Like the rest of the economy, healthcare has been upended by the coronavirus. Not just emergency rooms, but primary care physicians, specialists, and long-term care facilities, too.
Struggling to continue providing care in a time of social distancing, many have turned to telehealth in record numbers. Even providers who may have previously viewed telehealth skeptically – perhaps because of the technology’s perceived complexity or reimbursement challenges before COVID-19 – have now become some of its biggest champions.
The sheer speed of this transformative shift is unprecedented in the healthcare industry. This extreme growth has been fueled by two factors: relaxed rules around enforcement and reimbursement, and demand from patients and healthcare providers. Prior to COVID, reimbursements for telehealth were focused on rural or underserved areas. Likewise, regional inconsistencies and varying rules for reimbursement by individual insurers limited its adoption. Not only were regulations relaxed around technology and reimbursements once COVID hit, however, but providers saw an urgent need to connect with their patients in a safe and effective way, and doing so was their primary concern – regardless of what happened on the regulatory front.
But like many cloud-based technologies that allow remote work during the crisis, telehealth has rocketed into the mainstream with significant implications for the healthcare market post-COVID.
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Source: Hit Consultant
