Telehealth: The On-Demand Health Care Revolution
By Seth Halpern

What’s going on with telehealth?
As the medical industry moves away from a fee-for-service model to a more value-based one, physicians and care teams must evolve their practices to accommodate the changing dynamics of patient-centered care. Obviously, the surest way to succeed in the ever-changing landscape is to adopt innovative technologies and systems that streamline processes without sacrificing patient satisfaction. And many practices are beginning to turn to telehealth to help them achieve this lofty goal.
Successfully using telemedicine increases patient satisfaction, margins, and reimbursements. For those who may be unfamiliar with the terms — telehealth and telemedicine refer to any method of delivering health care remotely. It’s the idea that a doctor and patient need not be in the same room to address a patient’s care needs. The opportunities in telemedicine come from the fact that a significant percentage of a provider’s daily consults are allotted for things like prescription refills, referrals, and other types of general sessions that don’t necessarily require an in-person visit. Telemedicine allows physicians to take these patients offsite and online, delivering more immediate and “on demand” care while simultaneously cutting the overhead costs associated with frequent in-office visits.
The ability to fulfill low-severity care remotely inevitably frees up a physician’s time to see more patients in any given day and helps them to treat patients more effectively according to their unique needs. Even the regulatory winds are blowing in favor of a telehealth revolution — care teams in the 32 states and the District of Columbia are guaranteed to receive reimbursement from private insurers for telemedicine that is equivalent to what the practice would receive for an equivalent in-person visit. For Medicaid, all but one state have some coverage for telehealth. More importantly, patients appreciate the opportunity to receive virtual care as it’s more convenient than schlepping to the doctor’s office unnecessarily.
Ok, I’ll bite. But what does this mean for my practice?
According to Salesforce’s 2016 Connected Patient Report, 62% of patients surveyed said they would be open to virtual care treatment options, demonstrating a growing preference for accessible telehealth. These respondents added that they believe telehealth is more convenient, easier to fit into their schedules, and lessens the risk of getting sick from other patients, a reason especially important to those 55 and older. It should then come as no surprise that offering telehealth services to your patients will be a pillar in delivering cost-effective care in our evolving value-based health system.
But, telemedicine still requires administrative work to route a patient into a consult, which is time consuming and costly. So while telehealth increases a practice’s margins and reimbursements, it alone cannot maximize them. In my experience working with healthcare providers and hospitals all over the country, I saw how this administrative red tape bogged down even the most advanced care teams and created unnecessary headaches for their patients. Our antiquated approach to coordinating medical appointments is a lose-lose situation in the sense that while it is burdensome and expensive for physicians it can also be the most frustrating aspects of the health care delivery experience for patients. And after seeing this costly inefficiency pop up across care teams, regardless of their size, location, or services provided, I knew there had to be a better way.
As technology continues to advance and our health system becomes more patient-centric, care teams must be prepared to address the fact that their patients will increasingly want higher levels of convenience and efficiency when coordinating with their healthcare providers. In our world of getting whatever you want — be it a car, food or a dog walker — by just clicking a few buttons, it makes sense that patients similarly want the same digital convenience when receiving their health care.
Taking several minutes to call an office to book an appointment is not only disruptive to someone’s daily schedule, the inherent inefficiency of it can also add unnecessary stress to what could be an already sensitive situation. A recent report, An Emergent Research and Policy Framework for Telehealth, found that, “Many consumers and patients appreciate being able to schedule appointments, refill prescriptions, and exchange basic information with their providers online via email, a secure web portal at a kiosk, or another modality.”
AI-powered chatbots to the rescue
Understanding how the recent advancements in artificial intelligence technology could help to automate the front-desk system without losing the precision needed to effectively route patients to a consultation, I realized the phenomenal potential in a web-based, mobile-accessible digital receptionist. And so I started Ori.Ai to help deliver this solution to care teams everywhere.
At the center of the company is Ori, a digital fox with larger ears who can earnestly listen to every patient’s need. As a 24/7 digital receptionist, Ori helps care teams save time and money by booking visits and fielding patient’s requests. Both a health care navigator and recommendation assistant, Ori schedules patients’ appointments with the right provider no matter what time it is.
Patients can interact with Ori using messaging apps, SMS text messages, web-based portals as well via email and social media. Ori mines data from legacy systems to ensure that your existing patients have a seamless experience. Ori’s specialty-specific AI technology can similarly converse with prospective patients to help them book their first appointment seamlessly. We can also program Ori to meet whatever specific needs your practice may have.
Although still relatively young, Ori has allowed practices to save thousands of dollars by cutting overhead administrative costs and maximize provider’s calendars, allowing physicians to spend their time delivering quality care and growing their practices rather than organizing appointments.
So, while much about our health system remains uncertain, we know that as we transition to a more patient-centered, value-based system, practices must be comfortable using the latest technology to help them deliver the highest level of quality care at lower costs. And, that means care teams must do more than just modernize how patients receive care, it means that practice’s must trim the fat by saying goodbye to antiquated systems that distract physicians from delivering quality, affordable care. Care teams must adopt the right digital technology to interact with patients online in every possible arena — whether it be to deliver a prognosis or schedule an annual check-up.
About Ori.ai
Ensuring patients get the right care with the right provider is an error-prone, laborious process in medicine. Ori.ai enables scalable, AI-powered connectivity to help practices acquire and triage new/existing patients and then route them into the most appropriate, cost-effective care setting.
Ori is best described as an AI-powered care navigator in patients’ pockets. Because Ori integrates with the majority of electronic medical record systems in the U.S., staff members do not have to lift a finger or learn a new system. Interested in learning more? Contact join@ori.ai today.
