s the COVID-19 panic strikes the globe, there is about an equal amount of fear that stops the healthcare consumers from reaching out to the doctor’s office – the risk of exposure to the virus. Consumers are reluctant to visit their providers that they are willing to forego care altogether. Alternatively, doctors are at even higher stakes of contracting the virus themselves with public exposure.
At the heart of the global pandemic is a core issue that needs to be addressed – patient access to care. Here’s a roundup of the latest initiatives and strategies that help you stay on top of the COVID-19 impact on Patient access to care.
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The novel coronavirus outbreak has wreaked havoc in the global ecosystem. The Johns Hopkins University dashboard indicates over 1M confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States and 2.99M worldwide as of the date of publication. This is further expected to grow with the spiking number of incidents. The healthcare industry has taken a serious hit with the epidemic; stakeholders, including the government are taking extensive measures to help care systems cope with patient surges. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has also issued additional blanket waivers and emergency rule changes to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.
Telehealth services, virtual health and remote patient monitoring platforms are amongst the most sought-after solutions during the pandemic. Telemedicine is a secure patient coordination model, at a time when social distancing is recommended as one of the greatest measures to contain the spread. Coupled with IoT and Bluetooth enabled analytics and data points, doctors and clinicians get real-time insights that accelerate remote patient monitoring and virtual care services.
Telemedicine can also be used in SARS-CoV-2 testing like e-scheduling for clinical and home tests, and efficiently managing wait times using e-schedule.
Based on the guidelines for Opening up America again, the government has devised a strategic three-phased approach. This helps officials reopen economies while continuing to protect people’s lives. As part of the plan, CMS has rolled out new guidelines, retroactively effective April 19, 2020. This enables providers to resume elective surgeries and ease non-urgent care access restrictions – to facilitate non-COVID related treatments.
As per the CMS report, some states are positively witnessing a decline in Coronavirus cases — opening up new possibilities for healthcare organizations. Though there is a strong emphasis on telehealth services to offer virtual care to patients, CMS administrator, Seema Verma highlights that not every issue can be addressed by telehealth – for instance, elective procedures such as breast cancer surgery and cataract surgery can’t be put off for too long.
With a surging need for patient access during COVID-19, CMS has announced Hospitals without walls initiative to ensure more patients are treated in temporary expansion sites. The agency also announced eighteen other blanket waivers under section 1877(g) to promptly respond to the ongoing situation. This allows for greater flexibility in expanded treatment sites such as ambulatory surgery centers, dormitories, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and hotels—to accelerate the capacity for non-COVID related patients.
During the emergency declaration, typical healthcare services that can be offered at these non-hospital sites include cancer procedures, trauma surgeries and other essential surgeries. The federal government has relaxed regulations where hospitals can bill for surgeries performed outside their hospital environment.
This initiative will be in effect during the COVID-19 public health crisis, as part of a series of actions taken to relieve hospitals and health systems — of any financial and other burdens as they continue to focus on emergency care.
Patient access is more important than ever considering the skyrocketing number of confirmed Coronavirus numbers across the globe. The federal government has taken several measures and rolled out emergency policies to mitigate the severe impact caused by the pandemic. Relaxing non-urgent care access restrictions and enabling hospital without walls strategies are new additions to a host of other initiatives taken by the government and private health organizations to combat the COVID-19 impact.
Stay tuned to our blog section to access a wealth of resources on latest news, insights, strategies and the newest in the healthcare industry with a special focus on the global pandemic.
To improve patient access to care during COVID-19 through advanced patient engagement solutions, contact SolvEdge at
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