Lynchburg, VA – InSight Telepsychiatry was dubbed one of the best places to work for in 2018 by Lynchburg Business Magazine.

The winners of the annual contest were announced this month by the magazine. The contest calls for employees of Lynchburg-based organizations to nominate their companies, and winners are selected based on “quality of their work environments, general company culture, training and development opportunities, tangible and intangible benefits, and employee satisfaction, among other things.”

“InSight has a rare team culture where everyone I work with works hard, genuinely enjoys working with one another and, most importantly, is passionate about what we do,” said lead practice liaison, Anne Marie Jones. “InSight’s mission is to transform access to mental health care, and it’s evident that InSight’s team members are motivated by helping people access the services that they need.”

InSight’s headquarters is located in Marlton, NJ with satellite offices Lynchburg, VA and Washington, DC.

Read the full article here: http://lynchburgbusinessmag.com/best-places-work-2018/

Employment opportunities here: http://insighttelepsychiatry.com/jobs/

By: Geoffrey Boyce

Originally posted on The Healthcare Guys

The telemedicine revolution touches nearly every aspect of health care today. Notably, behavioral health was called out in a recent Forbes article as the sector within the industry experiencing the greatest impact. And hospital emergency departments (EDs) are taking note.

In recent years, EDs have faced notable challenges meeting growing needs for mental and behavioral health services, particularly for crisis psychiatric care, amid severe professional shortages. The reality is that all U.S. states have unmet psychiatric needs, and 60 percent of U.S. counties lack a single psychiatrist.

Next Generation Telepsychiatry Model

Telepsychiatry—offered via videoconferencing models—has emerged as an effective resource for filling these gaps and improving patient triage, throughput and overall behavioral health outcomes in the ED. As adoption of these technology-enabled models increases, hospitals need to thoughtfully consider what it takes to build a successful, sustainable 24/7 telepsychiatry program to address this type of care. Best practices dictate the need for robust provider networks, administrative teams and support infrastructures to facilitate collaboration between all stakeholders.

Our telepsychiatry organization is addressing these needs through a browser-based platform that is designed to deliver telepsychiatry services around the clock, better positioning hospital EDs and other crisis settings to provide timelier psychiatric assessments and patient triage to the most appropriate level of care via technology-enabled care.

Telepsychiatry in the ED: Opportunities and Considerations

The telepsychiatry opportunity is not lost on today’s EDs, and many hospitals are looking to incorporate these care options into their broader telehealth strategy. Use of telehealth promotes better patient outcomes and satisfaction, and lowers costs associated with ED boarding of psych patients. Yet, health care organizations must consider key elements of a strategy to extract the full value of these models, including technology and workflow design and a framework that supports comprehensive care delivery from the start.

For instance, one of the primary goals of a telepsychiatry program is to shorten wait times for evaluation. Many hospitals do not have an around the clock, full-time psychiatrist and must find available providers on an “as needed” basis to complete evaluations—an approach that often lends to protracted wait times, especially since most patients who come into the ED in crisis arrive during night and weekend hours.

While on-demand telepsychiatry provider networks are uniquely suited to address this challenge, the right infrastructure must also be in place to support the scheduling complexities of offering 24/7 telepsychiatry access to a busy ED.

Telepsychiatry cloud-based applications

Cloud-based applications can help to address this challenge and increase efficiency. ED staff can simply log into a platform and fill out a request for telepsychiatry services. Then, an automated system can identify the most appropriate telepsychiatry provider to do the assessment, consult or follow-up, taking into consideration which telepsychiatry providers are credentialed at the organization, on shift and available. Working directly within the hospital’s EMR, the assigned provider can then review patient background information and connect with hospital staff to determine any other relevant collateral information that may be necessary before the secure video connection with the patient is initiated. When all videoconferencing sessions and documentation are routed through a singular system, it decreases the potential for bottlenecks and allows for each session to be logged and reported on.

Data from our services revealed that patients receiving on-demand telepsychiatry services for crisis encounters in the ED waited just under an hour on average. This is an improvement over the findings of another report that revealed 23 percent of psychiatric patients wait longer than six hours for in-person evaluation in the ED, and 7 percent wait more than 12 hours.

