Telemedicine, telehealth underutilized in pediatric care

In focusing on older adults on Medicare and secondarily the disabled, the use of telemedicine and telehealth is being overlooked for chronically ill children, especially those living at distance from specialized care. Children’s hospitals Many of these seriously ill children are either covered by parents’ employer plans or, if the family is low income, state Medicaid programs. This interview with Andrey Ostrovsky, MD, an attending physician at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC, notes the lack of incentive for innovative care which could utilize healthcare technology profitably. There is also a Medicaid waiver approval for telehealth reimbursement used for older person care, called the 1915(c) waiver for home-based and community services, which can be used for children. FierceHealthIT