Telemedicine Shows Potential to Limit Costs, Improve Care, Reduce Readmissions

​Aging services providers in any setting can use emerging telemedicine technologies to reduce costs and improve care, notes a management consultant in a March 20, 2015, McKnight's Long-Term Care Newsarticle. Although telemedicine encounters in certain rural settings are eligible for Medicare reimbursement, the author notes that it is being used even in more urban settings where such care is not yet reimbursable. She cites several ways telemedicine could reduce costs: injured employees may be seen by a remote provider rather than sent to an urgent care clinic, reducing workers' compensation costs, and residents may be seen by remote providers, limiting instances when they are sent to the hospital and thereby reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and readmissions, as well as helping residents be attended to more quickly and thoroughly than if they were to wait for certain in-person visits, improving care and reducing the risk of liability.