Performance metrics for telepsychiatry programs should also point to reduced costs and better outcomes. Partnering with an on-demand telepsychiatry provider enables EDs to reduce length of stay, improve throughput, minimize risk and stress for onsite providers, and ultimately get patients to the least restrictive and most appropriate level of care quickly. Patients benefit from on-demand telepsychiatry by receiving timelier evaluations, minimizing the potential for further escalation. When patients in psychiatric crisis are not triaged quickly, conditions can quickly spiral out of control, opening the door to safety issues and the potential need for higher-cost interventions.

Additional data from our organization points to notable improvements in outcomes and the level of care required following a telepsychiatry visit. For example, in 2017, one-third of patients in Florida who had been involuntarily committed under their state law called the Baker Act had their commitments rescinded after meeting with a telepsychiatry provider. This allowed the patients to move to a more appropriate and less costly level of care, saving resources across the board.

Building a Robust, Impactful Telepsychiatry Operation

EDs are seeing an uptick in psychiatric cases due to the limited options of specialized providers in the community. Current estimates suggest that one in eight ED visits involve a behavioral health condition.

Forward looking health care organizations recognize the advantages of telepsychiatry models and are expanding their telemedicine portfolio to more fully address growing needs both within the ED setting and in community-based settings. Sustainable strategies consider the value of industry partnerships and third-party expertise, especially as it relates to building provider networks and utilizing infrastructures that optimize efficiency and support collaboration between administrators and specialty provider groups.

At their foundation, successful telepsychiatry programs are supported by strategic partnerships, robust provider networks and infrastructures that address scheduling, workflows and logistics. These underlying tactics must work in tandem to promote better care delivery, efficiency and connected care teams.

Originally published on mHealth Intelligence 

Sometimes a telehealth program’s best feature is its ability to start a conversation.

At St. Joseph’s Villa in Richmond, Va., a simple virtual visit platform has turned an eight-bed crisis stabilization center into an indispensable resource for families of children aged 5-17 who are struggling with depression and anxiety. The 32-inch television and audio-visual telemedicine feed enable these kids to talk to a child psychiatrist based in New Jersey, and to connect with counselors at any time during their voluntary 14-day stay.

In the six years that the program has used telehealth, roughly 88 percent of those adolescent patients have gone back to their home or a less-restrictive facility, while 12 percent have gone to a hospital or similar institution. And about 16 percent have come back to the program.

St. Joseph’s Villa Uses Telehealth - Health Care and Compassion

Officials say the program isn’t about medicine, but about compassion.

“We’re not a medical model – we’re more of a social model,” says Craig Hedley, Director of Community Partnerships for the children’s non-profit. “In some ways that’s easier and more comfortable for them. You can see it in how they respond.”

Launched in 1834 by the Daughters of Charity, it’s the third oldest children’s program in the country, now offering a variety of programs for thousands of Virginia children and their families each year. The crisis shelter is one of those programs, offering a voluntary place to stay for those between the ages of 5 and 17 who are struggling with anxiety and depression, don’t qualify for hospitalization and can’t afford the thousands of dollars in co-pays for private services.

Hedley says the program offers troubled adolescents a place to feel safe, and to talk to counselors about their issues. But those counselors are hard to locate, expensive to hire and can’t always be found when they’re needed the most.

Seven years ago, armed with a 10-year state grant, St. Joseph’s installed a telemedicine station from InSight and connected with a child psychiatrist several states away. She handles most of the virtual visits during each patient’s two-week stay, while InSight provides 24/7 coverage when she isn’t available.

Hedley says he saw the difference in how the crisis center’s resident reacted to the technology.

“Kids prefer Skyping; they’re more comfortable with it than we are,” he says. “That makes them more (relaxed). And knowing someone is always available for them … really helps.”

The population served by St. Joseph’s Villa is growing at an alarming rate. The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that 20 percent of the nation’s teens are living with a mental health condition, and half of those diagnosed with a mental illness began to show symptoms by age 14. In addition, half of all teens diagnosed with a mental illness drop out of school, and three-quarters of teens now in juvenile justice programs are dealing with a mental health issue.

The necessity of telepsychiatry

And suicide now ranks as the third leading cause of death among those age 14-24.

While the number of adolescents in distress is growing, the ranks of healthcare providers able to treat them are thinning. No state has an adequate supply of child psychologists, according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. And those who in the field are overworked, have waiting lists several months long and skew toward patients and programs that reimburse for their services.

That, Hedley says, leaves a large chunk of middle class America lacking the resources they need to treat an adolescent in need of mental health care.

