By Brooke LeVasseur, CEO of AristaMD
Wondering what your organization’s ROI could be by leveraging telehealth? Learn more about why innovation is essential within the transition to value-based care, and what your telehealth cost savings could be through an in-depth analysis of how eConsults reduce unnecessary spending while improving access to quality care.
Within the shift from fee-for-service payment models to value-based care, it has become increasingly important for healthcare providers to focus on optimizing the referral process, referring patients to the right place at the right time. Health plans are missing out on critical programs to support this transition. An assessment of telehealth cost savings is essential when assessing tools and resources to support organizational goals.
In addition to increasing access to quality specialty care, eConsult cost savings result from decreased healthcare spend stemming from unnecessary referrals, chronic disease management, and high-risk patients.
Context into the overall cost of care
National health expenditure growth is expected to average 5.5 percent annually over 2017-2026, according to a report published today as an “Ahead Of Print” by Health Affairs and authored by the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Growth in national health spending is projected to be faster than projected growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 1.0 percentage point over 2017-2026. As a result, the report projects the health share of GDP to rise from 17.9% in 2016 to 19.7% by 2026.
9% of ambulatory PCP visits result in a specialist referral
20-30% of these referrals are for routine clinical issues that can be safely treated by PCPs *Source: AristaMD internal data, 2018
The average referral results in 3.4 specialist visits
Average total cost of downstream specialist costs resulting from one referral is $965
About one in 10 ambulatory visits and one in three hospital discharges will result in referrals to other care providers
Two out of every three Medicare beneficiaries have two or more chronic diseases, which often requires treatment from multiple providers in multiple specialties
eConsults reduce health plan costs and deliver increased access to specialty care
Adoption of eConsults is fast, simple, and immediately gives PCPs support in order to avoid unnecessary referrals.
Deliver more timely access to care
Reduce costs associated with unnecessary specialist visits, labs, and diagnostics
Improve patient satisfaction
Minimize costs such as extra or unnecessary ED and office visits associated with waiting for specialist availability
The data is in:
More than 70% of eConsults replace the need for face-to-face visits for routine referrals.
Based on referral cost data, this means health plans could be capturing $3 million per year in telehealth cost savings, for every 100,000 members.
The immediate and tangible impact of eConsults for ConcertoHealth is the ability to avoid unnecessary referrals, while the long-term benefits include avoiding unnecessary admissions and readmissions.”
eConsult efficacy has been proven across diverse geographies, specialties, and patient demographics
Launching an eConsult program can be done in <30 days and requires no IT integration
eConsult programs have NO upfront costs and pay-per-consult pricing means no-risk and immediate ROI
With $0 upfront costs or implementation fees, you don’t need to create a new budget to run an eConsult program with AristaMD. You’re already paying for specialist visits.
Learn more about how eConsults can benefit your clinic with improved access, increased member satisfaction, and reduced costs.
Our intention is to be good stewards of our resources and to identify which of those resources help us to achieve quality measures (managing diabetes etc,) in a financially responsible way. We’ve realized that leveraging the AristaMD telehealth platform helped us bend the cost curve through significant avoidance of in-person specialty referrals.
