Telemedicine provider and primary care practice TapestryHealth named Mark Hirschhorn CEO this week as the telehealth veteran plans to focus on seeing expanded use of the technology in the skilled nursing space.
Hirschhorn wants to expand the use of Tapestry services, now operating in over three dozen states and hundreds of facilities, as it has developed a suite of services over the past several years that goes beyond just telehealth. Last year, it partnered with clinical data systems and electronic health records provider Rosie Connectivity Solutions with the goal of seamlessly combining remote monitoring of vital signs and greater physician access for long-term care and post-acute care facilities.
Prior to joining Tapestry Hirschhorn was an executive at Teladoc Health and Talkspace.
Hirschhorn sees the adoption and expansion of these services as more than just a short-term trend for nursing homes.
“I was very impressed with what they were attempting to do with regards to implementing a platform and an ecosystem of services within skilled nursing facilities,” he explained. “The opportunity to bring about virtual care, remote patient monitoring, and other enhanced services was very appealing to me.”
Hirschhorn doesn’t see telemedicine in skilled nursing slowing down anytime soon though he admitted there has been a deep divide and disconnect in the level of services that could be provided within skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). He wants to close that gap using Tapestry’s “very scalable” model, which leverages a virtual care platform with onsite data.
“Clearly, the United States is seeing a rapid increase in the demand [for these services] for nursing facilities,” Hirschhorn said. “I think it’s long overdue. Nursing homes have not really benefited from innovation, with regard to the data that can come out of remote patient monitoring and constant processing of data to improve individual health.”
He sees Tapestry as being a valuable collaborative partner that nursing home owners and administrators can rely on to bring them real world evidence and data that can be used on a daily basis to improve outcomes.
The move for TapestryHealth, along with bringing in former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Seema Verma to join its advisory board in July, signals the company’s growing intentions to advance SNF policies on a national level.
“We want to bring more attention to the fact that there needs to be greater collaboration with the payers and with those facilities that can feel a bit more emboldened to ensure they can create a greater care setting,” Hirschhorn said. “If this is sponsored at a national level, we believe that there will be a greater opportunity to provide services along with the payers (in our case Medicaid and Medicare) [which will] lower cost overall, and address issues at the point of care, as opposed to having greater costs down the road.”
Hirschhorn wants to be a part of better representation for long-term care on Capitol Hill.
“What we’re trying to do is really elevate what is going on so that when lawmakers are looking at nursing home reform and nursing home care, they understand that the medical piece of it needs to be addressed as well,” he said. “Having a proponent like Seema and others that we intend to bring into the company, fosters this sense of responsibility.”
Companies featured in this article:
Rosie Connectivity Solutions, Talkspace, TapestryHealth, Teladoc Health
