Healthcare ITNews
Telemedicine Triage Kiosks Lower ER Visits by 11% for ACO

The Alliance for Integrated Care of New York (AICNY) oversees the healthcare needs around 6,200 dually eligible Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Many AICNY beneficiaries reside in group homes and use Federally Qualified Community Health Centers.
Numerous the beneficiaries present a number of complex chronic health situations with a high coexistence of mental health situations making the coordination of care more complex and inefficient.
Visibility into centralized accountable care organization (ACO) information throughout AICNY’s network from its population health vendor, HealthEC, revealed terribly high emergency division utilization rates among the many organization’s IDD sufferers living in licensed residences. A substantial portion of that ED use was unnecessary or avoidable, but additionally had a high correlation to inpatient admissions.
AICNY thought that if it added telemedicine kiosks to IDD sufferers’ residential properties and engaged providers with triage expertise, it could effectively manage people’s medical services after hours and on weekends and reduce avoidable ER visits.
To secure investment for the project, AICNY applied for and was authorized for a grant from the Staten Island Delivery Service Reform Incentive Payment Program (DSRIP) Performing Provider System that was funded by an 1115 Medicaid Waiver.
There is, at present, a great many telemedicine know-how and services distributors on the health IT market.