By offering its Video Visits program at no charge to its CommunityWorks clients, Cerner could further penetrate the rural provider market organizations—paving the way for it to potentially upsell its other products through their doors down the road: For example, its cloud-based solution connects multiple devices and coordinates care, which could help care institutions solve their interoperability challenges.
By working to boost telehealth access for rural communities, payers can bridge health disparities in these areas like higher rates of chronic conditions that drive poorer health outcomes—and healthier members means cheaper-to-insure members: A 2019 study showed that rural patients enrolled in hybrid telehealth plans sought out care up to 7 days
After its application deadline on December 7, the program will be distributing $100 million over a 3-year period to qualified healthcare provider organizations and is piloting to see how monetary support can best improve telehealth infrastructure in rural communities.a deal with NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association to bring virtual behavioral health services to over 40,000 rural patients.