OAHHS Hospital Voice Fall/Winter 2020

21 Fall/Winter 2020 more home visits and curbside services to meet demand in ways that are convenient and accessible to those who may still be reluctant to travel to the facility. “The census on the floor in the hospital was lower, so we wanted to offer home visits and curbside because patients were staying home,” he said. “We wanted to make sure we could get them the care they needed.” Providence Health & Services has seen virtual visits at its medical groups soar to more than 25 percent of the total. Its emergency room visits were down in July 2020 about 13 percent from the year before, which Chief Financial Officer Melissa Damm said is a concern but also an incentive to continue push- ing the telehealth option. “We remain concerned that patients are avoiding necessary care out of fear and continue to encourage them to get care, whether emergent through an ER or virtually with their provider,” she said. Expanding telehealth has also helped hospitals and clinics from a financial standpoint. With fewer people leaving their homes for treatment, hospitals in Oregon were losing money. Estimates suggest Oregon hospitals lost $200 million in March alone and likely lost about $13 million per day in April. ‘It’s what patients want’ As of late August, the COVID-19 pandemic was still in full force across the United States and in Oregon. And, as they’d been doing since the start of the outbreak, hospitals and clinics around the country were offering telehealth services to help people get the care they need. While that’s largely gone well for most providers, there is one area of concern that has people uncertain about the future: Most of the flexibilities that have been allowed for telehealth as a result of the pandemic are temporary. They have been extended each time the public health emergency declara- tion has, but there’s no guarantee that they will become permanent. If the temporary waivers expire, the growth of telehealth would likely suffer. “It has really changed everything, but we don’t know to what extent permanently,” Harris said. “A lot of what’s happening right now is happening under waivers from the federal government. Congress and CMS have expressed interest in making them permanent, but not yet.” Whether those waivers become permanent or not remains to be seen, but there’s one thing that is certain: Telehealth is likely here to stay, thanks in part to COVID-19. Harris said, “The genie’s out of the bottle now,” and Wanner, from WMH, said it would be wise to keep telehealth a regular option for people everywhere. “Hopefully they’ll allow us to con- tinue this into the future,” he said, “because it’s what patients want.” Platforms that had before not been permitted for telehealth, such as Zoom and Facetime, were now allowed, at least during the pandemic. The result? Nationally, while telehealth accounted for just 0.1 percent of Medicare primary care visits in February, by April it was more than 43 percent. In Oregon, telehealth made up 46 percent of total visits in April. There is one area of concern that has people uncertain about the future: Most of the flexibilities that have been allowed for telehealth as a result of the pandemic are temporary. They have been extended each time the public health emergency declaration has, but there’s no guarantee that they will become permanent.