Telehealth

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights a large number of opportunities for the future of telehealth. Hospitals and health systems are expanding beyond their traditional four walls and using telemedicine to bridge communications gaps using mobile technology.

While telemedicine has rapidly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, its effect on patient-physician relationships is not likely to create widespread transformation across the healthcare system, according to David Blumenthal, MD.

he House of Representatives recently introduced the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act, a bill calling for the permanence of telehealth regulations introduced in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

From increasing comfort levels to limiting spread of COVID-19 infections, hospitals and health systems are exploring ways to bring hospital-level care to patients directly from their homes.

The Federal Communications Commission is increasing funding by $197.98 million for its rural healthcare program this year, it said in a June 30 news release.

Duluth, Minn.-based Essentia Health this month received Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota's Trailblazer Award for its efforts to improve virtual care access during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Google, Ascension and Johns Hopkins Health System are among 340 stakeholders that signed a June 29 letter urging Congress to make permanent the telehealth expansions granted during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Telehealth has experienced unprecedented growth as the COVID-19 pandemic forced healthcare providers globally to reimagine the way they treat patients. Before the pandemic, policy barriers inhibited the widespread use of telehealth, but a relaxation of those policies at the start…

While telehealth has proved essential to reduce the spread of COVID-19 among both patients and providers, virtual care initiatives are failing to reach certain rural hospital patients.

While still higher than pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, telemedicine visits have begun to steadily decline across the U.S. since peaking in mid-April, according to a June 25 Commonwealth Fund report.