The continuing adoption of virtual care (i.e., telemedicine) is driving a number of related changes in healthcare. One of them will certainly be changes in outpatient lab testing which has been stable for decades. In the past, patients with appointments in an outpatient facility, and for whom lab tests were ordered, typically had their blood drawn and tests performed in the same facility. These same conditions to not apply for a televisit where the participating physician sets the conditions for lab testing. This topic was addressed in a recent Dark Daily note (see: As Primary Care Providers and Health Insurers Embrace Telehealth, How Will Clinical Laboratories Provide Medical Lab Testing Services?). Below is an excerpt from it:
When patients use telehealth, how do they choose medical laboratories for lab test orders their virtual doctors have authorized? ....Recently, the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) published data showing that visits to primary care physicians declined 18% from 2012 to 2016 among adults under 65 who had employer-sponsored insurance. However, during these same years, visits with nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants increased by 129%! ....Humana said its members have no copay for the virtual doctor visits and $5 copays for standard medical laboratory tests and prescriptions. Synapse’s “smart referrals” function, [the virtual care program of Doctors on Demand,] sends referrals to in-network clinical laboratories, imaging providers, and pharmacies....Experts advise lab leaders to reach out to health plans soon and determine their inclusion in virtual healthcare networks.
Now emerging in association with telemedicine appointments are various approaches for lab testing. This topic was discussed in a recent article (see: Telehealth Looks to Digital Diagnostics to Improve Virtual Care) with an excerpt below:
With direct-to-consumer telehealth platforms popping up all over the country these days, healthcare providers are now looking at combining virtual care with lab tests. Health systems and consumer-facing telehealth vendors see point-of-care testing and digital diagnostic services as the next enhancement to the virtual care platform. The idea that a consumer could not only see a doctor online for a nagging health issue, but also have labs and tests done from home holds promise to ease traffic bottlenecks at crowded EDs and doctor’s offices and improve patient engagement and satisfaction with telehealth.....Earlier this year, Teladoc announced a partnership with Analyte Health of Chicago. The deal allows Teladoc’s online doctor network to direct patients to Analyte’s regional locations, where technicians can collect and process blood and specimen samples within three days of the patient’s online consult.
Another means for providing lab testing with virtual visits was discussed in my recent blog note about telehealth kiosks installed within Tampa General Hospital to serve its own employees (see: Improvements in Telehealth Kiosks; Tampa General Deploys New Version for Employee Health). The kiosks are stocked with self-service lab kits that patients can take home and either perform the test there or obtain a micro-sample of blood and mail to a reference lab. To restate the obvious, unless health systems themselves offer televisits, they may suffer some decreases in their outpatient testing volume.
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