NYC Health + Hospitals is rolling out a new virtual care program for non-life threatening health issues, according to a Sept. 22 news release.

Although telehealth adoption accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the nation's biggest for-profit insurers have been forging digital health partnerships and investments for years.

Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan and L.A. Care Health Plan are reopening their joint Community Resource Centers, offering free Wi-Fi to members needing to participate in telehealth services.

BestBuy Health on Sept. 24 launched a new flip phone equipped with Amazon Alexa voice assistance and telehealth capabilities that help connect older adults to healthcare services.

If telehealth is going to provide value to the healthcare system, it must address issues such as health equity and disparities in healthcare while delivering safe and high-quality care, according to Shantanu Agrawal, MD, and Tejal Gandhi, MD.

With patient visitation policies limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health System created a program that displays cards of support on patient televisions and on public digital displays throughout its hospitals.

NYU Langone Health had been preparing telehealth technologies and infrastructure for its diabetes patients prior to COVID-19 but switched primarily to video visits when the pandemic accelerated earlier this year.

Amazon is scaling up its virtual medical clinic for employees by rolling out services to facilities beyond the Seattle area, according to a Sept. 22 CNBC report.

Sam's Club partnered with primary care telehealth provider 98point6 to offer members virtual visits.

Teladoc accused Amwell of patent infringement in a Sept. 14 letter recently made public.

The American Medical Association highlighted its support on Sept. 18 of the Senate's "Telehealth Modernization Act of 2020," which would permanently cut many of the regulatory restrictions that were provisionally lifted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amwell debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 17 and experienced a 25 percent share price increase on its first day. Co-CEO Ido Schoenberg, MD, said virtual visits will be integrated into the future of healthcare, but expects the change to be slow. 

Amwell upsized the price of its initial public offering for Sept. 17 in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Department of Veterans Affairs partnered with Apple to provide more than 50,000 veterans with cellular-enabled iPads to increase their access to virtual care services. 

The American Telemedicine Association, National Committee for Quality Assurance and Alliance for Connected Care's national telehealth policy taskforce released recommendations this month for permanent virtual care expansion.

When the pandemic hit, health systems across the U.S. rapidly scaled their telehealth platforms to meet the urgent demand for virtual care. The federal government and commercial payers relaxed regulations around telehealth to cover additional services and boost pay rates so health systems could continue to operate safely in the virtual environment.

Endocrinology is the physician specialty with the highest rate of telemedicine adoption, according to Doximity's 2020 State of Telemedicine report.

Telemedicine is expected to account for more than 20 percent of all medical visits conducted in the U.S. in 2020, representing a total of $29 billion in healthcare services, according to a Sept. 16 Doximity report. 

Microsoft and Nuance partnered to integrate Nuance's ambient clinical intelligence solutions into Microsoft Teams for improved telehealth workflow and patient experience.

There is dissonance between how patients say they feel about returning to healthcare and how they actually feel, according to a survey recently released by research firm Martec and the healthcare division of The Motion Agency.