“Who’s going to be able to afford thousands of dollars in co-pays?” he asks. “Who’s going to wait around six months to get an appointment? These kids are flat-line miserable and they need help. I like to tell the joke that I called the suicide hotline and was put on hold, but that’s kind of what it feels like.”

“We really are the first line of defense for these kids and their families,” he adds. “They’re stuck, and then there’s this a-ha moment … and things change.”

Hedley says St. Joseph’s focuses on the social aspects of treatment rather than the medical aspects. Everyone coming into the program does so voluntarily, and with support from the family. St. Joseph’s then works with the family, community resources school officials and others to create a support network for these patients when they’re discharged.

With a daily video link to specialists, he says, more of St. Joseph’s patients are prepared for what’s outside the program. They’ve had the opportunity to talk to someone who can bring them down off the cliff and into a more stable place, and they can talk in an environment that’s more comfortable for them, enabling them to open up more.

“This is cutting edge,” Hedley says of the telehealth platform.

Hedley expects the program, which received a telehealth innovation award in 2014 from the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center, will continue well after the initial grant runs out. It will have proven its value, he says, in returning more children and adolescents with special needs to their families and their communities, rather than a hospital or institution.

He also expects to add telehealth services to several programs run by St. Joseph’s Villa.

“The ability to get these kids in front of people as quickly as we can is so important,” he says.

Vero Beach, FL – The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office has added an additional provider to their telepsychiatry program to increase access to psychiatric care for inmates at their jail in Vero Beach. InSight brings 12 hours a week of telepsychiatry services to Indian River’s inmates from a psychiatric nurse practitioner.

Telepsychiatry is the delivery of psychiatry through real time videoconferencing. It is proven to be an effective form of care delivery and a convenient, cost-effective way to safely expand the psychiatric support at a corrections facility without having to staff an in-person psychiatry provider. It also ensures the safety and security of both the remote provider and the inmate.

According the National Alliance on Mental Illness, at least 83% of jail inmates with a mental illness did not have access to needed treatment[1]. Telepsychiatry is found to improve access to mental health services for inmates and save correctional facilities from $12,000 to more than $1 million annually.[2]

Indian River’s successful telepsychiatry program is expanding because of a partnership with InSight, a national telepsychiatry service provider organization. InSight brings years of experience in correctional facility psychiatric care to serve Indian River County inmates and increase access to care when they need it the most. Services provided by an InSight telepsychiatry nurse practitioner include psychiatric evaluations and medical management of an adult corrections population. With this program, Indian River aims to assess the behavioral health needs of inmates to ensure a safe correctional environment and determine if a care plan should be designed to encourage rehabilitation of an inmate.

“Telepsychiatry in corrections facilities is an extremely promising model that prioritizes safety and the well-being of the inmate first. Programs like Indian River allow inmates to receive behavior health assessments they may have never had access to before,” said InSight’s Operations Manager of Scheduled Services Nate Ortiz.

“We are happy to increase access to behavioral healthcare within our sites and look forward to assessing and treating the needs of our inmates. Adequate behavioral healthcare is a crucial aspect of correctional work,” said Major Eric Flowers.

This telepsychiatry program will allow the Indian River Sheriff’s Office to increase their ability to treat and manage inmates that need care the most.

About InSight + Regroup 

InSight + Regroup (now Array Behavioral Care) is the leading and largest telepsychiatry service provider in the US with a mission to transform access to quality behavioral health care.  InSight + Regroup serves hundreds of organizations and individuals in various settings across the continuum of care with its on-demand, scheduled services and direct-to-consumer (Inpathy) divisions.  Given its size, diversity of services and extensive experience and expertise, InSight + Regroup is uniquely positioned to enable scalable telepsychiatry programs across the care continuum.  As an industry thought leader, InSight + Regroup has helped shape the field, define the standard of care and advocate for improved telepsychiatry-friendly regulations. To learn more, visit www.arraybc.com

About Indian River County Sheriff’s Office

The Sheriff’s Office mission is to serve the public with dignity, integrity and professional service while enhancing their partnership with the community in order to protect life and property, prevent crime and solve problems.  More information can be found at www.ircsheriff.org.

