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The Midwest Rural Telemedicine Consortium (MRTC)
was established in 1993 as a joint program between
Mercy Health Services, a health system with its flagship
hospital in Mason City and Mercy Medical Center - Des
Moines. The Consortium includes over 30 hospitals,
clinics and long-term care facilities throughout central
Iowa that are linked via advanced communications technologies
in order to provide clinical and educational services.
The MRTC is the largest telemedicine network in the
state of Iowa and one of the largest in the country.
It is uniquely positioned to play a key role in support
of homeland security efforts and to expand access to
quality health care to all Iowans.
In 1994, the MRTC was one of four projects selected
for funding by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) formerly know as the Health
Care Financing Administration (“HCFA”).
This funding permitted the MRTC to link eight sites.
Over the next six years additional funding was obtained
from CMS, the Health Resources Services Administration
(HRSA) and the General Services Administration
(GSA) in order to link all consortium
sites using the Iowa Communication Network (ICN).
The MRTC was instrumental in establishing Medicare
telemedicine/telehealth reimbursement guidelines. CMS
provided the MRTC with a 1996 waiver of Medicare payment
rules to explore issues surrounding reimbursement for
health services provided via telemedicine. Today evaluation
and management, consultation and many mental health
services are covered when provided using telemedicine.
The MRTC has also worked with Iowa’s third party
payors to initiate telehealth coverage. Telehealth
services reimbursement is an important step in sustaining
the availability and access to limited healthcare resources.
The MRTC believes through these currently narrow payment
rules future expanded reimbursed services will follow.
Health care services in these specialty areas have
been provided using the MRTC:
- Cardiology
- Dermatology
- Endocrinology
- ENT
- Gastroenterology
- General Surgery
The Consortium has been providing clinical telemedicine
encounters since 1995 and also offers its members access
to educational and administrative sessions. Recently
hundreds of health professionals have received timely
training on bio-terrorism through the use of the telemedicine
system, assuring rural Iowans have the knowledge to
deal with current medical concerns. The MRTC is a ready
resource should a terrorist or natural disaster occur.
- Delivers healthcare training to where
the health care professionals are
- Delivers the same message across a number of locations
- Rapidly deployable for distributing information or
seeing patients
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Already in place – no delay for developing
infrastructure
The MRTC is a strategically positioned asset. In their
collaboration with the Iowa Communications Network
(ICN) the MRTC is in a very important position to assist
as a medical hub site in case of a national emergency.
Each MRTC site is capable of direct dial-up video access.
After the September 11 tragedy, the MRTC was able to
aid the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) in
getting out the information needed for healthcare workers
to respond to a possible anthrax threat throughout
the state of Iowa and beyond.
With twentyfour-fortyeight hours
notice, they were able to arrange for 19 sites to connect
to an educational videoconference, reaching 620 health
care workers across the state of Iowa. Over the period
of a few weeks the MRTC provided terrorism related
programming developed by the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC), IDPH and Mercy Medical Center – Des Moines
to 1150 Iowa health care workers.
Midwest Rural Telemedicine Consortium
Blending technology and health care to serve Iowans
1111 6th Avenue – Des Moines, Iowa 50314-2611
ph: 515.643.8750 fax: 515.643.8928
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