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TripleCare, a telemedicine company geared toward skilled nursing facilities, has been selected to participate in a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services study evaluating the cost effectiveness of telemedicine utilization in SNFs.

The yearlong study is meant to assess telemedicine-based virtual physician services and to estimate the economic impact for the Medicare and Medicaid programs, along with participating SNFs. The TRECS Institute is leading and managing the study while TripleCare provides the virtual physician services.

“Changes in patients’ conditions often occur in the off hours when physicians are not physically present at SNFs. This is precisely the time when TripleCare’s virtual physician services kick in,” said TripleCare CEO Mary Jo Gorman.

The study is made possible through CMS and Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration under the agency’s Civil Money Penalty Grants Program.

The services will be tested at Braden River Rehabilitation Center, Bradenton, FL; Tiffany Hall Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Port St. Lucie, FL; and Moultrie Creek Nursing and Rehab, St. Augustine, FL.

“We are confident that by the end of this year-long study, results will bear out the many benefits our telemedicine approach affords patients, SNFs and CMS,” Gorman said.