A new audit report from the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General reports the Veterans Health Administration missed opportunities to expand enrollment for non-institutional care patients in its Home Telehealth Program.
The VA's Home Telehealth Program remotely monitors patients' vital signs at home, allowing providers to intervene when they detect adverse trends.
Non-institutional care patients in the Home Telehealth Program tend to experience best outcomes, in terms of reduced inpatient admissions and bed days of care, according to the audit. However, in FY 2013, the number of NIC patients in the program fell by 4 percent while the number of chronic care management patients grew 51 percent and health promotion and disease prevention patients grew 37 percent.
The OIG audit found the VHA was measuring the performance of the telehealth program in terms of how many patients enrolled. Chronic care and health promotion/disease prevention patients require less intervention from primary care physicians because their health needs are less complex, according to the audit. However, the VHA focused on enrolling these types of patients in the telehealth program instead of increasing enrollment for NIC patients.
"VHA was successful in reaching its new performance metric. However, obtaining this goal did not result in more patients with the greatest medical needs receiving care under the program," according to an audit summary.
Overall, the audit estimates the VA missed opportunities to serve approximately 59,000 patients and potentially delay their need for long-term institutional care.
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