Tele-EMS Improves Productivity and Reduces Overall Costs

Nationally, it’s estimated that prehospital EMS responds to nearly 40 million annual incidents per year, with two-thirds of these cases requiring ambulance transport to a hospital ED.1 A significant volume of prehospital care is delivered through municipal fire or EMS agencies, which are typically government-funded and have constraints on their ability to raise tax rates or revenues. Many of the calls to 9-1-1 across the nation are not acute or urgent in nature, yet they frequently require the same rapid, resource-intensive response as true emergencies.2 It’s estimated that somewhere between 20–40% of EMS incidents aren’t urgent and could have been more effectively managed in a primary care setting or clinic. Coupled with this, is the nature of ambulance reimbursement, which, until recently, required transport only to a hospital ED to get reimbursed from most U.S. payers, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In February, CMS announced a change in reimbursement which will now allow services, particularly those who offer tele-health, to refer patients to facilities other than hospital EDs, and receive reimbursement for doing so. Therefore, there will be financial incentives in the future to allow a wider range of transport options.3 Reforms in the delivery system to accommodate more patient-centered, cost-effective care is necessary given the rising costs of prehospital care.4 Many of the reforms will likely be driven by health information technolog...
Source: JEMS Operations - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Exclusive Articles Operations Source Type: news