Capturing the Complexities Around Chronic Illness
As a software engineer at pMD, I get to straddle the cutting edges of two very different industries: health care and technology. I’m familiar with how quickly the technology world moves -- developers jumping on a new front-end technology every other day, “sprinting” through “agile” hoops at the speed of light. But I’ve been surprised to learn how thoroughly the health care environment is also evolving. I’ve learned that over the next few years, physicians will be facing fundamental changes in the way they see and treat patients. It has been one of the most interesting parts of my job to not only learn about these changes, but to help providers transition to the health care environment as it transforms around them.
With value-based health care on the horizon, providers will need to bring the patient into the center of their care. For the more than 100 million Americans with chronic illnesses, for example, the occasional face-to-face encounter with a provider might not be enough. Obviously, for those types of patients, providers must think beyond the 30 minute annual checkup; with constant management of medication, treatment, and services. In today’s day and age, providers often have difficulty bridging communication gaps, leading to inconsistent data, increased expenses, and poorer outcomes for their chronically ill patients.
We are trying to solve that problem at pMD, and to help providers proactively coordinate their patients’ care. Every new feature we are working on supports providers as they take on this new paradigm shift. One of the simplest ways we help providers is by showing them how they can get reimbursed for adapting to this new, patient-centric health care model. For example, since 2015, Medicare has reimbursed providers who offer at least 20 minutes a month of non-face-to-face medical care to patients with two or more chronic diagnoses, through CPT code 99490. For our providers -- who have been using pMD's charge capture tool to record services outside of face-to-face encounters like medication reconciliation review and care coordination, and may soon start to use pMD for patient education -- this could prove to be a fruitful change that helps them transition to tomorrow’s health care system.
With value-based health care on the horizon, providers will need to bring the patient into the center of their care. For the more than 100 million Americans with chronic illnesses, for example, the occasional face-to-face encounter with a provider might not be enough. Obviously, for those types of patients, providers must think beyond the 30 minute annual checkup; with constant management of medication, treatment, and services. In today’s day and age, providers often have difficulty bridging communication gaps, leading to inconsistent data, increased expenses, and poorer outcomes for their chronically ill patients.
We are trying to solve that problem at pMD, and to help providers proactively coordinate their patients’ care. Every new feature we are working on supports providers as they take on this new paradigm shift. One of the simplest ways we help providers is by showing them how they can get reimbursed for adapting to this new, patient-centric health care model. For example, since 2015, Medicare has reimbursed providers who offer at least 20 minutes a month of non-face-to-face medical care to patients with two or more chronic diagnoses, through CPT code 99490. For our providers -- who have been using pMD's charge capture tool to record services outside of face-to-face encounters like medication reconciliation review and care coordination, and may soon start to use pMD for patient education -- this could prove to be a fruitful change that helps them transition to tomorrow’s health care system.
