No More Healthcare Faxes? Moving Away from the Fax and Legacy Technology

A few minutes into her address at the ONC Interoperability Forum in Washington on August 6, CMS Administrator Seema Verma let fly with an imposing order. “If I could challenge the developers in this room here today to achieve one mission, it would be this: Help us make every doctor’s office in America a fax-free zone by 2020,” Verma said.

That’s going to be a major test of innovation, diligence, and persistence. A 2017 poll conducted by IT website Spiceworks showed 89 percent of small- to medium-sized businesses still using some form of the fax. Further, separate research from International Data Corporation (IDC) found fax usage actually increased year-over-year for 82 percent of survey respondents. In the healthcare sector, fax usage expanded by 9 percent in 2017, IDC reported.

IDC’s study stated, “[Fax] remains a vital communication tool, is relied upon by businesses of all sizes and in all industries, and has an important role within organizations as they embrace digital transformation.” Significantly, such transformation will create value and competitive advantages for organizations that deploy cloud, mobility, data analytics and social technologies in evolving fax solutions.

So, it seems Verma’s directive wouldn’t literally eradicate fax technology from medical offices over the next few years. Instead, IDC predicts an increased presence of software- and cloud-based fax technology that can be integrated with enterprise applications through “secure, trackable and auditable information exchange.” The report adds, “Today’s digital fax server-based systems and cloud services eliminate the standalone fax machines of old and enable integration with users’ desktops, email, back-end applications, and multifunction peripherals.”

Perhaps most promising in IDC’s outlook: About 90 percent of fax users have already integrated or are evaluating the integration of fax with other technologies or applications.

Future of Fax

Faxing, in one form or another, will continue to be used by healthcare providers for years to come, according to Jonathan Coopersmith, the technology historian at Texas A&M University. Part of the support comes from doctors and hospital administrators who believe faxing is more secure than emailing for transmitting protected health information under HIPAA regulations.

At the same time, new generations of electronic faxes have become easier to use. “Faxing is a network technology,” Coopersmith points out. “The more people who use it, the more valuable it becomes.” Future iterations will likely incorporate electronic fax-like capabilities with smartphones, which would make the technology more readily accessible for on-the-go doctors and other caregivers.

And although physical fax machines retain a place in most U.S. emergency rooms, the devices will eventually be phased out, says Peter Alperin, MD, an internist and vice president of connectivity solutions at medical networking company Doximity. “Whether that’s a steep slope or a gradual one is hard to tell,” he comments.

Looking forward, as the design of electronic health record systems improves, data transfer should become increasingly simplified as a matter of course. For example, the 21st Century Cures Act requires EHR systems to exchange data in a way that requires “no special effort.” While that language has yet to be fully parsed, it provides guidance for a more integrated approach to what was formerly known as faxing.

NetDirector supports this vision now. The company’s integration options for healthcare make a digital paperless system much more complete and cost-efficient, from billing to record keeping to lab and imaging work.

To learn more about NetDirector’s cloud-based HealthData Exchange platform, please contact us or request a free demo.

Telehealth on the Rise Across Delivery and Payment Components

Momentum in key areas will drive telehealth to new heights in the coming years. Academic investigation confirms telehealth’s effectiveness, according to a review of 145 articles conducted earlier this year by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The study finds evidence that recognizes the advantages of telehealth, particularly for remote intensive care and specialty care consultations.

Aside from improving access to care and delivering clinical benefits, the technology is gaining additional traction in the form or emerging payment models and regulatory support, MobiHealthNews reports.

Doctors are onboard, too. “There’s no question that providers are embracing virtual care more than ever before,” says Jason Gorevic, CEO of telehealth trailblazer Teladoc.

“However, this is a case of ‘and’ not ‘or.’ This is additive because health plan, employer and consumer adoption are rapidly increasing,” Gorevic points out.

Developing Business Models

The most successful telemedicine providers “are those who shift their mindset from reimbursement to revenue,” observes the healthcare practice of law firm Foley and Lardner. Current examples include:

  • Academic medical centers with a surplus of specialist physicians contracting with rural hospitals or other sites of care to supply on-demand medical expertise through professional service agreements such as monthly retainers (as opposed to external fee-for-service reimbursement).
  • Telemedicine companies contracting with accountable care organizations (ACOs) to implement virtual care as a means for ACOs to realize quality and cost improvements, and thereby qualify for Medicare incentive payments.
  • Provider networks offering telemedicine-based care to employer workforces via varying compensation approaches, such as per-encounter fees, capitated per employee per month payments or shared-savings models.

In any of these pathways, there’s potential for cost savings through telehealth, as providers gain the ability to monitor patients remotely, identify symptoms before diseases get worse, and prevent expensive subsequent treatments.

Nonetheless, providers need to be proactive with their telehealth strategy, reports Health Data Management. That means reviewing and updating compliance programs, as well as billing, coding and documentation procedures and policies.

Integration in a Burgeoning Market

Venture capital funding for telehealth-focused companies nearly tripled between 2013 and 2016, according to an analysis conducted by Rock Health.

Meanwhile, the push is on to position telehealth as a low-cost alternative to hospital or physician office visits for non-emergency issues. An employer survey from Willis Towers Watson shows that offerings of telehealth services to employees rose from 64 percent of employers in 2016 to a projected 92 percent in 2018.

“Today, we focus on urgent care, but over time we will be able to focus on other things … [such as the] parts of patient care that are routine and can—and should—be done online,” comments Lyle Berkowitz, MD, the chief medical officer at MDLive. He predicts further emphasis on telehealth within routine care environments, helping set the stage for greater provider efficiency.

NetDirector agrees and also views telehealth as part of automated billing and payment processes. NetDirector can integrate telehealth options to EMR, billing or imaging systems, allowing telehealth to no longer be a standalone service, but a true end-to-end solution.

To find out more about NetDirector’s cloud-based HealthData Exchange platform, please contact us or request a free demo.