DOXIVA - Connect for Health Act 2019

Every citizen of America has the right to get the best healthcare. But is that the same privilege for those who are residing in the rural part of the country? Do they have care round the clock access to care? Sadly, the answer is NO.

Now you may counter the argument by proposing use of telehealth for providing easy access to care to the remotest patient 24*7. Yes, what you are saying is correct. After all, this is the era of digital revolution, the power now resides in your hands. Yes, your smartphone. This little gadget is your tool to shop for your health.

There are already few leaders who have started leveraging the power of technology to deliver quality care. Virtually the entire US patient population can take the advantage of telehealth, leading to easy access to care. But how can this be feasible? Well, the answer is CONNECT for Health Act, 2019 (Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies)

So, what is the CONNECT for Health Act 2019?

CONNECT for Health Act promotes use of telehealth services for providing higher quality of care, increased access to care and reduced spending in Medicare

The reason for emphasis on leveraging telehealth services is because of the proven benefits in preventive care and low acuity medical conditions. Now is the time to explore the same on a larger scale in Medicare.

Only 0.25% of Medicare beneficiaries are currently able to access telehealth services. This is largely due to geographic restrictions, the beneficiaries of only certain locations are able to get the benefit of telehealth services, while the others are not. Optimum use of telehealth services will enable people from remote locations to get access to healthcare.

The CONNECT for Health Act 2019 gets unprecedented support from a number of organizations:

Currently, there are few restrictions on the Medicare coverage that limits complete utilization of telehealth. But there are a number of organizations that have extended their support to this bill that will help in removing these restrictions.

The Connect for Health Act 2019 gives the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services the right to renounce current telehealth restrictions in Medicare. There are a number of organizations that have supported this bill. The American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, and the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), the Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHAlliance) and many other (to be precise more than 120 organizations) have endorsed this bill. So overall telehealth is receiving a lot of support and will surely be able to overcome a number of things including political barriers.

The American Hospital Association issued a letter to the Congress in which they have stated that “Currently, 76% of U.S. hospitals connect with patients and consulting practitioners at a distance through the use of live voice and video and other supporting technologies. Yet, systemic barriers to widespread adoption of telehealth in the Medicare program remain.”

This act will make it possible to make use of telecommunication tools like video conferencing to monitor the patients at home on a larger scale. It will also be easy to transfer medical data for providing better treatment options to the patient. It will also help in achieving other goals like Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) and the merit-based incentive payment system (MIPS), alternate payment modules etc.

The goal of better healthcare can be achieved only with telehealth. The most striking advantages of telehealth are convenient healthcare facility irrespective of the geographic location of the patient and low costs. The Connect for Health Act 2019 is the right step that has been taken in order to provide better healthcare facilities to Americans.

Use the right telehealth tool for your healthcare facility:

A healthcare facility will be able to provide the best services only if they choose the correct tool for providing the best telehealth services. Doxiva- Doctor’s Intelligent Virtual Assistant is one such telehealth solution which will surely help your healthcare facility achieve this goal with ease. This is a cloud-based solution based on Artificial intelligence. To get more information about this HIPAA compliant solution get in touch with the experts at Doxiva right away!