Verizon Business launches BlueJeans Telehealth to enable data-driven virtual care

The purpose-built solution aims to help healthcare providers streamline telemedicine experience to improve patient care.

Blue Jeans telehealth

Verizon Business announced BlueJeans Telehealth, a simple, smart and trusted way for providers and patients to conduct data-driven virtual care conversations. As healthcare organizations look to advance their telehealth practices post-pandemic by extending personalized care into the home, BlueJeans Telehealth gives healthcare providers and their care teams a new way to simply and securely connect with patients remotely.

Why does it matter?

BlueJeans Telehealth delivers an intuitive experience for patients, providers and administrators. Using the device of their choice, patients can easily and quickly meet with their providers through their desktop or mobile browser or the BlueJeans app. BlueJeans with Dolby Voice Audio provides high-quality audio, minimizing disruptions to the visit so patients and providers can communicate important clinical information clearly. Providers and administrators will also benefit from a streamlined experience, as visits are embedded directly within their existing Electronic Health Record (EHR) workflows.

To simplify administrations and reimbursements, licensing is based on a per-visit model, which allows for straightforward data capture and reporting-an important aspect considering 59% of survey respondents cited uncertainty about telehealth reimbursement as a top challenge for adoption and utilization moving forward. BlueJeans Telehealth licenses will also be available in a named host format.

The solution includes a customizable patient landing experience that reduces the monotony of the pre-visit “waiting room” time by including an optional pre-visit medical condition survey and onboarding materials for patients, with a library center that enables providers to customize patient education for patients logged in for a virtual visit. Furthermore, medical interpreter services through partners such as Voyce, AMN Language Services and LanguageLine Solutions will be available in 200+ languages, including sign language, in addition to transcription and closed captioning services for enhanced accessibility.

Ranked as a top 5 post-pandemic “must have” for telehealth video conferencing solutions by survey respondents, security and privacy are built into the BlueJeans Telehealth platform-including Access Controls, Encryption, Privacy Checks, Locked Meetings, Fraud Detection, and Moderator Controls-to help protect healthcare organizations and patients. Additionally, BlueJeans Telehealth is HIPAA-ready and Verizon will sign HIPAA business associate agreements with its customers that address regulatory requirements regarding privacy and security.

On the record

“While the use of telemedicine has been steadily growing for some time now, the pandemic has accelerated telehealth adoption and changed the conversation around what patient care will look like moving forward,” said Tami Erwin, CEO, Verizon Business. “We worked closely with an advisory board of health system clinicians and healthcare decision-makers to build BlueJeans Telehealth specifically to address the most pressing needs for a virtual-first telehealth offering–from ease of experience to enhanced security. Today’s launch is just the beginning for Verizon in what we see as the future of telehealth, especially when you consider the innovation that will come from 5G mobility, broadband and cloud capabilities.”

“The benefits of digitizing healthcare practices have long been discussed on the clinical side as a way to make care more convenient and efficient for patients, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that we truly realized the way it could transform the patient-physician relationship,” said Scott D Boden, MD, Vice President for Business Innovation at Emory Healthcare. “The ability to offer virtual visits using tools like BlueJeans during this challenging time is not only helping to keep patients and practitioners like myself safe, it’s also providing a level of care that was previously missing. As we continue looking for new ways to tap into technology to drive better outcomes for our patients, it’s this personalization of care that will shape the future of healthcare.”

The context

According to the “The Future of Telehealth – Balancing Security and Ease of Use” white paper, healthcare organizations (81%) expect to see a greater investment in telehealth solutions over the next 2-3 years, with 85% of decision-makers identifying “ease of use” as a top-five driver in producing good outcomes from telehealth. While many hospitals and health clinics have adopted video conferencing services during the pandemic for providing patient care, BlueJeans Telehealth was designed from the ground up for healthcare organizations to simplify the virtual join and visit experience and offer greater access to care, provide more flexibility for providers and patients, improve safety and extend the reach of services available.