Hartford-based CareCentrix said it has provided 8,000 home health agencies with access to its telehealth technology platform, following a sweeping expansion of Medicare coverage for remote treatment options meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
CareCentrix said it has provided its network of agencies with three-way virtual health conferencing capabilities, as well as remote monitoring, secure messaging and clinical analytics tools.
CareCentrix said the telehealth offering comes at no cost to the agencies. It did not disclose any financial details, but said its health plan customers are “quickly endorsing” the technology.
The post-acute patients for which CareCentrix helps coordinate care on behalf of insurers and other payers are often older and dealing with chronic respiratory and cardiac diseases, meaning they are at higher risk to suffer more severe symptoms or death from COVID-19.
“Allowing access to home services virtually is vital to ensuring our healthcare system does not become overburdened during this public health emergency,” CareCentrix said.
Because Medicare reimbursement for telehealth has been limited, many providers may not have invested in telehealth capabilities, the company said. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which announced a waiver covering the telehealth expansion last week, has also advised private insurers to follow suit.
“We are proud to do our part to deploy every tool at our disposal to ensure the safety of Americans and slow the threat of an extended pandemic by opening access to care for vulnerable populations,” CareCentrix CEO John Driscoll said in a statement.
He continued: “Technologies like telehealth and remote monitoring have operated on the periphery of our system like urgent care and small pilots. No longer. This is the new and evolving norm. We must do what it takes to safely extend care to patients.”
