Blog

The following paper is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. The information provided in this paper is not a substitute for professional legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. Readers should always consult with a licensed attorney or qualified legal professional for advice on specific legal issues. The author of this paper and any entities associated with the author are not responsible for any actions or decisions taken by readers based on the information provided in this paper.

In the United States, it is well established that individual states and territories, rather than the federal government, regulate the practice of medicine within their borders. That means that unless there is an exception, a provider must be licensed in the state in which the patient is located in order to deliver a medical diagnosis or to prescribe treatment to a patient in a specific jurisdiction. The licensure process is burdensome and expensive, effectively impeding all but the most determined physician from seeking this legal authority to practice beyond his or her state’s borders.

With the ongoing shortage of medical professionals, efficiencies that enable patient throughput have become a top priority. Bottlenecks in patient care and delivery not only negatively impact patient outcomes, but also the bottom line. 

When working with medical images and radiology reports, gaining access to records in a timely manner is critical. Providers often express their frustration with accessing records on disparate platforms since the time spent switching decreases their productivity. 

Congratulations! Your institution has considered the countless benefits of offering a Remote Second Opinion (RSO) program, such as improved patient access and increased geographic reach. Your team is undoubtedly ready to jump into planning out the best program for your patients and providers. While it can be easy and exciting to visualize your RSO program helping patients, the process of getting to your go-live date can feel overwhelming. Your team may be asking big-picture questions such as:

“How do I start a Remote Second Opinion program?”
“What stakeholders need to be involved in the RSO implementation process?”
“How long will the implementation of my RSO program take?” 

A few weeks ago, the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) held their annual conference in San Antonio, Texas. The show floor was filled with impressive futuristic devices from augmented reality glasses, to home health monitoring technologies, big data products, and more. Executives from Microsoft and Google, Kim Swafford and Bakul Patel, took the stage together, kicking off the weekend with exciting updates and reminders of helpful features that emerged from the pandemic era, such as YouTube’s improved searchability, now including personal stories to help people learn about health conditions.  When asked ‘what’s next?,’ panelists joked about the potential for ChatGPT, Kim learning about it from her teenager, but both ultimately settled on describing the buzzword of the weekend, ‘omnichannel.’ 

In an earlier post, we discussed asynchronous modalities from the patient’s perspective, which also provides an introduction to asynchronous modalities:

By design, asynchronous modalities, also called ‘store-and-forward,’ sacrifice real-time, in-person communication between a patient and their medical team for remote asynchronous (not in real-time) communication. There are many positive reasons as to why both the patient and the provider would agree to, and even prefer such an arrangement. There are similarly many reasons as to why asynchronous modalities are inappropriate for handling certain cases. 
Read the entire article: Why Asynchronous Part 1; How Patients Benefit

This article will focus on the benefits asynchronous modalities can offer providers and their physicians.

Access for Patients
Asynchronous modalities open access to patients outside of a provider’s primary service area. For second opinion programs, patients are typically making the request due to navigating an especially rare or complex health issue. These patients often do not have the same caliber of expertise in their local area, or are not getting the results they want. Asynchronous modalities connect the patient, and often the referring physician as well, to experts with deep specialties in their particular condition or disease. Access to specialty care is a great need for millions of Americans, asynchronous solutions take a step towards providing equitable access.

Strategic Growth for New Revenue Sources
More than three years following the start of the pandemic, a lot has happened, but it seems that everyone can agree on one thing - healthcare as we know it has changed. Definitive Health reports that 76% of hospitals have implemented some form of telehealth, a 42% increase from 2019. In our earlier post, we discussed the rising demand and preferences of patients for telehealth modalities for access, cost and convenience, driving providers and payers to meet demand.