Grow Your Practice Through Telehealth

Key considerations for embracing telemedicine post-pandemic:

1. Improved access: Rural communities often have limited access to specialists, making it difficult for these individuals to get the care they need. For example, 56% of counties in the US do not have a psychiatrist, 64% of counties have a shortage of mental health providers, and 70% of counties are without a child psychiatrist according to McKinsey & Company. This also offers the opportunity to grow provider-to-provider relationships.
2. Practice across multiple states: Telehealth gives the opportunity for providers to increase the number of patients they can see across states. Specialized physicians for unique cases/conditions are in high demand for provider-to-patient care delivery as well as provider-to-provider consultation. With people traveling and moving, don’t let lack of licensure interrupt your ability to serve your patients where they are.
3. Reimbursement: Some reimbursement changes from the pandemic have been made permanent, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ expansion of reimbursable telehealth codes for the 2021 physician fee schedule. There is still uncertainty of the fate of other services as the public health emergency ends. 
4. Increased continuing education and licensure needed for clinicians practicing across multiple states: Physicians will need to meet the continuing education requirements for additional states they are practicing in, whether it be through individual out-of-state applications such as Florida or through the interstate medical licensure compact. Check out our list of telehealth licensure requirements by state here.

ACEA can help by streamlining continuing education compliance with the latest CE/CME requirements, tracking, and curation across multiple license types and states.

Why is now the right time to embrace telehealth as a permanent way of delivering care?

According to research by McKinsey & Company, telemedicine industry growth has skyrocketed since COVID-19. It has stabilized at levels 38x higher than before the pandemic, ranging from 13-17% across all specialties. 40% of those surveyed responded that they will continue to use telehealth to receive care going forward, an 11% increase from before the pandemic. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the telehealth market is projected to be worth $66 billion in 2021. The opportunity for growth is ever-present with 81% of Americans owning a smartphone, 75% owning a desktop or laptop, and approximately 50% owning tablet computers or e-readers according to BMJ Journals. Moreover, research shows between 40-60% of consumers have an interest in a broader set of telehealth solutions, such as a lower-cost telehealth-first plan.

Physicians agree that telehealth is going to be a permanent method of healthcare delivery. As of April 2021, 84% of physicians were offering virtual visits and 57% said they would prefer to continue offering virtual care. In late April 2020, UCLA Health surveyed their primary care physicians (PCPs) and found that 52% of the care routinely provided could be delivered via telehealth without compromising quality. Additionally, 75% of PCPs reported that they “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” that the option to meet with patients virtually enhances their ability to provide the best care possible.

Telehealth technologies have significantly improved outcomes for patients with chronic diseases such as heart failure and diabetes. The New England Journal of Medicine found that virtual care services have been associated with high rates of patient satisfaction at roughly 77%. Virtual care has been shown to greatly reduce one of the biggest issues in healthcare today, cost. McKinsey & Company’s claims-based analysis shows that 20% of emergency room visits could be avoided, 24% of healthcare office visits and outpatient visits could be delivered virtually, and an additional 9% near virtually. These solutions can make healthcare more efficient. Evidence collected by McKinsey & Company prior to the pandemic has shown that telehealth can improve the total cost of care for chronic populations by 2%-3%.

Investment in virtual care has seen an enormous increase as well with 3x the level of venture capitalist investment in 2020 compared to 2017. According to Rock Health’s H1 2021 digital health funding report, the total venture capital investment in telehealth in the first half of 2021 amounted to $14.7 billion, which is already more than the total investment in 2020. This shows the increasing prevalence and importance of telehealth usage in medicine today. 

Sources:

Bestsennyy, O., Gilbert, G., Harris, A., & Rost, J. (2021, July 22). Telehealth: A quarter-trillion-dollar post-covid-19 reality? McKinsey & Company. Retrieved October 4, 2021, from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/telehealth-a-quarter-trillion-dollar-post-covid-19-reality.

Croymans, D., Hurst, I., & Han, M. (2020). Telehealth: The Right Care, at the Right Time, via the Right Medium. New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056

Kichloo A, Albosta M, Dettloff K, Wani F, El-Amir Z, Singh J, Aljadah M, Chakinala RC, Kanugula AK, Solanki S, Chugh S. Telemedicine, the current COVID-19 pandemic and the future: a narrative review and perspectives moving forward in the USA. Fam Med Community Health. 2020 Aug;8(3):e000530. doi: 10.1136/fmch-2020-000530. PMID: 32816942; PMCID: PMC7437610