Telehealth is going mainstream. Once limited to rural or remote communities, the use of telehealth is increasingly being used to address critical shortages within many medical specialties (such as dermatology, neurology, radiology, critical care and mental health), and as a more efficient means to provide health care services. Many leading nationally-recognized health care providers, health plans and others have significant telehealth initiatives underway often in partnership with telecommunications vendors and government entities. And developments in this space tend to occur at a breakneck pace. In fact, since our discussion with the Advisory Board, two more states have passed telehealth statutes.
However, significant barriers exist to the use of telehealth, including a fragmented and often outdated regulatory regime (both at the federal and state levels) that prevents many providers, practitioners and health plans from using telehealth as a primary treatment vehicle. We discussed all of these issues and more in the Q&A with the Advisory Board.
Please click here to read the entire Advisory Board Q&A.