A Wound Care Specific Solution for Clinicians to Quickly Incorporate Reimbursable Telemedicine Services in Their Practices

Background: Throughout the world, use of telemedicine in chronic wound management has been associated with lower cost of care, shorter healing time, fewer foot amputations, and fewer office visits. In the U.S, however, despite CMS’ recent expansion in coverage of telemedicine modalities, telemedicine remains underutilized in wound care, partially due to reimbursement complexities and/or burdensome technological requirements. To address these obstacles, we aimed to develop an easy-to-use, wound care specific telemedicine software to help clinicians quickly incorporate reimbursable telemedicine services in their practice.

Methods: Using the Design Thinking methodology, the software was developed as a module within a clinical/reimbursement decision support web-application for wound care and hyperbaric clinicians, as follows:

 ● Clinicians’ needs/desired features were identified through interviews.

 ● CMS guidelines/requirements and clinical scenarios were mapped out

 ● The module was developed with robust programming language, library, and framework.

 ● Implementation playbook was designed at a hospital-based outpatient wound clinic

Results: The final version of the module allows wound care providers to meet clinical needs and CMS requirements for telemedicine reimbursement. The cloud-based, mobile-responsive, HIPAA-compliant solution offers built-in documentation features/templates to support reimbursement criteria, and does not require download or separate cameras

Providers can access the module through mobile/desktop/tablet and supply telemedicine services through non fee-for-service arrangements or through CMS-billable codes (e.g., interprofessional internet consultation—CPT 99446-99449, 99451, 99452, remote evaluation of patient-submitted images/video—HCPCS G2010, remote check-in on patients—HCPCS G2012, telehealth in underserved areas, etc.).

The implementation playbook designed with a U.S. hospital-based outpatient wound clinic includes operational workflows for common scenarios in wound care (from simple to complex) and reimbursement guidelines that can be applied to other organizations.  

Conclusion: An easy-to-use, wound care specific telemedicine software was developed to empower wound care clinicians to quickly adopt reimbursable telemedicine services and improve their organization’s bottom line.