PCR079: Major Themes from Colorado's PreVAIL Series on Telehealth in the Era of COVID-19
Sydney Davis
Abstract
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly and dramatically changed the way telehealth is used in Colorado by primary care providers (PCPs), their patients, and their communities. However, these populations have been impacted in ways not fully understood. The Primary Care Voice: Advocacy & Innovation Leveraged (PreVAIL) Extension for Community Health Outcomes (ECHO) series on Telehealth was a method to aggregate PCPs’ experiences with telehealth, understand the impact of telehealth, and leverage this information to inform policy development and actions.
Methods
PreVAIL Telehealth sessions were conducted May-July of 2020. These sessions included Colorado PCPs, health policy experts, public health officials, and leaders in primary care telling highlighted stories around their experiences with telehealth. These stories were augmented by real-time quantitative data through polling and additional shared experiences through written submission. Transcripts of these sessions were coded in ATLAS.ti by two coders. Thematic analysis was then conducted using an inductive thematic approach.
Results
There were 6 major themes identified from PreVAIL participants’ experiences with telehealth, including: how much telehealth is being used by practices and what types of practices are using telehealth; how providers are billing for telehealth services and how telehealth services are being reimbursed by payers; factors that make it difficult for providers to deliver care via telehealth; methods that are being used by providers and practices to support telehealth; positive and negative consequences of delivering care via telehealth; and opportunities to improve and optimize the way telehealth is delivered to patients by providers.
Discussion
This research identifies that the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly increased utilization of telehealth services by both patients and providers in Colorado with mixed outcomes. Future areas for policy action include optimizing telehealth reimbursement, improving technology and equipment, enhancing practice workflows, improving information disbursement around rules and regulations, and increased guidance on which types of visits are most appropriate for telehealth.
The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly and dramatically changed the way telehealth is used in Colorado by primary care providers (PCPs), their patients, and their communities. However, these populations have been impacted in ways not fully understood. The Primary Care Voice: Advocacy & Innovation Leveraged (PreVAIL) Extension for Community Health Outcomes (ECHO) series on Telehealth was a method to aggregate PCPs’ experiences with telehealth, understand the impact of telehealth, and leverage this information to inform policy development and actions.
Methods
PreVAIL Telehealth sessions were conducted May-July of 2020. These sessions included Colorado PCPs, health policy experts, public health officials, and leaders in primary care telling highlighted stories around their experiences with telehealth. These stories were augmented by real-time quantitative data through polling and additional shared experiences through written submission. Transcripts of these sessions were coded in ATLAS.ti by two coders. Thematic analysis was then conducted using an inductive thematic approach.
Results
There were 6 major themes identified from PreVAIL participants’ experiences with telehealth, including: how much telehealth is being used by practices and what types of practices are using telehealth; how providers are billing for telehealth services and how telehealth services are being reimbursed by payers; factors that make it difficult for providers to deliver care via telehealth; methods that are being used by providers and practices to support telehealth; positive and negative consequences of delivering care via telehealth; and opportunities to improve and optimize the way telehealth is delivered to patients by providers.
Discussion
This research identifies that the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly increased utilization of telehealth services by both patients and providers in Colorado with mixed outcomes. Future areas for policy action include optimizing telehealth reimbursement, improving technology and equipment, enhancing practice workflows, improving information disbursement around rules and regulations, and increased guidance on which types of visits are most appropriate for telehealth.
Jack
jwestfall@aafp.org 11/22/2020we need lots of research on telehealth. great study and work. thanks for sharing it with NAPCRG