Care Management Shifts to Remote Monitoring Due to Coronavirus Crisis
As COVID-19 spreads nationwide, insurers have dramatically cut back on in-person care management of their highest-risk chronically ill members while ramping up their capacity for remote monitoring via telehealth. This move — however necessary — likely will lead to repercussions in future months, some analysts warn.
“Face-to-face programs have stopped, as have programs run in nursing homes and other residential facilities,” Dan Mendelson, founder of Avalere Health, tells AIS Health. “Examples are in-person annual wellness visits and home visits attendant to managing complex chronic illnesses. This is appropriate right now given the crisis, but will come at a cost, in that this kind of care management adds value.”