A recent blog post from ECI Healthcare Partners provides four trends that will shape telemedicine in 2016. These trends inculde licensing legislation, payer and employer support, and efforts to increase efficiencies and cut costs are expected to drive telemedicine's growth.
Telemedicine helps solve many of the biggest challenges in healthcare today, including the pressure to improve outcomes, expand access, and increase efficiencies, all while reducing cost. Though telemedicine is still evolving and has its naysayers, public demand and healthcare industry support is expected to drive the market's growth at an annual rate of 18.4 percent between 2014 and 2020.
The blog post predicts the following factors will influence telemedicine's growth in 2016:
1. State and federal legislatures will reduce barriers.
2. Private and public payer support will increase.
3. More and more employers will include telemedicine in their benefits packages.
4. Cost cutting and efficiency boosting efforts will utilize telemedicine technology.
To read the blog post in full and learn more about these four trends, click here.