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Freitag, 29.03.2024
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The practice of telemedicine – using real-time video technology to get medical advice from afar – is becoming a standard of the health care industry, bringing the aid of specialists into rural areas where there’s a shortage of doctors.

But under state law, health insurance providers don’t have to pay for many services that involve telemedicine. A bill in the Legislature would require private carriers and Medicaid plans to reimburse patients when they receive covered benefits through telemedicine, potentially lowering treatment costs for patients and medical facilities.

Sponsored by Sen. Randi Becker, R-Eatonville, the bill got a hearing Wednesday before the House Health Care and Wellness Committee after passing the Senate unanimously. No one objected to it at earlier hearings.

“There are over 4 million people in Washington state who would benefit from access to telemedicine,” Marc West, who is diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, told the committee.

West, who can’t stand or speak, sat in a motorized wheelchair while a computer spoke his written testimony. He said telemedicine could vastly improve treatment for people with chronic diseases, like ALS.

It’s also widely used to treat time-sensitive emergencies, said Denny Lordan, the telemedicine program coordinator for Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center. Hospitals in rural communities, which often are concerned about keeping their primary care doctors on staff, can get help fast from specialists across the country to treat difficult cases.

“If you’re a patient with a stroke presenting in a rural hospital, likely you don’t have the same access to a stroke neurologist as you would in a big city like Spokane,” Lordan said.

Sacred Heart has a team of doctors who communicate directly with patients through telemedicine. It saves people from driving long distances to get prescriptions and medical advice, while keeping doctors where they can do the most good, Lordan said.

“This is a big step up from Skype,” he said. “It puts the right care in the right place at the right time.”

If the bill is enacted, insurance carriers would have to begin reimbursing patients for telemedicine in 2017. There’s no estimate on how much that coverage would cost the state in Medicaid expenses.

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Autor(en)/Author(s): Chad Sokol

Quelle/Source: The Spokesman Review, 29.03.2015

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