The new product also introduced the Online Medical Home capability that enables multi-disciplinary clinical collaboration around a given patient. Ido Schoenberg stated in a press release for Team Edition, “In a time that calls for change and innovation in healthcare services, we are harnessing technology to transform the delivery and availability of specialty care. Team Edition extends quality specialty care into the hands of the patient’s own primary care physician allowing them to render and coordinate much broader, timely and convenient care for their patient panel.
The primary care practice is now the gateway to the rest of the healthcare system, irrespective of its location” (American Well, 2010).
Value, Customers and Potential Barriers for Team Edition American Well has created Team Edition with a few different customers in mind. First, patients benefit from the connected care offered by Team Edition (Ofek and Laufer, 2011).
In a traditional model, patients who need to be evaluated by a specialist are referred by their PCP, see the specialist and then return to the PCP for follow up, each time navigating and waiting for an appointment and waiting for the specialist and PCP to exchange medical record and visit reports. Team Edition is designed to enhance and improve the patient experience by providing a direct and seamless connection to specialists while the patient is in the PCP office. The lower cost access to specialty care offered through Team Edition should ave growing appeal as consumers pay increasingly more out of their own pocket for healthcare (Ofek and Laufer, 201, p. 9).
The Term Paper on Improving Patient Care
There is growing enthusiasm in the United States about the use of electronic medical records (EMRs) in outpatient settings. More than $20 billion of the federal economic stimulus (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) is slated to assist physicians, hospitals, and other health care settings in adopting health information technology (Gill, 2009). The government wants to shift into the ...
Ido and Roy Schoenberg consider their target market for this new product to be healthcare delivery systems, such as hospitals, clinic chains and other physician groups (Ofek and Laufer, 2011, p. 14).
They should also include home health agencies, skilled nursing facilities and any other clinical services that would benefit from better connectivity with primary care. Both primary care and specialist physicians can use Team Edition to help improve efficiency.
For specialists in particular, this product offers a lower cost solution for providing expertise to rural and outreach locations. A tool that connects primary care and specialists can also provide a more efficient way to deliver multi-disciplinary care and provide chronic disease care. This is important in the new landscape of accountable care organizations (ACOs) and healthcare exchanges, particularly since ACOs are required to create ways to promote evidence-based medicine and patient engagement, report on quality and cost measures, and coordinate care.
The patient-centered medical neighborhood requires connected care delivery between PCP and specialist (Standards for Patient-Centered Medical Home, 2011).
Furthermore, with the ever increasing shortage of primary care and specialty physicians and accelerating efforts to reduce healthcare costs, practices are being challenged to take on larger patient panels. This means practices are looking for ways to care for patients, manage populations and deliver quality care without bringing the patient into the office.
Team Edition offers a new path to clinical collaboration and co-management. Some barriers to adoption of this technology include defining payment to specialists and PCPs. Reimbursement remains a problem. Medicare only reimburses for telemedicine if the originating site (where the patient is) is in a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) or in a county that is outside of any Metropolitan Statistical Area (Reimbursement issues for telehealth, 2013).
The Report on Critical Care to Patients
... patient care team (including other physician specialists), the experienced nephrology nurse partners with the patient, advocates for the patient ... * Knowledge of the diagnosis and treatment for patients requiring any method of renal replacement therapy ... and special activities. The American Nephrology Nurses’ Association offers ... as long as the services that nonphysician practitioners furnish ...
Many other health insurers follow The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS).
This barrier can be at least partially overcome if American Well leverages its existing relationships with health insurance networks. Otherwise, without a clear mechanism for reimbursement, it will be challenging to develop a robust specialist network. The carrot for insurance companies is that telemedicine is still less expensive than paying a PCP and a specialist for traditional visits. Another barrier is technology. According to an article in Executive Healthcare, rural and elderly populations have less access to broadband structures (Pryke, 2013).
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) states that up to 70 percent of clinicians outside the metropolitan districts do not currently have access to broadband structures and have to pay three to four times more than their urban counterparts (Pryke, 2013).
Promising new market opportunities American Well has also been considering the following new market opportunities: (1) developing online kiosks for Retail Clinics1; (2) Expanding American Well platform to pharmacy chains; (3) expanding internationally; or (4) explore the software’s applications beyond the healthcare industry – legal or accounting services as examples.