[1] NAMI. (n.d.). Retrieved August 11, 2017, from https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Public-Policy/Jailing-People-with-Mental-Illness

[2] Deslich, S. (2013). Telepsychiatry in Correctional Facilities: Using Technology to Improve Access and Decrease Costs of Mental Health Care in Underserved Populations. The Permanente Journal,17(3), 80-86. doi:10.7812/tpp/12-123

WASHINGTON, DC – InSight Telepsychiatry, the leading national telepsychiatry provider organization with a mission to increase access to behavioral health care, will be presenting at the 2018 National Council Conference held in Washington, DC from April 23 – 25, 2018. Select InSight representatives are presenting two workshop posters, as well as speaking on a panel discussing telebehavioral health strategy.

On Monday April 23 InSight’s Northeast account executive, Dan Khebzou, is presenting a workshop poster:  “ACT Now: Expanding an Assertive Community Treatment Program Using Telebehavioral Health.”

Khebzou’s Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)  presentation will describe how telepsychiatry can be used to support ACT programs. When Delaware became the first state to merge telepsychiatry with ACT in 2014, it was a partnership between the national human services nonprofit organization, Resources for Human Development, and InSight. The option to supplement ACT programs with telebehavioral health is significant because it offers a clearly defined model, and is clinically appealing to practitioners, financially appealing to administrators and scientifically appealing to researchers. This presentation will give c-suite executives and healthcare administrators an overview of how telebehavioral health can support ACT teams, provide lessons learned from both organizations and show how this program could be replicated in other communities, and learn how one program used telebehavioral health to serve more patients through ACT.

On April 24, InSight’s Mid-Atlantic account executive Aaron Lawler will be presenting a workshop poster with the director of community partnerships of St. Joseph’s Villa, Craig Hedley. The presentation, “Addressing Crisis in a Community Setting: Using Telepsychiatry to Provide Crisis Stabilization Services for Vulnerable Children and Adolescents,” will be centered on the unique benefits of telepsychiatry for children and adolescents in crisis. Lawler and Hedley will describe the opportunities for integrating telepsychiatry into a unique community setting and population, as well as the best practices for supporting a crisis stabilization unit for children via telehealth.

Creating a Telebehavioral Health Strategy

Additionally, InSight CEO Geoffrey Boyce will sit on a panel on April 24. The panel discussion, “Creating a Telebehavioral Health Strategy,” will focus on how organizations can integrate telehealth into their current services and future strategies to add value at the consumer, provider, organizational and community levels. The panel will reiterate the significance of creating those strategies, evaluate the challenges and nuances of integrating telebehavioral health into the outpatient setting, as well as explore how organizations can design and implement a successful long-term telebehavioral health strategy at their organization. Other panelists include Jonathan Evans, CEO of InnovaTel, Samir Malik, executive vice president and general manager of Genoa Telepsychiatry. It will be moderated by Joe Parks, MD, medical director of the National Council of Behavioral Health.

Visit booth 447 during the conference to connect with InSight and learn more information about its outpatient services. InSight’s programs for outpatient organizations are run through its scheduled services division. With scheduled telepsychiatry, InSight assigns a consistent provider or small group of providers to serve a regular caseload of consumers. These providers are available in set blocks of time to do anything that a traditional in-person telepsychiatry provider would do.

Written by Geoffrey Boyce. Originally published on American Journal of Managed Care
There is good reason why telemedicine is rapidly reengineering the way communities think about care deliver today. At a time when payers and providers are grappling with how to efficiently and effectively make the leap to value-based care, telemedicine is helping the industry turn the corner to deliver better access to care and coordination of care at a lower cost.

A recent Forbes article noted that this movement has had the most impact on the behavioral health sector. Telepsychiatry models, provided through video conferencing platforms, are removing barriers associated with growing staff shortages, cost, location, and stigma. Access to care is no longer defined by the limitations of office hours, and patients appreciate the convenience of accessing care from the comfort of their own home.

Recent policy and legislative movements suggest growing acceptance of telemedicine as a mainstream form of care. The majority of US states have enacted or proposed some form of parity law regarding insurance coverage. In line with these trends, telepsychiatry is experiencing unprecedented growth, not only in terms of the number of users, but also the innovative ways that communities are incorporating these models into care delivery.

Addressing Growing Provider Shortages

Telepsychiatry is helping communities address growing psychiatric provider shortages. Currently, all US states have unmet psychiatric needs, and 60% of US counties lack a single psychiatrist. The outlook for psychiatric specialties, such as child and adolescent psychiatry, is even more critical.

