient flow and help you utilize your time productively. In addition, if your practitioner gets a missed appointment slot, they can fill that time slot with eVisit anytime. As time is money, so when you can connect with patients on a more flexible schedule implies that you’re saving time as well as cash! 

Enhances Compliance Via Virtual Appointments

If a patient misses an office appointment, the patient flow for the day may get disrupted. This will cost your practice money the patient is non-compliant with appointments and follow-ups, mainly when it can jeopardize their health. This can also cost your practice when it comes to liability and malpractice.

With the help of telemedicine, you can arrange eVisit or virtual appointments. These visits help your practice from falling prey to liability and malpractice. With telehealthcare checking in with patients and ensuring that they follow doctors’ advice has become easier. 

It Helps To Save Costs On Overhead

With telehealth, you can leave your practice early and work from the comfort zone of your home’s sofa/office. In addition, if you decide upon shortening your office hours, it can also enable you to save money on payrolls and boost employee morale. This will help you to save costs on employee turnover. In addition to that, you will also be able to save on other utilities and expenses connected with your office being physically open.

Improves Documentation And Lowers Liability

Research shows that 47% of the participating offices claim that health records documentation was a risk-management problem. If you chat or consult with your patients after office hours, likely, you won’t be documenting the visit or appointment. This will cost you money as well as the implementation of malpractice lawsuits. All this could be avoided with the help of the telemedicine option. Telemedicine allows you to capture off-hour necessary documentation, save your time, and save money. 

How Telemedicine Saves Money for Patients?

In addition to the medical practices, telehealth is also beneficial for the patients, and here is how it save money for the patients:

Telehealth Costs a Lot Less Than In-Person Visits

In the case of minor health issues, telehealth is way better than in-person visits in terms of money. According to UnitedHealthcare, there is a huge difference between the cost of the virtual appointment and other such scenarios. For instance, the cost of eVisit is around $50,  $85 for treatment at a doctor’s office, $130 for an urgent care visit, and $740 for an emergency room visit. This implies that the patients can save a lot by utilizing the option of telehealth. 

In terms of co-payment, telehealth visits are the cheapest form of all healthcare visits. Although the co-payment varies according to the plans, the co-payment for telehealth is the least of all. Experts say telehealth has a simple and fixed-rate that allows predictability that other options do not offer. 

E-Visits Save Time And Are Accessible  24/7

The accessibility to a doctor 24/7 is great, saving time and money. It would be great if, instead of taking time off from the office, it would be great. This will save you from waiting and the worry of catching the virus sitting in the hospital. 

In the case of an emergency, telehealth is a better option, as it is faster and costs less than the other available option late at night, such as an urgent-care center or the emergency room. The ER and urgent care center are also very costly, even more than doctor’s office visits. 

Telemedicine is also more effective when getting an appointment for a non-emergency visit. Visiting a doctor’s office means getting a license and then waiting for your turn, which could be time-consuming in minor cases like the urinary tract infection. In these cases, it can be diagnosed quickly through telehealth. 

Help With Other Types Of Care And Management

With telehealth, patients can also get different types of care and management. This is because the option of telehealth is expanding its services. For instance, according to the Business Group on Health, telehealth now allows you virtual visits for the following types of care:

• Dermatology
• Weight-management programs
• Diabetes care management
• Medical decision support
• Sleep management
• Cardiac care management
• Prenatal care and coaching

According to the vice president of product and innovation at UnitedHealthcare, Pat Kieran, there are obvious chances of growth in telehealth services. During the pandemic, these eVisits may expand and will likely include other managements like speech and occupational therapy, physical therapy, and chronic disease management. This is because telehealth services provide better continuous care.

Conclusion

Although telemedicine can not replace in-house visits of patients, it is a great option that is faster and saves the money of practices and patients. It is also better for people who have difficulty traveling. Many methods have incorporated the telehealth option. If you are one of those practices and worried about telemedicine billing, then reach out to UControl Billing now! This medical billing company has specialists who will provide the best telemedicine billing services at the most affordable prices in the United States. If you need further information regarding this billing company, click here! We hope that you will be clear about the benefits that telemedicine provides to patients and medical practices.