Remote Health Organization
Kaushal Parikh
HCS 514
July 15, 2013
Thomas Kehoe

Remote Health Organization
Remote health organization was developed in Detroit, Michigan in the July, 2013, realizing the growing need for its population needs. The reason behind developing such an organization was to help the vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the medically underserved area. Some of the target population of this organization is rural, frontier, urban communities, and the elderly who cannot get to a health care facility to take care of their basic needs. The objective of this organization will be to develop mini-clinics or Telehealth Clinics in the medically underserved communities increasing access to basic care. Some of the external factors that will affect this organization are Medicaid expansion due to Affordable Care Act, and increase in access to care, while the flow of the organization and productivity due to Electronic Health Record EHR implementation will be one of the internal factors effecting this organization.
In 2010 president Obama passed the Affordable Care Act, it was designed so that people can afford health insurance for basic health care. Since the ACA went into effect people can afford more preventative health care, patients with pre-existing condition can no-longer be denied coverage, and it also keeps young adults covered under their parents insurance until the age of 26. Under ACA the government also plans to expand Medicaid in the year 2013 to 2014, Currently Medicaid pays primary care doctor 66% of what Medicare pays, so by the expanding Medicaid it will narrow the gap and Medicaid will pay the primary care physicians 100% of what Medicare pays by 2014 (Lubell, 2013). This type of expansion will create more access for patients to get primary care. Medicaid and many of the private insurances also give incentives for Telehealth because it is a much less charge for the same service which would cost them more if the patients went to the clinic or other facility, therefore reducing the cost of care.
Due to the Medicaid expansion and other incentives there will be more Physicians, Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Nurses, and other care givers who would be willing to make house calls or help patients remotely by the use of Telehealth equipment, and the patients can also be seen in a Telehealth Clinic. Remote Health Organization will use the newest telehealth equipment for patient care, two-way video conferencing, collect vital signs remotely by the use of other home care equipment's like the Blood Glucose Monitor or BGM, blood pressure monitor, and educate patient of in the home health care, while creating a personal relationship with each patient. Currently we are seeing a rise in the elderly, and as a result we are seeing more and more of the population who will need health care that will come to them. It will also become very important to keep costs at an acceptable level, ensure access to health care professionals, and teach patients how to become and stay healthy.
Remote Health Organization also faces some internal challenges in the implementation of the Meaningful Use 2 (steps designed by the ACA for providers to meet certain quality standards) and HIPPA compliance. Some of the objectives of Meaningful Use 2 are the use of computerized order entry for medication, laboratory and radiology orders, use of EHR to E-prescribe and keep track of patients when they are due for preventative care to send those reminders (Bendix, 2013). The ACA also has many more guidelines, such as keeping electronic record of patient health, maintaining record of certain criteria to help population health, use of EHR to keep lab, radiology, and other test results (Bendix, 2013).
In trying to work towards meeting the MU2 criteria it has increased the cost associated with the EHR implementation and use. The direct cost of the MU2 compliant EHR software can be tens of thousands and not to