Developing kiosks for Retail Clinics would require more development capital and represent a new business segment that would require new resources. Furthermore, I believe that international expansion and expansion into other business sectors such as legal consults and accounting are premature for American Well. The company’s products have not completely taken root in its home market – the U. S (Ofek and Laufer, 2011).
Expanding internationally without having a sound base to work from represents a risk for the company.
International expansion would require American Well to completely re-organize its company structure and would require significant financing. Without a sound base to work from and complete product adoption expansion into other markets seems to add unnecessary complexity to the business. Team Edition is a natural extension of the services already offered by American Well. Offering this service might actually foster adoption of the core American Well online system because it offers clinics a fuller menu of telemedicine services.
The Business plan on Indian Health Service: Creating a Climate for Change
IHS is a very complex organization that serves the American Indian and Alaskan Native population. Effective health services for American Indians and Alaskan Natives had to integrate the philosophies of the tribes with those of the medical community. Because not all tribes signed treaties with the United States some people with Indian heritage were not eligible to participate with the federal ...
The addition of Team Edition would not add significant development costs to American Well as the company intends to use its existing technology platform for this product. In addition, Team Edition could help differentiate American Well from its competition. This product helps American Well offer a complete range of services for insurance companies and physician offices and will support practices moving into new care delivery models such as medical homes.
Finally, one of American Well’s customers is sure to develop a similar offering since this is such a natural extension of telemedicine and would fill a significant need in the marketplace – timely, convenient access to specialists. The company should not miss the opportunity to be first-to-market. 1 Retail clinics are health care clinics located in retail stores, supermarkets, and pharmacies that treat uncomplicated minor illnesses and provide preventative health care services.
What is the potential of online care to revolutionize the healthcare industry? Better mobile technologies, more mature electronic health records and clinical decision support systems as well as shortages in medical experts are helping to fuel interest in telemedicine (McGee, 2012).
Telemedicine is a rapidly growing area of healthcare in the United States. There are currently about 200 telemedicine networks, with 3,500 service sites in the US (McGee, 2012).
Over half of all U.
S. hospitals now use some form of telemedicine (McGee, 2012).
Around the world, millions of patients use telemedicine to monitor their vital signs, remain healthy and out of hospitals and emergency rooms (McGee, 2012) The implementation of the Obama administration’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), has further intensified the focus on telemedicine as a way to treat an increasing number of people who will be seeking health insurance and medical services.
Telemedicine technology enables healthcare personnel to meet this increasing demand without delays in treatment or rationing care (McGee, 2012).
The Term Paper on Hmos Takes The Care Out Of Health Care
HMOs Take The 'Care' Out Of Health Care. In the early 1990 s insurance companies, in attempt to control spiraling medical costs, created what would be termed "health maintenance organizations", also known as HMOs. What HMOs do is create a team of physicians and medical personnel that the patients agrees to use. Within the contracts both the patient and the doctor sign, limits and restrictions are ...
The FCC recently released data that confirmed that remote patient monitoring and e-care devices could save the healthcare industry upwards of $700 billion over the next 15 to 25 years (Lewis, 2012).
Healthcare already accounts for 17 percent of America’s GDP and is predicted to climb to 20% by 2020 (Lewis, 2012).
Strategies that help deliver quality care at a reduced cost are expected to gain ever increasing traction.
Recommendation to American Well to pursue next-generation options My recommendation is for American Well to launch Team Edition and forgo the opportunities listed on page 3 with the following caveats: (1) American Well should consider health insurance companies as customers for this service in addition to its target audience – healthcare delivery systems and clinics. Specialty care is higher cost than primary care and represents even more significant saving s for insurance companies. Furthermore, insurance companies can help address some of the reimbursement issues for specialists. 2) American Well should conduct some survey research to further gauge market readiness. Attracting specialists to participate will be the key to success. The drivers for specialist practices are different than those of primary care. For instances, their salaries, and therefore opportunity costs, tend to be higher, and they are often balancing their practice with hospital responsibilities. A robust program would require availability of a variety of specialists. Reaching critical mass and making it worthwhile for specialist participants could be complicated.
Of 100 patients maybe only twenty need a referral to a specialist and of those twenty maybe only five need to consult with a cardiologist. I would recommend that Team Edition be launched as a pilot, perhaps with a particular health system in partnership with an aligned health plan first so the company can work through some of the complexities identified above before launching the product to a broader market. Finally, I believe it is possible for American Well to position Team Edition as an expansion and enhancement to its original Online Care System.