In response, many community mental health centers and outpatient clinics have turned to telepsychiatry to supplement their provider capacity and increase access to specialists. These telepsychiatry providers often do everything an in-person provider would do—they serve a normal caseload of patients, participate in treatment team meetings, and oversee other clinicians—all through telehealth.

Molina Healthcare, a managed care organization based out of Long Beach, California, applied this model in a different way. Like many, Molina has understood the importance of bringing behavioral health expertise and care for residents at skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). Today, Molina has a program where 4 SNFs share a regularly scheduled block of time with a telepsychiatrist. With this model, residents receive care in a setting where they are comfortable and don’t have to travel to an appointment, and the psychiatrist benefits from greater clinical awareness of a resident’s behavior in the facility.

Additionally, direct-to-consumer telepsychiatry is expanding referral options in communities where psychiatric resources are lacking, providing a lifeline for under-resourced clinics and primary care providers. Lengthy wait times for appointments often cause patients to rely on their primary care providers for their psychiatric needs or opt to forego care altogether. The reality is that more than half of psychiatric drugs are prescribed by non-psychiatrists, although many primary care providers lack specific expertise on psychotropic drugs.

Expanding Access Across the Continuum

A growing body of evidence points to the effectiveness of telepsychiatry models and high patient satisfaction in a variety of settings. One literature review found the use of video conferencing models expedited access, decreased work absences, enhanced confidentiality and privacy, empowered patients in their care, and reduced the risk of hospitalization. For these reasons, telepsychiatry models are increasingly incorporated into care models across the health care continuum.

For instance, professional psychiatric shortages often slow down triage of emergency department (ED) patients presenting with a behavioral health crisis. It is not uncommon for hospitals to board these patients in the ED or tie up a hospital bed until a psychiatrist is available to make a psychiatric assessment, increasing costs for all stakeholders. Many EDs now leverage telepsychiatry models to relieve this pressure, ensure timely evaluation, and triage to the most appropriate level of care. Notably, a North Carolina statewide telepsychiatry initiative that implemented telepsychiatry in 18 hospital EDs found that 88% of consumers agreed or strongly agreed that they were satisfied with the service.

Telepsychiatry is also used in some inpatient units to augment in-person staff and ensure that a unit has 24/7 psychiatric coverage for patient evaluations.

Additionally, discharge planners—whether associated with a hospital or residential program—must often work within a restricted timeframe to connect individuals with appropriate services. Since psychiatry wait times in some communities can range between 3 and 6 months in many cases, telepsychiatry options open up a vital link to providers and help limit the potential that a patient’s condition will deteriorate back into a crisis situation.

Non-Traditional Community-Based Program and Settings

Outside of hospitals and other typical care settings, telepsychiatry models are starting to be used in school and university settings to improve access to care and meet students where they are. A study, published by Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics, evaluated satisfaction rates of students who received services through a rural school-based telehealth center and found an average satisfaction rate of 93% among students and 97% among parents.

Telepsychiatry is transforming access to behavioral health care at a time when the need is critical. Communities are wise to consider effective telepsychiatry partnerships that can bolster behavioral health service options to improve access to care across the continuum, drive better outcomes, and lower costs.

Written by Nate Ortiz. Originally published in Lynchburg Business Magazine 

In any given year, approximately one in 25 adults in the United States experiences a serious mental illness that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities and one in 10 employees suffers from depression. This includes the ability to perform effectively or efficiently at work.Mental Illness can cause serious disruption in everyday life.

In my role, I am responsible for managing a large team of behavioral health care providers, as well as several administrative team members. Being surrounded by behavioral health care all day means my team is usually more knowledgeable about mental health, but being knowledgeable about mental health and actively prioritizing it in your life can be two different things. My team deals with the stress of the patients and administrators we work with day to day, and if we are not careful, that can weigh heavy on us and lead to burnout.

As a manager, I acknowledge the struggles that my team faces and make an effort to provide mental health and emotional support, in addition to leadership. Specifically, our providers spend all day listening and often do not always have the opportunity to be heard. They are also spread throughout the country, so we provide many opportunities for providers who are remote to interact with their peers and administrators, to help them not feel alone in this, along with the rest of the team.

