Drive-up your practice revenue with the help of Telemedicine services

The widespread adoption of telemedicine services is the new norm—that tremendously improves patient experience, consumer convenience, and quality of care in this digital era. With the emergence of the global pandemic COVID-19, demand for telemedicine services is rising significantly, as healthcare professionals are urged to forego conventional methods and adopt virtual care.

Telemedicine is predicted to dominate the dynamic healthcare sector in the coming years. Healthcare professionals have embraced Telemedicine like never before as it is an effective way of improving financial outcomes. The Global telemedicine report indicates that 66% of patients showed their willingness to use Telemedicine and 70% of physicians showed their interest to switch to the new trend.

Below mentioned are the six ways in which telemedicine services improve practice revenues:

1. Reduces No Shows.

Patient no-shows are still a thorn in the side of most American healthcare providers who lose around $150 billion each year due to this phenomenon. With a 13% no-show rate in the U.S, this amounts to an average loss of $32,000 a month for practice. But telemedicine can be used to reduce no-shows by virtually bringing together doctors and patients without the barriers that make it more likely for the no-show to happen. For example, patients are more likely to skip an appointment if they need to take off from work, find childcare, or travel to the office of a distant doctor. A telemedicine appointment reduces no-shows by bringing the doctor to the patient on a device as familiar as a smartphone. If you do have a no-show, it’s easy to fill the appointment with a telemedicine visit to recoup revenue.

2. Telemedicine Attracts More Patients to Your Practice

Telemedicine is a great competitive equalizer, from a marketing perspective. Even to the smallest practice, the virtual visit gives a way to compete against market share encroachment from hospital ERs and urgent care providers. For small healthcare providers, fitting in same-day urgent appointments on top of a busy schedule is quite challenging. This creates an opportunity for niche providers and healthcare systems to swoop in and steal customer revenue with more resources. Its the convenience of telemedicine which attracts more patients to your practice. At PatientMD, we harness the power of data-driven patient engagement strategies to offer intuitive solutions to the Healthcare continuum. We help physicians to reach out to their patients with the help of safe and secure HIPAA compliant telemedicine services over video, audio, and chat.

3. Cuts Out of Pocket Expense.

Medical providers can reduce travel expenses for consultations and other operational expenses with easy access to healthcare using virtual visits, video conferencing, and smartphone apps. Telemedicine is simply a more efficient tool to provide care. Virtual technologies eliminate overhead costs in the practice while lowering the average time spent per patient encounter.

4. Patient Engagement amidst Social Distancing

Amid lockdowns, self-isolations, and social distancing measures taken in most countries to combat the spread of COVID-19, healthcare providers are innovating new ways of reaching their patients. Telemedicine is a sure-fire way to communicate with patients and stay connected to them while delivering the best patient journey experience. As per a news report on telemedicine services revealed that 83% of patients experienced better care than an in-person visit and 66% felt personalized care and connected to their provider through e-consultations.

5. Telemedicine Retains Existing Customers

Firstly, retaining existing customers is the secret to growing any business. But healthcare, like all fields, is increasingly competitive. Independent practices compete with hospital networks, urgent care, and small clinics for the same patients.

But offering Telemedicine services can help you build patient engagement by rendering more convenient care. Patients are increasingly frustrated by long wait times or by anything less than “on-demand.” Offering the option of a telemedicine visit, when the doctor provides care to patients in their homes, is an attractive proposition to many of our busy customers. Promoting virtual visits in your practice offers your patients a more convenient way to receive care. Offering telemedicine services ensures that your practice will stay competitive by engaging your existing customer base.

6. Telemedicine Increases Access to Your Practice 

In addition to encountering longer wait times in the physician’s offices nowadays, the looming provider shortage virtually guarantees that there will simply not be enough clinicians to provide care to patients in the future. With increased patient waiting time, more pressure is exerted on the entire system of care. 

Telemedicine offers our struggling healthcare system a way to do more in less time. There is certainly a positive impact on revenue which comes with an increase in the volume of patients. The more patients you see, the more revenue accrued. 

Telemedicine allows increased access for patients by stretching the clinical resources farther. It's a smart solution to solve a big health-care dilemma: fewer doctors and nurses to deal with the increasing demand. Telemedicine can enhance access to treatment while also increasing medical practice revenues. Needless to say, telemedicine services are boosting the income of a practice as it allows them to attract new patients and provide more patient care than ever before.

Final Words

Healthcare providers extending their medical support to patients without compromising on care quality—while practicing social distancing are resorting to Telemedicine services. It is estimated that 91 percent of practices are expected to be offering telemedicine services by the end of this year. If not now, there won't be a better time to get habituated to these new trends in the healthcare scenario.