Telehealth

Through June 4, Aetna has waived cost-sharing on covered telemedicine visits for all diagnoses for in-network providers through Teladoc.

The FCC on April 2 voted to adopt a COVID-19 program that will allocate $200 million to equip healthcare providers with telehealth technology and implementation support.

As the federal and state governments continue to expand telehealth access and enact social distancing guidelines due to COVID-19, hospitals and health systems are reporting sharp increases in virtual care visits.

Several states have begun to expand their availability of telehealth services to promote virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Virtual visits in the U.S. are expected to exceed 1 billion in 2020 largely because of COVID-19, according to recent Forrester report.

As the number of COVID-19 cases surges in California, with 11,126 confirmed cases as of 9:15 a.m. CDT on April 3, clinicians are turning to telehealth and virtual visits with patients to remain accessible without spreading the virus.

After contracting the novel coronavirus, Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health emergency medicine physician Aditi Joshi, MD, turned to telemedicine to continue helping patients and prevent the emergency department from becoming overwhelmed, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Some hospitals and health systems across the U.S. have begun rolling out free or discounted telehealth services in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Telemedicine access has increased during the coronavirus pandemic as federal and state governments and private insurers relax restrictions, yet issues surrounding virtual care continue to restrict its use for some, ABC News reports. 

Stanford (Calif.) Children's Health providers are now performing up to 500 telehealth visits per day to support both COVID-19 evaluations as well non-coronavirus related healthcare, according to a March 30 hospital blog post.