Reimbursement Policies
The exchange of information from location to another in Nevada gets affected by the federal government disbursement policies. Electronic communication in healthcare intends to improve patient health status. The United States federal government has major payers that affect the application of electronic communication in Nevada. These include Medicare and Medicaid policies.
Most of the telemedicine services in Nevada come from Medicare, which is the federal health insurance program. Medicare reimbursement laws seek to improve medical care in rural and medically underserved areas (Emeli-Komolafe, 2014). Some of the policies created in Medicare affected the scope of telemedicine by removing the free sharing requirement and adding services to cover a larger geographical area. These disbursement policies increased the costs of implementing telemedicine in Nevada (Ducker, 2014). The expansion of Medicare’s role to fund the telemedicine demonstration projects, improved Nevada’s telemedicine policies to increase the types of services that get covered which influences care providers.
Medicaid program pays for medical assistance to families and individuals with low income and resources. The federal reimbursement policies require the state’s Medicaid programs to provide specific basic services to the needy populations. When Nevada state healthcare policies get created they must include these services to telemedicine. Medicare does not identify telemedicine as a different service and therefore does not include in its policies. The states by applying telemedicine utilize the technology to reduce the costs of transport, and improve patient access to specialists and improved care. Nevada when providing telemedicine services, they get affected by the type of services and the location of the Medicaid beneficiaries (“Nevada Telemedicine & Telehealth Reimbursement Overview – VisuWell”, 2020). Since the federal government through reimbursement policies requires the services provided by the states to match their requirements for efficiency, economy, and quality of care, Nevada creates innovative payment strategies for services provided through telemedicine.
In conclusion, Nevada State faces additional costs through technical support, line-charges, and equipment as it tries to meet the US requirements. Avoiding such costs must get considered by the US government by incorporating telemedicine costs administrative costs or link the costs to Medicare and Medicaid services.
References
Emeli-Komolafe, J. (2014). Telehealth, Telemedicine, or Electronic Health Simplified. Xlibris Corporation. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xul0BQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Nevada+Telemedicine+Policy,+Simplified.&ots=uRtZ7cAlym&sig=XBAOJ9fA2_dXNZtd9CQUsyzb1oo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Nevada%20Telemedicine%20Policy%2C%20Simplified.&f=false
Ducker, E. (2014). What Does a Successful, Sustainable Telemedicine Program Look Like? An Inside View of Six Telemedicine Programs in Maine. https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1110&context=muskie_capstones
Nevada Telemedicine & Telehealth Reimbursement Overview – VisuWell. VisuWell. (2020). Retrieved 14 July 2020, from https://visuwell.io/telemedicine-reimbursement/nevada-telemedicine-telehealth-reimbursement-overview/.