Technology has transformed our lives in more ways than one. We rely on the Internet for instant entertainment, shopping for goods and services without leaving the house, and staying in touch with friends and family all over the globe.

We often turn to Google for answers to all types of questions — from where to eat out in the city to what medical condition the symptoms we’re experiencing are associated with. While the Internet is undoubtedly an incredible tool, at times, people forget that Google is not a licensed physician.

Self-diagnosis, based on the information you find online, often does more harm than good. A wrong interpretation of the symptoms and self-medication may exacerbate the problem and complicate the medical condition further. Still, there are times where an in-person visit to the doctor’s office is difficult due to the distance, limited patient mobility, or various other factors.

With limited accessibility to healthcare, especially in rural areas, and the shortage of healthcare professionals and specialists, getting the necessary medical care can be quite challenging. Medical professionals all over the world have recognized the possibilities of the Internet and have embraced modern technology to deliver healthcare services remotely.

Thanks to the advancement of telehealth, patients can now receive medical services without having to leave their homes. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what telehealth is, how it works, and what the main advantages it offers to both doctors and patients are.

Source: [url]https://curogram.com/blog/benefits-of-telehealth[/url]

In an in-person setting, no-shows can cause a significant loss of revenue. This is especially true for medical professionals and facilities rendering healthcare services to patients in rural areas. Given the fact that a six-hour drive to the doctor’s can be quite a hassle, it’s understandable why patients often opt to skip their scheduled appointment.

Still, that doesn’t solve the problem of practices struggling with idling due to a large number of no-shows. Scheduling two appointments at the same time is out of the question, yet you cannot phone a patient and tell them to come in at a moment’s notice, given the distance. If half a dozen patients don’t show up for their appointments each day, your doctors and medical staff will waste their time idling, and you’ll lose a good portion of your revenue.

How does telehealth solve this problem? While telehealth offers a lot more flexibility regarding rescheduling, enabling patients to attend a doctor’s appointments remotely doesn’t reduce no-shows by default. They might still forget that they have an appointment that day, ask to reschedule at the last minute, or simply change their mind and opt not to show up.

You’ll need a proper telehealth solution with built-in capabilities that enable you to proactively engage with your patients and adapt to changes in your calendar. Curogram allows you to create templated HIPAA compliant text messages and send out appointment reminders to your patients as SMS. They can simply respond via SMS if they need to reschedule, cancel the appointment, or if they have any inquiries.

On top of that, you can configure when and how often you want to send out reminders. You can send a few to each patient:

A few days in advance
On the day of the appointment
An hour or 15–20 minutes before the appointment
This way, patients have several instances where they can reschedule or cancel the appointment, giving you plenty of time to adjust your calendar and schedule a different visit at that time, ensuring maximum efficiency of your practice.

The automated reminders feature helped practices that leverage our platform to deliver telemedicine and telehealth services reduce no-shows by 75 percent!

Source: https://curogram.com/blog/benefits-of-telehealth

Different states in the U.S. have vastly different regulations regarding telemedicine and telehealth. You will need to familiarize yourself with your state’s laws, rules, regulations, and policies regarding remote healthcare delivery before you embrace telehealth.

We’ve written detailed articles providing a summary of telemedicine and telehealth laws for each state, and we wholeheartedly recommend checking out the one for the state you’re in.

The crucial questions you’ll need to answer before you get started with telehealth are:

Are you eligible to provide remote healthcare services?
What rules and regulations do you need to abide by?
How will you be reimbursed for telehealth services?
Another crucial thing to keep in mind is that you must comply with HIPAA Rules & Standards when delivering remote medical care. Given the fact that you’ll be sharing protected health information (PHI), you can’t simply use any video platform like Zoom or Skype to conduct virtual appointments. Apart from the fines for HIPAA Rules violations being astronomical, data breaches and confidentiality violations can severely damage the reputation of your practice.

That’s why we’ve made sure Curogram is fully HIPAA compliant and comes with built-in safeguards that ensure you’re practicing telehealth in a 100% secure environment. We’ve handled all the technical details, so both you and your patients can have peace of mind knowing that sensitive medical information is adequately protected.

Source: https://curogram.com/blog/benefits-of-telehealth