Interviewing a teledermatology vendor for the first time can be a daunting task for anyone. Today, there is such a large variation among what is offered and new companies are popping up all the time. It is easy to get distracted by an experienced salesperson so be prepared so you can get the most out your meeting. To help you, we compiled a comprehensive checklist of things to consider when talking with any teledermatology vendor.
Care Models
- Are you able to schedule a telemedicine follow-up in the future for an existing patient?
- Is the follow-up visit specific to the patient’s condition or a generic assessment questionnaire?
- Can patients initiate teledermatology visits on their own for a new complaint or flare-up?
- Are you able to limit patient initiated visits to your existing patients or can you leave it open to anyone? (This is sometimes limited by your state telemedicine laws. Ask if there are any limitations in your state.)
- Can my patients start telemedicine visits with other dermatologists on the vendor’s platform?
- Can you set the pricing for your patients?
- Can you individually set prices for each visit? What if you want to do a free post-op telemedicine visit?
- Are you able to refund or reduce the price if you cannot make a diagnosis or treat the patient safely using telemedicine?
- Is there a credit card processing fee that is charged when patients pay?
- Is the patient assessment questionnaire a single, generic questionnaire?
- Do you have condition specific patient assessment questionnaires?
- Can you customize and add patient assessment questionnaires to your preferences?
- How do you sync the patient’s telemedicine visit with the medical record? (Sometimes telemedicine vendors provide an export that you can import into your medical record. Ask to see a sample copy if so.)
- If they offer direct integration into your EMR, what fields are synched with the record (demographic, medications, prescriptions, treatment plant, etc.).
- Is it a custom integration or do you use an integration service? (Custom integrations can break and need to be updated. Integration services usually are kept up to date by the integration service.)
- Do they have the ability for patients to use insurance?
- If you offer it as an out-of-pocket service, is there an easy way for patients to submit the required information to their insurance?
- Is ePrescribing integrated within the telemedicine platform?
- Can you save favorites to quickly prescribe frequent medications?
- Do they require you to be locked into a yearly contract or can you go month to month?
- What are the cancellation terms?
- Is there an initial setup fee that is charged?
- How long does it take and what are the steps to get setup on the telemedicine platform?