Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic initiated its telemedicine unit, The Mayo eICU, in 2013. The services aren't reimbursed by Medicare because they fall outside of the care requirements that quality for Medicare payments, but Mayo Clinic continues to offer telemedicine, and absorb the costs, because the health system believes it is a useful tool for improved care, as well as strengthening connected care, according to a Minneapolis Star Tribune report.
Here are three things to know about the health system's telehealth initiative.
1. The Mayo eICU currently serves 95 beds in seven Mayo Clinic Health System hospitals in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Georgia. A new facility in Red Wing, Minn., is expected to connect to the service, growing the total bed count to 101.
2. "Medicare reimbursement for telehealth is kind of stuck in the 1990s," Randy Schubring, Mayo Health's public policy manager, told the Star Tribune. The health system absorbs the costs of offering telemedicine services. Mayo does offer telestroke diagnoses to hospitals outside of the system, but those using the service pay a subscription fee.
3. Medicare's lack of reimbursement for telehealth is a barrier to connected care, according to Steve Ommen, MD, associate dean for Mayo Center for Connected Care. At a Senate Special Committee on Aging in fall 2014, Dr. Ommen said, "This isn't just for people living in some rural outpost." Instead, telemedicine offers a means to extend care to patients to keep them healthy and out of the hospital or physician office.
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