If you’re a provider looking to start or integrate a California-based telehealth program, CTRC offers a comprehensive range of unbiased insights, no-cost educational tools, resources, and consultative services. We help you to avoid time-consuming missteps.
We have specialized expertise supporting community health care sites, rural providers, and underserved and marginalized populations. You need to understand when you’re on track and when you need to adjust – we’ll show you how.
At CTRC, we work with the four most common types of telehealth. Each may be reimbursed differently by various state Medicaid programs and private insurers:
At CTRC, we work with the four most common types of telehealth. Each may be reimbursed differently by various state Medicaid programs and private insurers:
With telehealth, clinicians can extend their patient base beyond brick-and-mortar facilities—offering more convenient hours and providing more flexible, responsive patient follow-up care.
Today, telehealth is being used to monitor chronic conditions from the comfort of a patient’s own home. Remote teams can act as consultative coaches who engage each patient in their unique health care journey.
Telehealth can be used to reach patients in rural areas, or those outside normal care delivery systems. It’s a valuable tool that assists with diagnosis, follow-up treatment, and ongoing patient education.
Telehealth can help facilitate faster care delivery. It lets physicians triage each case—capturing and storing patient data to enhance communication, and improve decision-making. Over time, this often increases patient trust and may even boost satisfaction scores.
Telehealth may reduce overhead costs per visit, because it’s a highly efficient care model for both patient and provider. Physicians can often bill for uncompensated phone calls, while simultaneously extending hours to expand billable time. Telehealth cuts down on appointment no-shows, and can often provide a competitive advantage by attracting/retaining a broader range of patients.
Telehealth can improve service delivery and treatment follow-through for acute conditions—especially in rural or remote settings. It may also reduce unnecessary ER visits, helping more patients comply with treatment protocols by eliminating the need to travel long distances.
These trusted and time-tested telehealth resources help get your program underway, and keep it running smoothly. Find tips, tools, and templates that can boost patient engagement, increase practice efficiency, simplify staffing decisions, improve daily workflows, facilitate credentialing, and much more.
This factsheet provides recommendations for providers when treating patients with disabilities via telehealth. It includes both general recommendations for providers as well as specific tips when treating patients who are deaf or have hearing loss, patients who are blind or have vision loss, and patients with physical/developmental disabilities.
This toolkit is intended to help California providers and patients optimize RPM for better, more equitable care. Practices that embrace RPM technologies today, will be well positioned to leverage eminent powerful advances that build on RPM to transform care as we know it.
It really pays to review these sample workflows as you get started. Use them to save time, increase efficiency, and implement your program more effectively. They’re a great starting point for developing your own operational protocols over time.
Credentials are documented evidence of licensure, training, and specialized expertise. The resources included here make it easier to obtain, verify, and assess the qualifications of any telehealth practitioner.
A: Typical equipment includes computers with cameras, smartphones, or tablets. Connectivity options include cellular or Wi-Fi.
A: Yes! Your personal health care information is always safe and secure whenever you have a telehealth visit. Every health care organization protects all details related to you, and telehealth is no different. If you’re worried about privacy, just ask your provider what steps they take to safeguard your important medical information.
A: Many do. Check with your plan directly for insights or referrals. Or, visit findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov
A: Absolutely. All health plans are required to provide you with assistance in your native language. This might mean sending an interpreter in person for the visit. It could also mean bringing an interpreter into the visit virtually. Check with your health plan member services representative to discuss available options.
A: Try these suggestions:
• Make sure everyone who’s part of the visit is in the room (or at least introduced) when the visit starts.
• Use the best camera you have.
• Adjust your camera so it’s at eye-level.
• Keep your face centered on-screen.
• Conduct your visit in a quiet, private space.
• If there are windows in the room, keep them behind your device—not behind your back.
• Don’t eat or drink during your visit.
• Have a pen and paper handy to take notes.
The success stories on this page illustrate how telehealth can literally change lives. It improves patient awareness, enhances clinical efficiency, reduces care-related costs, and more. It can also make a dramatic difference for underserved and marginalized patient populations.
Use these inspiring examples as a blueprint for your own California-based telehealth program. Got a Success Story of your own? Share it with us!
