Q&A: StClaire discusses Xerox's entry into the telemedicine game

The American Telemedicine Association says the use of technology to remotely connect patients and physicians is a “rapidly growing” field. For example, according to a report card released June 30 by the organization, 45 U.S. states now score an “A” or a “B” when it comes to providing policy structures that support certain types of telemedicine, such as mental health. And telemedicine providers hope that hospital environment continues to grow.  

One company best known for its copy-making services is dipping its toes in the telemedicine field. Xerox is launching Virtual Health Solutions, a technology platform designed to bring healthcare to patients through mobile or remote technology, similar to other telemedicine providers.

According to Xerox’s Chief Innovation Office Tamara StClaire, 61 percent of people are willing to receive non-urgent healthcare virtually, but so far only 16 percent have actually done it. We spoke with StClaire to get a better idea of what to expect with Xerox’s telemedicine products about and how they’re planning to bring more consumers into the telehealth fold. The following Q&A is an email conversation edited for length and clarity.

Clinical Innovation & Technology: What are the benefits of telehealth? For patients? For hospitals, doctors and insurance providers?

StClaire: According to research conducted by Xerox, 77 percent of consumers are excited about at least one potential benefit. Those include convenience, potential cost savings, ability to see or communicate with a healthcare professional for minor ailments, ability to easily receive prescription refills and ability to see or communicate with a healthcare professional more frequently.

For healthcare providers, telehealth represents an opportunity to provide care to patients more efficiently. They’ll be able to improve patient satisfaction and loyalty while keeping their patients healthier and reducing costs.

What will be Xerox’s specific contributions to the field? How will Xerox be different from other telemedicine technology providers?

Our approach to virtual health allows us to provide very customized services based on a client’s specific needs. Two areas that are often not addressed in telehealth are integration/interoperability and the incorporation of clinical services—all the front office services that are key in any patient interaction.

If so many people are interested in using telehealth solutions, why haven’t more people tried it yet?

In many cases, the gap exists due to a lack of telehealth options provided, but education is another important component. Even when patients have telehealth options available to them, it’s critical that they are confident in and comfortable with the care they’re receiving.

What will it take to get more people using telemedicine interfaces?

I think that consumers are already very comfortable using digital or mobile applications for all sorts of things in their everyday lives—so I think patients will adopt telehealth as quickly as providers are able to offer it to them and educate them on how to take advantage of the services.

That being said, providers won’t go head-first into virtual care until regulations and reimbursements make it feasible and cost-effective to do so.

Are there challenges in integrating telemedicine into patient care? If so, what are they?

There are certainly challenges to integrating telehealth into the mainstream delivery of healthcare, and they’re reflected in the concerns that patients have with receiving virtual care. For instance, the top five concerns people have include insurance coverage, worries about data security, provider-patient relationships, technology connection issues and questions about access to regular physicians.

How did Xerox get involved in telehealth or recognize that it would be a useful or lucrative?

When we were assessing our strategy, we knew that the Affordable Care Act would increase the number of insured patients in the U.S. We also knew that consumerism and personalization are huge trends in the industry right now.

We also saw that a lot of telehealth initiatives were heading straight to the home or straight to the consumer, oftentimes without incorporating traditional healthcare providers in the process.

We believe that continuity of care is crucially important, so we saw telehealth as an opportunity for us to help improve the relationships between providers and patients.

What will be Xerox’s main role in supporting telehealth endeavors?

Our Virtual Health Solutions offering is designed to be customized based on a specific client’s goals. Generally speaking, we’ll provide a combination of consulting, services and technology, such as virtual health consulting, interface design and development and a virtual clinic

How will that be similar to how people are used to receiving traditional care in person?

This is a great question, because I think that people are very used to and familiar with how a traditional, in-person healthcare encounter looks and feels, but this level of comfort hasn’t carried over to virtual care yet.

By incorporating a Xerox customer care agent into our Virtual Clinic Services, we can coordinate insurance verification, appointment pre-authorization and scheduling, payment processing and claims preparation, and tracking and reconciliation. These are all the things that need to happen in the background to enable the best patient experience possible.

What about how it will be different to or similar from how people use technology in other parts of their lives?

In transportation, we can hail a ride from a friendly stranger using Uber or Lyft. In banking, we can deposit checks or transfer money between accounts in a flash. And in retail, we can order almost anything imaginable from Amazon’s “Everything Store” and have it show up on our doorstep in under 48 hours.

There’s no reason why healthcare cannot look and feel just like these other industries, and we think telehealth is a critical step on that path.

How will Xerox address concerns from customers and providers about data integrity or privacy with electronic medical communications?

As a health IT company, Xerox is at the cutting edge of security and privacy. All of our technology solutions are HIPAA compliant. We process over $49 billion in claims and integrate with over 2,200 EMRs for quality management—privacy and integrity are part of our DNA.

What do you think is the future of telemedicine?

We have a vision for healthcare following a similar trajectory [as other customizable technologies] and becoming truly patient-centric and driven by consumers. Telehealth is one of the keys to making that vision a reality. It allows consumers to engage with their healthcare on their own terms, and enables an “anytime, anywhere” delivery paradigm.