telehealth

Tele-everything has taken on supreme importance as the nation battles the coronavirus, and telemedicine might be among the most powerful tools for the VA.

The Office of Personnel Management has chosen a carrier to revive a relatively idle contract option under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program this year. The Government Employees Health Association will offer two new national health plans under OPM’s indemnity benefit contract.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding its telehealth reach coverage to fill critical gaps in areas including mental health and primary care.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is partnering with private sector companies to expand its growing telehealth program.

In today’s Federal Newscast, a rule allowing Veterans Affairs providers to administer healthcare across state lines using virtual technology becomes finalized.

Surveys and feedback are a key part of the Veterans Affairs Department’s customer experience strategy and its plan to expand telehealth services.

The Veterans Affairs Department will expand its telehealth program, which already provided healthcare services to 700,000 veterans across the country.

VA says it wants to significantly expand the health care services it offers through telehealth technologies — voice, video, instantaneous record-sharing — but it’s hampered by state laws that require providers to be licensed in the same states as their patients.

Telehealth and mobile health technology will become more common as the federal government moves into a new phase of Health IT priorities. The new Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020 lays out five goals for collecting, using, and disseminating interoperable information. 35 agencies contributed to the plan. Dr. Karen DeSalvo, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to explain the strategic plan.

Veterans made 2 million virtual health care visits in fiscal 2014. Whether it’s having a consult without leaving your living room or having medical data collected and monitored remotely, telehealth makes more care possible for many vets who can’t make it to a clinic or don’t have one nearby. Ellen Edmonson is deputy chief consultant of the Veterans Health Administration Telehealth Services. She joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to describe how telehealth works.