Telemedicine and primary care obesity management in rural areas – innovative approach for older adults?
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The growing prevalence of obesity is paralleling a rise in the older adult population creating an increased risk of functional impairment, nursing home placement and early mortality. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid recognized the importance of treating obesity and instituted a benefit in primary care settings to encourage intensive behavioral therapy in beneficiaries by primary care clinicians. This benefit covers frequent, brief, clinic visits designed to address older adult obesity. DISCUSSION: We describe the challenges in the implementation and delivery into real-world settings. The challenges in rural settings that have the fastest growing elderly population, high obesity rates, but also workforce shortages and lack of specialized services are emphasized. The use of Telemedicine has successfully been implemented in other specialties and could be a useful modality in delivering much needed intensive behavioral therapy, particularly in distant, under-resourced environments. This review outlines some of the challenges with the current benefit and proposed solutions in overcoming rural primary care barriers to implementation, including changes in staffing models. CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations to extend the benefit's coverage to be more inclusive of non-physician team members is needed but also for improvement in reimbursement for telemedicine services for older adults with obesity.
Source: BMC Geriatrics
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,190
Funders: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dartmouth College, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Resources and Services Administration, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Institute on Aging, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Awards: G3584488612, Mobile Health Obesity Wellness Intervention in Rural Adults, Rational Integration of Genomic Healthcare Testing (RIGHT), Development of a Prototype Healthcare Intranet for Improved Health Outcomes, Point of Care Technology Research Center in Primary Care, SYSTEMATIC DESIGN OF MEANINGFUL PRESENTATIONS OF MEDICAL TEST DATA FOR PATIENTS, SYNERGY: The Dartmouth Center for clinical and Translational Science
OpenAlex ID: W2571263149