While I certainly do not have this all perfectly figured out, I have learned some valuable lessons about making mental health a priority along the way:

One of my methods is to get the team together on a regular basis, so my assistance is consistent and the team can understand who we are collectively.

By getting together regularly, we are getting to the same mission: we celebrate wins for each other, share the next month’s big picture goals, as well as ways we can help one another to reach those goals. We have found that it is important to have a culture of celebration, of each other, along with small wins.

Creating a culture of collaboration is also very important and I have learned to put in an extra effort to create new ways to collaborate and work together with remote team members. I spend a great deal of my time reaching out to the remote team, to open up those communication and collaboration channels as much as possible, to make that the culture. My team also consistently communicates by video, which removes that distance.

I keep an open door policy both for my in person team members and remote colleagues. With these open door meetings, my goal is not only to be available to coach professionally, so each person can become the best employee, but to help each person become their best selves.

I also like to preach the importance of work/life balance, which is a part of my practice for mental wellness and self-care. Personally, I have to weigh opportunity costs and be ok with being less connected to work at times. I have had to make a clean break between work and home life, and it has benefited my well-being and my family. I am not the only person preaching work/life balance here at our Lynchburg office, but not everyone is naturally like that.

I do my best to lead others in discovering that balance, by learning to build appropriate boundaries, before potentially more things enter their lives, such as marriage and children. I describe work/life balance as having a quality of life, of looking at the whole thing. If there is not a balance, then your whole life is affected. Whether you are a younger or an older employee, work remotely or in-person, we are all dealing with the same issues at work.

You are also the same person whether you are or are not at work; you cannot just turn off who you are personally. If you are going through a tough time at work, you need to give yourself the grace to know you will not always be “on.”

What else can you do? Take that 10-minute walk. It is something small, but see it as an investment rather than a break. There is a tendency to think 10 minutes away from your desk is a break or slacking, but it is more of an investment of time to come back and do what needs to be done, for both yourself and others, because you will be less stressed and therefore more productive.

This applies to both administrative team members and the providers I supervise. If you’re not keeping yourself cared for, if you’re not well at work, not only do you suffer, but the people depending on you suffer as well.

Written by Shelley Sellinger, M.D. Originally posted on Becker’s Hospital Review

There is little debate that telemedicine has carved out a powerful niche in health care. Rapid growth of remote care models in recent years underscores the opportunity for both providers and patients alike. Yet, as health care organizations continue to adopt telemedicine models, many find that one all-important strategy is often overlooked: remote provider engagement.

It’s not a surprising revelation. While many providers find the telemedicine career path attractive because of the flexible scheduling options or ability to work remotely, they are often unprepared for the disconnected nature of the work and can be left feeling like they’re in a vacuum. That’s why it’s essential for organizations to consider how they can create unified, interconnected teams across geographies to support remote provider needs, and in turn, optimal care delivery.

Consider, for instance, the experience of my organization, InSight Telepsychiatry, which provides on-demand, scheduled and direct-to-consumer telepsychiatry services. With our providers spread remotely across the nation and even the world, InSight took note of the potential engagement struggles we as remote staff could experience.

To address this challenge head-on, InSight developed a comprehensive remote provider engagement strategy designed and led by a team of remote providers. Through the establishment of a provider engagement committee, we are now able to bring our offsite teams together in much the same way we connect with patients—virtually—to ensure providers feel connected and receive the support they need.

Considerations for Remote Provider Engagement

Like any provider community, telepsychiatry providers need access to clinical growth opportunities, peer collaboration and an understanding of priorities to feel part of the comprehensive provider team. The provider engagement committee serves as a critical resource for delivering clinical feedback, providing professional development opportunities, establishing a shared vision with managers and giving providers a voice in the organization.

As any worthwhile initiative, remote provider engagement programs require organizational resources from both a time and direct cost perspective. Consider administrative time that must be allocated for clinical supervision and staff development activities that may require monetary investment. Ultimately, a successful remote workforce model requires traditional management practices to be adapted to ensure remote providers feel engaged and part of a team. Designing a thorough program where a remote team has both professional development and social needs met is a crucial piece.

Advancing Engagement Strategies

As a remote provider who helped design and lead charge of our engagement committee at InSight, it’s important to remember that thoughtful program design is key. Through a number of strategic initiatives, we’ve been able to build an effective and sustainable program that addresses remote provider challenges head on while also meeting our unique needs as a company. Videoconferencing technology is used administratively to connect remote providers and team members, creating opportunities to collaborate, share feedback or ask questions when facing a challenging or new situation. Other key initiatives as part of our engagement program include the following.

