How Telemedicine Changes the Way Doctors Do Business

After a patient’s initial diagnostic visit, there is often follow up care that is needed. Typically, this involves a patient scheduling another in-office appointment or waiting for a nurse to call. The problem?

Follow-up, in-office appointments are:

Inconvenient for patient :

• The average time a person spends in a doctor’s waiting room was 21 minutes
•  It takes 121 minutes each time a person seeks medical care (includes travel time, wait time, paperwork time)
• The average opportunity cost of a medical visit is $43 (the value of lost work and productivity)
• 83% of conditions can be resolved by a virtual visit

Inefficient for practice - skipped appointments = missed revenue

• Medical practices average a 5 to 7% no-show rate
• Two missed co-pays per day can cost a practice nearly $60,000 per year, excluding administrative and payroll expenses lost scheduling and rescheduling appointments

The current way of managing a practice and its challenges

Nurses spend hours a day returning calls, contacting patients with lab results and discussing follow-up care and prescriptions. Because in-office appointments are usually considered inconvenient and expensive, patients are increasingly calling the nurse for free medical advice. The problem?

Nurse calls are not reimbursable

• Phone calls to physician practices have increased between 25% and 50% since 2008
• It costs practices $15-$20 per patient call
• Prescription renewal calls cost a practice $10,000 a year

The better way to manage a practice

Telemedicine just might be what the doctor orders when it comes to managing a healthy practice. The small upfront investment promises benefits to patients, physicians, nurses and staff.

You can market the telemedicine option as an accessibility and convenience benefit for essential follow-up care with face-to-face interaction with a physician or nurse:

• Discuss treatment plans
•  Review lab/imaging results
• Discuss and adjust medications
• Offer counseling services and specialist referrals
• Provide minor urgent care appointments

For a practice to be profitable and have longevity, it must be reimbursed for as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Telemedicine hits the bottom line in 2 ways:

1. Each patient interaction is billable, bringing in an additional source of revenue
2. Practice costs are reduced with less administrative work

• On average, a barebones practice would have to bring in $700,000 to $800,000 a year in business to be profitable
• Telehealth visits have the potential to save the healthcare system more than $100 per visit
• For every $1 invested in telehealth, the practice saved more than $3, or $200 per patient each month

Zapclinica makes telemedicine simple, convenient and profitable - in 6 easy steps

1. Enable telemedicine appointment scheduling through integration with existing EHR scheduling system
2. Use Zapclinica Automation to automatically check patient telemedicine eligibility in minutes
3. Send patients automated email confirmation with link to the video visit
4. Doctor/nurse and patient can join video from any location via mobile app or web browser
5. Bill patient or patient’s insurance provider for an office visit
6. Get reimbursed quickly from private payer insurance and Medicare CCM Program

How to Contact Zapclinica

Ready to see how Zapclinica can get you paid for telemedicine faster and with less work? Contact us at contact@zapclinica.com or visit our website : https://zapclinica.com