Telehealth

Part 1

The covid -19 disease is highly contagious, and hence the department of health and human services(HHS), the state, and the federal government put various measures to relax various regulations and rules regarding the provision and accessibility of health services to curb the increasing spread. This involved waving medical restrictions regarding the provision of telehealth services (Gorodeski et al., 2020). The key policy changes include waving the Physician mandatory licensing, relaxing of HIPAA privacy rules relating to telehealth technologies to increase flexibility and uptake of the virtual visits system. Other policy changes include removing barriers to Medicaid privacy policy and home eligibility sites (Gorodeski et al., 2020). In addition, most of the insurance provided supported the adoption of virtual visits. Thus, the various policy changes focused on relaxing the licensing barriers to enhance the feasibility of virtual visitation to reduce increased conduct and prevent the fast spread of the covid-19.

However, the uptake of telehealth has been influenced by various policy changes, as healthcare organizations can adopt the system with few restrictions in terms of licensing and privacy rules. Organizations have been able to reduce congestion and offer follow-up services to their clients in rural areas and those in need of post-discharge care (Gorodeski et al., 2020). For instance, the Veteran Affairs (VA) department in the US experienced an increase in the number of veterans seeking appointments through virtual appointments. Research indicates that most of the veterans' virtual visits were about mental health, demonstrating the feasibility of virtual visits in providing follow-up services and post-discharge care for chronic illnesses (Gorodeski et al., 2020). However, adopting virtual visits requires the healthcare provider and patients to undergo training on how to use the technology. Another concern for the organizations is the safety of using virtual visits instead of in-person visits, the ability to integrate the virtual visit system into the clinicians' workflows, and payer reimbursement (Gorodeski et al., 2020). Thus, although there has been increased use of telehealth services during the covid -19 period to the flexibility of the policies, the organization still needs to work on properly integrating virtual visits into its system. 

Part 2

Telehealth interactions through virtual visits have been considered feasible, enhancing the patient experience and saving time and cost. This system helps patients to get quality services without visiting the healthcare facilities hence convenience. To enhance the telehealth uptake by healthcare organizations, the department of health and human services (DHHS) should retain the policy change regarding licensing and privacy which directly hinder the ability of organizations to integrate telehealth practice (Gorodeski et al., 2020). For instance, the restrictions on privacy in the provision of telehealth hinder clinicians from offering telehealth services due to the requirement only to deliver medical care through public virtual visit platforms. Waving such policies increases flexibility in the healthcare sector, which motivates clinicians to adopt virtual visit systems, which are more convenient for most patients. The use of virtual visits to access medical health care proves to be the most effective way to mitigate the spread of covid-19 (Gorodeski et al., 2020). Therefore, the federal and state governments should enhance flexibility in the policies regarding telehealth practices to enhance the virtual visits uptake as it is crucial in enhancing access to healthcare services irrespective of one location, saving the patients time and transportation costs, helping in managing mental health issues without physically visiting the facility. It also helps generate revenue for the facility and maintain a healthy interaction between the patient and the healthcare giver (Gorodeski et al., 2020). Thus, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the governments must consider relaxing the rules and regulations regarding telehealth practices to enhance the uptake of virtual visits even after the covid-19 to enhance the healthcare sectors and easy adaptation to emergencies in healthcare. 

References

Gorodeski, E. Z., Goyal, P., Cox, Z. L., Thibodeau, J. T., Reay, R. E., Rasmusson, K., Rogers, J. G., & Starling, R. C. (2020). Virtual visits for care of patients with heart failure in the era of COVID-19: A statement from the Heart Failure Society of America. Journal of Cardiac Failure, 26(6), 448–456. doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2020.04.008