Healthcare Cost Transparency Disruptor Making Telehealth Reimbursement Problems Moot
VSee telehealth and Sheen Health cost transparency disruptor team up to eliminate the guesswork from telehealth reimbursements using machine-learning technology to provide instant, accurate telehealth cost estimates
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- VSee, the telehealth system behind Trinity, MDLIVE, and NASA International Space Station, is partnering with Sheen Health, a ground-breaking solution for getting accurate and personalized healthcare costs, to bring cost transparency to telehealth visits at or before point-of-care.
While most health systems and physicians no longer question the value and feasibility of telehealth, ambiguity around telehealth reimbursement continues to be a barrier to uptake. With varied state telehealth parity laws and changing billing codes such as the recent retirement of the GT modifier, "Can I get paid for doing telehealth?" continues to be a question without clear answers for many providers. While some avoid the complexity of the reimbursement maze by focusing on cash-based models, the majority of providers still have to rely on insurance reimbursements for revenue. Being able to instantly know telemedicine coverage before delivering care gives providers the building block to start offering telehealth services. It allows them to have clear answers about coverage without time-consuming administrative effort or having to ask patients to take on that responsibility. Patients are also more likely to use telehealth if they know their financial responsibility. Sheen Health's cost transparency solution solves this exact problem.
Using a proprietary machine-learning algorithm, Sheen Health's solution is able to provide accurate, real-time telehealth cost estimates that work across insurance companies. The solution incorporates contracted rates from provider system, real-time service type-specific benefit and accumulator information from payers, care details from user input, and adjudication logic using its proprietary algorithm. With the integration of Sheen Health into VSee's online clinics, providers will have direct access to a critical tool for quickly and seamlessly building telehealth into their established workflows.
VSee CEO Dr. Milton Chen says, "As a telehealth company, we quickly realized that we couldn't focus only on ensuring that the technology works. Practices and their patients frequently come to us with questions about telehealth costs, and whether insurance covers the visit. We realized early on that if we want to make telehealth work, we have to be able to provide those answers. With Sheen Health we're able to easily provide this information for any type of telehealth visit, which is critical to any practice's financial success."
Sheen Health CEO Aneesh Kumar adds, "We are thrilled to partner with VSee in increasing telemedicine uptake. Point-of-care patient payments and telemedicine are the future of healthcare."
A key purpose of telehealth is to increase access to care, improve health care efficiency, and lower health costs. Thus, cost transparency solutions such as Sheen Health provide important data for measuring and realizing those goals.
However, telehealth is not the only area that can benefit from health cost transparency. Across the US healthcare system, the lack of point-of-care costs has resulted in $120 billion/year in patient bad debt, tens of billions of dollars in unnecessary administrative expenses, and frustrated patients.
Dr. Chirag Vaidya, Partner at Nephrology Associates of Upland and Pomona, says, "Patient bad debt is an increasing burden for most practices. Sheen Health has a breakthrough solution for this long-standing problem. Their cloud-based solution provides real-time and accurate point-of-care costs for outpatient care. Patients become aware of their out-of-pocket responsibility, and providers are able to collect patient dues promptly."
Sheen Health will be presenting at the VSee Telehealth Secrets: New Revenue and Care Models & Happy Providers conference in Silicon Valley, Oct. 2–4, 2018. Seating is limited and may be reserved at vsee.com/conference.
About VSee
VSee is the telehealth company behind NASA Space Station, Trinity, Ascension MDLIVE and 1,200+ customers, and the parent company of This American Doc medical group—an airbnb-like company for physician staffing. VSee empowers health organizations and practitioners to achieve better patient care and improved efficiency through simple, scalable telehealth. Its modular platform provides powerful flexibility to fit a wide range of workflows from ER diversion to e-ICU to on-call specialist consults to chronic care management. Learn more at vsee.com.
About Sheen Health
Sheen Health's industry-leading solution enables point-of-care patient payments by providing accurate and personalized healthcare costs. It combines provider system data with benefit information from insurance companies in real-time. Benefits for practices are a reduction in patient bad debt, lower administrative costs, and greater patient satisfaction. More information is available at sheenhealth.com.
SOURCE VSee
Share this article