Recent Studies from University of Pennsylvania Add New Data to Telemedicine (Do Medical Insurance Companies Reimburse Telemedicine Office Visits the Same As In-person Office Visits In an Academic Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon Setting?): Telemedicine

2022 JAN 11 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Researchers detail new data in Telemedicine. According to news originating from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “The use of telemedicine has grown exponentially over the last decade, but its widespread adoption has been hindered, at least in part, by uncertainty over reimbursement rate for services. The aim of this study is to compare reimbursement rates of telemedicine and in-person visits in an academic oral and maxillofacial surgery practice.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Pennsylvania, “The investigators implemented a retrospective cohort study. The sample was composed of patients who were treated by the oral-maxillofacial surgery service at the University of Pennsylvania Health System from March 17, 2020 to February 27, 2021. The primary predictor variable was the type of patient visit, either telemedicine or in-person. Patient status, either established or new, was a covariate. The outcome variable was the mean reimbursement-to-charge (RC) ratio. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were computed, and the P value was set at .05. This study included 6,082 submitted claims for 4,045 patients for in-person and telemedicine oral-maxillofacial surgery office visits. The mean reimbursement per insurance payor was $98.07 for a telemedicine visit (mean RC ratio = 0.48 with a standard deviation of +/- 0.20) and $109.5 for an in-person visit (mean RC ratio = 0.50 with a standard deviation of +/- 0.19). While there was a significant difference between the RC ratio for total telemedicine versus in-person visits (P = .001), the magnitude of the difference was only 2%. When stratifying the comparison by new (P = .73) and established patients (P = .20) for both telemedicine and in-person office visits, there was no significant difference in RC ratios. The results suggest that there are no major discrepancies in financial reimbursement rate between telemedicine and in-person office visits. Both methods of treatment may be financially effective for oral-maxillofacial surgery providers.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Future studies can compare reimbursement rates among different insurance providers and among different institutions in the United States.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Do Medical Insurance Companies Reimburse Telemedicine Office Visits the Same As In-person Office Visits In an Academic Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon Setting? Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, 2021;79(12):2398-2403. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery can be contacted at: W B Saunders Co-elsevier Inc, 1600 John F Kennedy Boulevard, Ste 1800, Philadelphia, PA 19103-2899, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-oral-and-maxillofacial-surgery/)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from Neeraj Panchal, University of Pennsylvania, School of Dental Medicine, Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Oral & Maxillofacial Su, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States. Additional authors for this research include Srighana Nadella, Tim T. Wang and Adam Bear.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joms.2021.08.145. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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