Sunday, August 19, 2012

Allscripts Integrating Telehealth into EHR

Allscripts is integrating American Well Corporation’s Online Care telehealth platform into their EHR so that providers will be able to offer high quality online voice and video interactions. The University of South Florida Health, a partnership of USF’s colleges of medicine, nursing, public health, and pharmacy as well as the USF Physician Group is planning to use this new offering with “The Village”, the country’s largest over 55 residential community located near Tampa.

“Allscripts telehealth solutions will help provide convenient, safer and secure access to care and enable that care to be documented in the EHR so that providers can have up-to-date information. It will also give physicians an opportunity to get paid for telehealth, something that was a hurdle in the past,” said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. “Our open platform architecture enables this integration which we expect to be available in January.”

“The momentum behind the telehealth movement is growing at a remarkable pace. As patients demand improved access to care, providers are seeking alternative delivery methods to deliver care efficiently and effectively as payment models trend away from fee-for-service,” said Ido Schoenberg, MD, Chairman and CEO of American Well Corporation.

“Meanwhile legislative and regulatory barriers are being removed”, Schoenberg added. “Today forty state Medicaid plans reimburse for telehealth services and 16 states mandate private insurer coverage for telehealth including four states which have passed such laws since March.”