In our current healthcare system, many people and employers are struggling to find affordable, convenient care. Costs continue to rise, and the growing physician shortage has led to increasingly long wait times to get care. To address these issues, we must find innovative ways to facilitate hassle-free, cost-effective access to doctors. Technology has revolutionized almost every industry in the modern world. It changes the way we drive, the way we communicate, the way we eat and sleep, and even the fabric of the traditional 8 to 5 workdays. It is hard to imagine not being able to instantly text or call someone on the other side of the country or not being able to check your email while in the car. Almost every aspect of modern life has been made faster and more convenient through telecommunications technology. Except health care.Even as technology has improved, access to health care has worsened for many Americans. The Affordable Care Act may have increased the number of people with health insurance, but the fact is that health care remains unaffordable and inconvenient for most people. An increasing percentage of health insurance plans have expensive premiums, sky-high deductibles, and costly copays. People are paying for care that they can hardly afford to use. Plus, physician shortages mean absurdly long wait times, especially in crowded cities. Patients are resorting to urgent cares and emergency rooms, making care even more expensive. Patients in rural areas face an even greater challenge: rural hospitals are closing, meaning long drive times and limited access to specialists in their area. Employers are also struggling with rising costs. Unable to sustain their current benefit levels, they have been forced to reduce benefits and shift health care costs to employees through higher premiums, deductibles, and copays. Technological advances have done little to help these worrying trends. But there is a solution that could help millions of Americans get more affordable, convenient access to care: telehealth.Telehealth is a solution that helps combat these trends, but it has not yet lived up to its expectations. Many of the current products in the market are ineffective, because brokers, insurance companies, and major telehealth companies are more concerned with their own profits than with providing real solutions. But with more education and utilization, telehealth could revolutionize the healthcare industry and provide better access to care for millions of Americans that need it."Telehealth", put simply, means using telecommunications technology to provide remote care. The term encompasses any use of telecommunications technology in the medical field, even faxing a prescription to a pharmacy, but typically when people use the word "telehealth" or "telemedicine", they are talking about virtual doctor visits. With these telehealth services, patients can call or video conference with a doctor instead of going into a physicians' office, urgent care, or other site of care. The doctors can diagnosis, treat, and manage illnesses and other medical conditions remotely. This lowers the overall cost to deliver care as well as reduces the total time involved for the patient and provider. Telehealth brings the medical care to the patient, wherever they are. It enables patients to get the care they need, without sacrificing valuable time or money to get it.Most importantly, the book is based on the recognition that patients need better health care options and telehealth is vital to health care's future if delivered properly.
Larry Jones is chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of TelaCare Health Solutions. Since starting the company in 2009, he has led TelaCare to its position today as one of the fastest growing telehealth companies, achieving significant growth in revenue, membership and telehealth utilization. Under his leadership the company has established a proven track record of successfully shaping the market and driving healthcare transformation by executing on the strategic vision and delivering award-winning innovation. Nationally recognized as a thought leader in the virtual delivery of healthcare, Larry Jones is fueled by a passion for improving healthcare outcomes and providing universal access to care. In this position, Larry Jones has had the opportunity to use his background in computer science to transform how people access health care. He holds several trademarks and patents for different leading technologies used by many companies today. His experience has made him a highly sought after professional speaker in the technology arena. He has become one of the foremost leading technology experts and healthcare technology strategists. During his 20-year career, he has pioneered the development of innovative technology services which evolved into mainstream offerings that simultaneously delivered meaningful value to customers and bottom-line business results. One of these technologies led to his creating MD Alert Project, Inc, a charity that helps connect people with chronic conditions with an emergency medical ID system called ViewMyID. In addition to his role at TelaCare, Larry Jones is also CEO of several companies held under his holdings company. He is an expert in change management and technology adoption, with more than a dozen years of supporting diverse client organizations through transformational changes. He helps businesses develop enterprise scale and implement custom application platforms with proven scalability, performance, and reliability. His significant experience architecting and managing high performance projects and large relational database systems enables companies to improve performance. Mr. Jones splits his time between central Indiana and Ohio. He has three kids and a loving wife. His drive and thirst for knowledge has led him to be a certified Krav Maga Instructor, Scuba Diving Instructor and DAN Instructor. He also enjoys mountain climbing and golf.
