With short notice from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), healthcare providers are scrambling to adapt to the new CMS 2021 fee-for-service schedule. Undoubtedly, the adjustments stemming from lessons learned during the Pandemic, where telehealth visits increased significantly, impacted the CMS decisions. With a 30% reduction in reimbursement for office and in-home visits and a 30% increase in telehealth reimbursement, including short visits, primary healthcare's future direction is clear.
With an average hospital stay is hovering around $16,000.00, CMS continually evaluates ways to reduce hospitalizations. The data associated with telehealth points to trends suggesting that patients who receive more frequent visits have a lesser likelihood of being hospitalized. The SC House Calls system's data collaborated those results with one internal study showing a 2.18% reduction in hospitalization probability with each telehealth visit performed.
In addition to more frequent patient visits, the changes also encourage an increase in the number of patients a provider can see each day, thereby opening healthcare access to more people. A provider who previously spent half their day behind a windshield can now convert those lost hours into additional telehealth visits. Just as more frequent visits equate to better patient outcomes, more patients with healthcare access should logically produce similar results.
"This is a cultural shift for our company and especially our providers." Stated Matt Staub, SC House Calls CEO. "The systems we currently have in a place like our 24-7 Center for Telehealth, Remote Patient Monitoring, and partnerships with mobile x-ray and mobile lab companies will be assets moving forward. I am confident the added capacity of each of our providers performing telehealth visits will ultimately allow us to expand services to many more patients."
SC House Calls is a network of nearly 300 medical professionals providing In-home medical house calls and Telehealth visits to Private Residences, Assisted Living Communities, and Skilled Nursing Facilities. SC House Calls serves all 46 Counties of South Carolina. New patient registration, appointments, and
24-7 access to medical professionals is available through its Center for Telehealth @ 800-491-0909