Mentoring programs

Especially for new telepsychiatry providers, mentoring programs provide an effective way to onboard providers to organizational clinical processes and best practices for success. During the onboarding process, it’s important to have the opportunity to connect with someone who is not an administrator, as that can be intimidating at times. Connecting with another provider allows a peer relationship to form and can increase the comfort level of the new provider. Mentors connect with mentees by video or phone and are available for collaboration through other means as needed.

Clinical check-ins

Regularly scheduled clinical check-ins allow medical directors and telepsychiatry providers to discuss their work, ask questions or voice concerns. Telepsychiatry providers review performance and go through patient charts in detail at these meetings as well as connect with remote providers on a more personal level. Health care organizations can further extend clinical check-in strategies to include group sessions, allowing collaboration with multiple telepsychiatry providers to discuss best practices, difficult cases, common issues and any other topics that may arise. Group collaboration can also serve as a platform to support clinical peer review where providers and their colleagues review patient charts in compliance with industry standards.

Provider engagement newsletters

Monthly or bi-monthly newsletters are a great way to keep remote providers updated on organizational happenings, new initiatives or changes to care delivery processes and procedures. In addition, these forums can provide a platform for educating on new evidence and research.

Provider town halls

The town hall model is typically used for high-level discussions regarding organizational updates and announcements to keep remote providers engaged with what’s happening on a macro level. The opportunity for providers and the administrative team to come together is imperative, and the town hall model allows providers to interact with one another and address questions or concerns to the administrative team.

These sessions might be held quarterly, bi-annually or once a year depending on resources and needs, allowing clinical leadership and operations managers to discuss current focus areas for telepsychiatry, changes in strategy or long-term plans. Additionally, this type of forum makes it possible for providers to interact with one another as a group. This allows a chance for providers to meet those who may be located in the same state or work with a similar facility which could then lead to a new peer relationship.

Continuing medical education

Critical to professional development, remote providers need access to continuing medical education opportunities to maintain their licensure. Our organization offers the opportunity to advance learning and earn credits through remote programs similar to providers working in a group setting.

Provider Engagement for Sustainable Telemedicine Models

Growth across the telemedicine field shows no sign of slowing. As the influence of these forward-looking models increases, the need for remote provider engagement strategies cannot be overlooked.

Remote provider organizations can follow suit and take a similar approach by applying this model and tailoring to their specific needs to keep provider teams from becoming disconnected and disengaged. Ultimately, it comes down to ensuring remote providers have the resources they need to succeed and giving them a voice in the organization.

About the author

Shelley Sellinger MD, ABPN is a board-certified psychiatrist from New York specializing in adult services, including anxiety and depression, substance use and addiction, trauma and abuse, and psychopharmacology. Dr. Sellinger has devoted her career to expanding access to behavioral health care. She joined InSight Telepsychiatry to continue that mission and assist patients nationwide.

Textbook economics teaches that, in a free market, supply rises to meet demand until price reaches an equilibrium. When it comes to mental health services, though, the supply of psychiatrists is declining despite widespread need, resulting in patients not getting treatment in a timely manner.

"Every single state suffers from a shortage," says David Cohn, CEO of Regroup Therapy, a telepsychiatry company he founded in 2011, "and 55 percent of U.S. counties have no mental health clinicians."

Regroup's mission

Regroup's mission is to fill that void by supplying credentialed and fully vetted clinicians—psychiatrists, social workers and advanced practice nurses—who can "see" patients via a secure video platform that's HIPAA-compliant. "Literally, the only difference is our clinicians are in two dimensions," Cohn says.

The for-profit company's customers are not the individuals themselves, but hospitals, primary care clinics, correctional institutions and community-based outpatient centers through which people access health care. In the Chicago market, clients include Sinai Health System, Oak Street Health and Metropolitan Family Services. They're billed monthly for services rendered and reimbursed by patients' insurers or government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.

Cohn, 37, who grew up on the North Shore, says he always had an interest in both technology and mental health, but didn't see himself becoming a clinician. After majoring in economics at Colorado College, spending two years in Guatemala with the Peace Corps and managing sales and services in Latin America and Europe for CEB, formerly known as Corporate Executive Board, he earned his MBA at IE Business School in Madrid, where he hatched the idea for Regroup Therapy as a class project.

