Could Temporary Waivers Pave the Way for Greater Use of Telehealth in Urgent Care?

The challenge of keeping patients who could be highly contagious with a potentially deadly infection out of your facility, while still providing care for them is one of the greatest challenges facing many urgent care facilities during the COVID-19 crisis. Some who never saw the utility of telehealth are now using it as a screening tool, however. One Chicago-based ER doc who is also heavily involved in urgent care has pulled several 12-hour telehealth shifts for the first time recently. Patients seem to find the prospect comforting as well, recognizing that every time they leave their homes they’re risking infection. Forbes magazine has picked up on this burgeoning trend, too, suggesting that “when one of the safest measures to protect yourself from COVID-19 is social distancing, telehealth is a safe, efficient, and affordable solution,” especially for screening patients who may not really need face time with a provider. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sees the utility, as well, and is granting temporary regulatory waivers and issuing new rules that give healthcare providers the ability to work across state lines, for example. With some urgent care centers seeing fewer patients, and others swamped, this could be an opportune time to see if telehealth might have a place in urgent care after all. (CMS created a fact sheet specifically on telemedicine for Medicare recipients during the pandemic; it’s available here.)