Telemedicine Visits Increasingly Being Accompanied by Lab Testing Services

The continuing adoption of virtual care (i.e., telemedicine) is driving a number of related changes in healthcare. One of them will certainly be changes in outpatient lab testing which has been stable for decades. In the past, patients with appointments in an outpatient facility, and for whom lab tests were ordered, typically had their blood drawn and tests performed in the same facility. These same conditions to not apply for a televisit where the participating physician sets the conditions for lab testing. This topic was addressed in a recentDark Daily note (see:As Primary Care Providers and Health Insurers Embrace Telehealth, How Will Clinical Laboratories Provide Medical Lab Testing Services?). Below is an excerpt from it:When patients use telehealth, how do they choose medical laboratories for lab test orders their virtual doctors have authorized? ....Recently, the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) published data showing that visits to primary care physicians declined 18% from 2012 to 2016 among adults under 65 who had employer-sponsored insurance. However, during these same years, visits with nurse practitioners and physician ’s assistants increased by 129%! ....Humana said its members have no copay for the virtual doctor visits and $5 copays for standard medical laboratory tests and prescriptions.Synapse ’s  “smart referrals” function, [the virtual care program ofDoctors on Demand,] sends referrals to in-network clinical laboratories, imaging provid...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Clinical Lab Testing Diagnostics Healthcare Innovations Healthcare Insurance Lab Industry Trends Medical Consumerism Point-of-Care Testing Telemedicine Test Kits and Home Testing Source Type: blogs