He started Regroup with $60,000 from friends, family and his own savings. The company has raised $8.4 million from investors including OSF Ventures, Hyde Park Angels, OCA Ventures and Frist Cressey Ventures.

Revenue jumped from less than $500,000 last year to a projected $10 million-plus in annual recurring revenue by year-end. Regroup now employs 23 full-time staffers in its headquarters in Ravenswood on the North Side and serves nearly 50 health entities with a network of more than 3,000 clinicians. Roughly half of treatment hours are provided by clinicians who work full time for Regroup; the remainder are part-time contractors. Clinicians are paid $45 to $300 per hour. Full-timers also receive benefits such as health care coverage, medical malpractice insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan.

At its 2017 awards program Nov. 9 in Chicago, the Illinois Telehealth Initiative recognized Regroup with an award for Advancing Telehealth by Innovation. Nancy Kaszak, the initiative's director, cites Regroup's easy-to-use video platform and system integration as strengths in the telehealth field. "Hospitals are big on their records and their systems," she says, "and if you can't integrate into that system, it becomes an issue."

MARLTON, NJ – InSight Telepsychiatry’s Chief Executive Officer Geoffrey Boyce has been appointed to the New Jersey Telehealth Review Commission. He is one of seven thought leaders asked to sit on the Commission.

The Commission was established as part of the New Jersey telemedicine law that was passed in July of 2017. The law created a seven-member commission that will review information from telemedicine and telehealth organizations and make recommendations for policy and law changes to promote and improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of telehealth services in New Jersey.

The NJ Telemedicine bill was signed by Governor Christie on July 21, 2017

Its highlights include:

  • It allows New Jersey to join a handful of states that require reimbursement for telemedicine services to the same extent as in-person treatments and consultations.
  • It took New Jersey from being one of two states that lacked an official definition of telemedicine, to a state that now defines how telemedicine can and should be safely and appropriately practiced.
  • It allows greater access to care for patients previously not covered for telemedicine services. Greater access to care is expected to result in better outcomes for patients with chronic diseases and decrease expenditures over time.
  • It allows patients to receive care from the comfort of their own homes when appropriate.
  • It removes the requirement for mental health screeners to obtain an unnecessary, special waiver for services provided through telemedicine.
  • It allows a large range of providers to practice telemedicine, including: licensed physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, clinical social workers, physician assistants, professional counselors, respiratory therapists, speech pathologists, audiologists and optometrists. This wide range of providers will increase the number of services New Jersey residents can access.
  • It involves minimal cost to the state, while providing greater access to care and better outcomes for patients.

“I’m proud of the hard work that was put in to the New Jersey Telemedicine Bill and I believe it truly represents a gold standard for other states,” said Boyce. “This commission will play an important role in ensuring the appropriate growth of telemedicine for increasing access to care across the state. I am honored to be a part of it.”

CEO, Geoffrey Boyce received the Industry Leader Award from the American Telemedicine Association

For the past 10 years, Boyce has advocated for the appropriate use and value of telepsychiatry and has led the development of hundreds of telepsychiatry across the country. In April 2017, he received the Industry Leader Award from the American Telemedicine Association. This annual award is presented to an individual that has made significant contributions to the advancement of telemedicine at federal, state and international levels. He also serves on the advisory board of directors for the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center (MATRC).

Now Boyce, along with the other members of the commission, will play a significant role in communicating with telehealth stakeholders on how and where telehealth can be used to increase access to quality care across the state of New Jersey.

About InSight + Regroup 

InSight + Regroup (now Array Behavioral Care) is the leading and largest telepsychiatry service provider in the US with a mission to transform access to quality behavioral health care.  InSight + Regroup serves hundreds of organizations and individuals in various settings across the continuum of care with its on-demand, scheduled services and direct-to-consumer (Inpathy) divisions.  Given its size, diversity of services and extensive experience and expertise, InSight + Regroup is uniquely positioned to enable scalable telepsychiatry programs across the care continuum.  As an industry thought leader, InSight + Regroup has helped shape the field, define the standard of care and advocate for improved telepsychiatry-friendly regulations. To learn more, visit www.arraybc.com

If you are in crisis, call 988 to talk with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, text HOME to 741741 to connect to a free crisis counselor, or go to your nearest emergency room.