Accelerating Telehealth Adoption: A Conversation with Jonathan Shankman (September 21st)

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In the recent past the federal government has made several efforts to expand the use of telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) services.  Related provisions can be found, for example, in the 2017 CONNECT Act, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 and in federal regulatory rule making, for example, the current 2019 proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) rule, and in payment waivers for certain Medicare pay for performance models, for example, ACOs, where telehealth "originating site" and service area use restrictions are waived.  Even with these reforms telehealth/RPM spending in, for example, the Medicare program still amounts to approximately $30 million annually, or an almost immeasurable fraction of the program's $700 plus billion in annual spending.   Increased spending under Medicare (and Medicaid) aside, few are convinced adoption of these technologies should occur at the so called speed of government, where old or current IT solutions are largely validated, is adequate.   

During this 24 minute conversation Mr. Shankman briefly describes AMC Health's work, what explains the lag in telehealth/ RPM adoption and why now or what circumstances today hold promise for far more rapid adoption or use of telehealth/RPM.  He provides several examples or telehealth/RPM use and what outcomes are or can be achieved. 

Jonathan Shankman is currently Senior Vice President of Clinical Innovation at AMC Health, a New York-based remote and real time healthcare monitoring company.  Mr. Shankman has more than 25 years of experience as a research gerontologist, developing and analyzing new paradigms of chronic care delivery for the elderly and disabled across all segments of the care continuum.  At AMC Health, Mr. Shankman is responsible for development of products that weave technology and clinical best practices into virtual care solutions that address a broad array of chronic and acute illness challenges.  He also focuses on the application of analytics that support the development of clinical decision support tools.  Previously, at the Metropolitan Jewish Health System, Mr. Shankman held progressive leadership positions with the nonprofit, geriatric services organization serving the New York metropolitan area.  Mr. Shankman was graduated from Columbia University with a Masters of Public Health in gerontology, an MBA and a BA.  

For more on AMC Health go to: www.amchealth.com. 

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