RISARC CEO Richard Stephenson Believes Obamacare will Encourage Job Growth Opportunities for Telehealth Start-ups

(PRWEB) March 31, 2014

Richard Stephenson, Founder and CEO of RISARC, a leading national high-technology and revenue recovery consulting firm to the health care industry, believes that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will open employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in all industries, but particularly in healthcare, where new telehealth applications, communications and digital services are needed.

Telehealth is the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration. Among telehealth technologies are videoconferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications including mobile smart-phone applications.

New mobile apps for health

Said Stephenson: "There has been considerable coverage in the past several months of how the availability of affordable health insurance under Obamacare will 'unlock' thousands who have been holding onto jobs just to get healthcare benefits. I believe, as do many other policy experts, that this will have the net effect of encouraging many from this group, particularly the young and mobile 'Millennials,' to start new businesses. The growing and challenging emphasis of the ACA on electronic records and continuous patient engagement suggests that some of this new entrepreneurial energy could best be directed to the health care industry itself in the form of new talent and start-ups advancing online telehealth communications and mobile applications."

Young mobile Millennials

Analyst Shaila Dewan, writing in the New York Times Magazine, commented: "People will switch to jobs that better suit their talents. Parents will be able to spend more time with their families. Such changes don't always make people wealthier, but they make people happier."

Said Stephenson: "I agree with Dewan. Many of the young tech savvy Millennials supported by extensions on their parent's coverage and new sources of affordable health insurance would be able to focus on entrepreneurial ventures. I believe that the health care industry itself and needed advances in telehealth applications itself will be among the earliest beneficiaries."

HIPAA and connectivity

Stephenson notes that all Americans have long enjoyed high electronic connectivity with their banks and consumer accounts.

"The vanguard of newly-covered Obamacare insurance entrants will be demanding the same continuous, uninterrupted access to their health records that they already have with their bank and credit card accounts – many healthcare industry providers and insurers have been making strides in developing transaction and communication applications sophisticated enough to suit these newcomers and their ever-smarter, more capable mobile devices. The federal HIPAA law imposes a very high privacy standard on any communications protocols that the health care industry uses to transfer personal information."

According to Stephenson, these tough federal standards provide both a challenge and a fertile ground for innovation.

Reliable, continuous access

Said Stephenson: "There is no escaping the immediate mission for the entire health care industry which is to bring greater, more flexible, more intuitive, reliable and continuous access for all members of the health care community to the information that maintains and enriches diagnosis, wellness and healing. Don't be surprised if some of the talent behind the next generation of breakthroughs in telehealth, from the very individuals 'emboldened' to do so by Obamacare are able to improve our lives and theirs."

About RISARC

RISARC is a leading national high-technology and revenue recovery consulting firm to the health care industry. RISARC, founded in 1990, has recovered over $1 billion for its clients. The company offers the RMSe-bubble™ for secure electronic document exchange and the signature RISARC 360° Services a single-source solution that combines health care revenue cycle expertise with innovative cloud-based, cost-saving technology to help clients optimize existing resources, meet business objectives and reach financial goals. RISARC is a pioneer in health care technology solutions and is a certified Health Information Handler for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, esMD project. The RMSe-bubble provides the industry's best secure, HIPAA-compliant environment for electronic record and document exchange and has been endorsed and accepted by providers, commercial insurance carriers and government agencies across the United States.

Please visit us at http://www.risarc.com for additional information.

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