The path to specialty benefits

Researchers for the electronic health record company say their findings suggest that telehealth is typically an efficient use of resources.

In this week’s episode of Tuning In to the C-Suite podcast, MHE Associate Editor Briana Contreras interviewed VillageMD’s Senior Medical Director of Village Medical at Home, Dr. Tom Cornwell. Dr. Cornwell discussed the main benefits of primary care at home, which includes the benefit of cost savings for patients, maintaining control of hospital readmissions and others. Dr. Cornwell also noted what has changed in the industry of at-home care and if there has been interest from payers like insurance companies and medicare in the service.

The program reduced per-episode spending as intended, the researchers found. But those savings were offset by bonuses paid to hospitals for beating financial benchmarks, leading to a net loss.

The report highlights the gap between rigorously tested prescription digital therapeutics and products that make health or economic claims without providing supportive evidence.

Patients using the prescription digital therapeutic saw a decrease of $3,591 in healthcare costs in the six months following treatment initiation.

Health systems with more primary care doctors and palliative care services saw fewer people coming back to the hospital, a new study finds.