As technology improves and the need for care increases, patients and physicians begin adapting to new ways of delivering and receiving healthcare services.
In an interview with Healthcare IT News, Ron Emerson, a registered nurse and the global healthcare lead at Zoom Video Communications, made three significant healthcare predictions in the United States:
- It will become a digital-first system.
- Decentralization will become an important theme.
- Video will be a part of every healthcare experience.
While some of these predictions may take time before coming to fruition, the efforts to expand digital health are evident.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, telemedicine proved itself as many insurers waived copays for virtual visits, Medicare began reimbursing providers for telemedicine visits, and physicians encouraged the new form of healthcare as a means to limit virus exposures.
In 2021, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law telehealth reform developed by the Goldwater Institute, expanding telehealth to include services received from a provider on a smartphone, computer, and landline phone. The law was the first-in-the-nation effort that has allowed registered health providers in other states to provide services in Arizona through virtual means.
Despite this new movement in healthcare, Naomi Lopez of the Goldwater Institute explained that telehealth has existed for a lot longer than we realize. For example, smoke signals and light reflections were used to communicate medical information such as plagues or other health events in ancient times.
“A myriad of restrictions not only stunted the potential of growth and adoption but became barriers for providing care where needed. That was until the COVID-19 pandemic,” Lopez said. “The federal health emergency declared in 2020 provided flexibility for telehealth that allowed patients to stay safe in their homes but still have the ability to receive vital care. No one believes telemedicine should substitute in-person visits, but it’s an important part of developing a more functional relationship for patients and providers.”
Telehealth visits were 154% higher in the last week of March 2020, shortly after the onset of the pandemic, compared to 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Not only has telehealth improved healthcare accessibility, but it has also proven itself an effective tool for patients to save money.
A joint report from ideological opponents, Americans for Prosperity (the reporter is in the Koch Associate Program at the Stand Together Trust) and the Progressive Policy Institute, confirmed the importance of telehealth for underserved communities and healthcare affordability. The report found that between January 2020 and February 2021, telehealth consumers spent 61% less on health expenses.
Specifically, the report found that in January 2020, in-person patients spent an average of $910 for care, while telehealth patients spent an average of $1,099. Once the Trump administration lifted regulatory obstacles for telehealth, allowing more providers to enter the market, a drastic change occurred: In February 2021, in-person patients spent $578 on average per visit, while telemedicine patients spent roughly $425 per visit.
Arielle Kane of the Progressive Policy Institute and co-author of the report said telehealth is here to stay.
“We had this moment of watching a natural experiment. Medicare had previously been slow to adopt reimbursements, and doctors were slow at providing this new form of care,” Kane said. “Then the pandemic hit, and people didn’t want to leave their homes. We saw a huge medical shift that worked to begin offering these services to fulfill a need in a new world.”
Despite the advances and improvements in telehealth, concerns about the cost of care still linger in some regions of the U.S. In Colorado, a mother received an $850 facility fee from Children’s Hospital Colorado after her son received speech therapy via Zoom.
“I was like, ‘Facility fee? I didn’t go to your facility. I was at home, and as far as I could tell, some of the doctors were at home, too,’” she told WWLP.
Children’s Hospital Colorado said in a statement, “We agree that insurance coverage, healthcare fees, and health costs, in general, can be confusing and frustrating to navigate and don’t always make sense. To that end, we continue to advocate for state and federal policies that address healthcare consumer cost concerns through more affordable and accessible insurance coverage and hospital and provider price transparency while also defending children’s access to care and the unique needs of a pediatric hospital.”
“This kind of story is concerning,” Kane said. “Telehealth has the potential to reduce cost and offer care for previously underserved patients. This kind of billing only kicks people out of a new vital healthcare option.”
For some, telehealth parity laws have been considered to relieve some of these cost discrepancies, requiring health insurance providers to cover telehealth services similarly to how in-person services would be covered.
Kane disagrees, saying, “The only type of parity that makes sense would be mental health services because it’s already a type of medicine that struggled to receive adequate levels of reimbursement, and the care is comparable for both in-person and virtual services.”
