Joining over 50 health systems, advocates, and philanthropy leaders across the nation, At Home Harmony pledges commitment to telehealth principles and guidelines that meet the unique needs of aging Americans.
RICHMOND, VA – At Home Harmony, a regional leader in delivering technology-enabled health care pledged its commitment to advance age-inclusive telehealth
principles and guidelines that will define the future virtual care for older adults and their family caregivers. By making this pledge, we join a robust list of healthcare leaders who express commitment to high-quality, equitable, and person-centered telehealth for older adults. At Home Harmony plans to use this new age-inclusive framework in developing and implementing telehealth offerings and evaluating its success in best serving older adults.
Grounded in practicality, the age-inclusive telehealth principles and guidelines were spearheaded and vetted by the West Health Institute and leading experts in geriatrics, telehealth, and consumer advocacy. To supercharge this movement, West Health launched a new Center of Excellence For Telehealth and Aging (CE4TA) with the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center and University of Virginia Department of Geriatrics. The Center of Excellence provides free, practical tools, extensive, vetted resources, and a community of like-minded experts to help organizations enhance their telehealth offerings and showcase their achievements in improving telehealth care for older adults.
Older adults often face a confusing, unresponsive, and uncoordinated care system and these hurdles were amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, federal and state leaders expanded payment for telehealth services. In 2020 alone, Medicare-covered telehealth visits exploded by 63-fold. Leading health systems with telehealth platforms learned that older adults can and will use this type of care, however intentional human-centered design efforts are vital to ensure all customer segments – particularly older adults with complex care needs – can meaningfully use telehealth going forward.
At Home Harmony is honored to be recognized for its commitment in shaping the future of age-inclusive telehealth to meet the needs, values, and preferences of older adult and family caregivers of today and tomorrow. This is one more way At Home Harmony is achieving its mission to deliver coordinated primary care, pharmacy, chronic care management, personal care, and more to aging adults in the home.