As the healthcare industry strives to provide higher quality care at a lower cost, early intervention to direct patients to the most appropriate level of care settings is essential. 

Congress is set to grant a five-month extension to telehealth flexibilities, created during the pandemic, as part of the 2022 omnibus spending bill made public March 9.

Seventy-two organizations submitted a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration asking to remove the requirement that patients be evaluated in-person before being prescribed controlled substances via telemedicine.

Baptist Hospital of Miami and South Miami, Fla.-based Larkin Health System entered into an agreement to provide telehealth services to fire departments to eliminate an influx of patients in emergency rooms, Miami Today reported March 1.

Nearly 1 in 3 telehealth visits led to an in-person visit, which could lead to an increase in overall healthcare visits, according to results of a survey conducted on JLL that were released on March 2.

Samsung and two telehealth providers developed a national initiative that will provide grants, technology and physician expertise to rural hospitals in need of telehealth access.

As part of its efforts to address the national mental health crisis, the White House endorsed expanded telehealth coverage in a March 1 briefing. Here are three things to know about the administration's plans to increase telehealth access:

Teladoc Health partnered with Amazon Alexa to launch voice-activated, virtual medical care on supported Echo devices.

Non-English speaking patients struggle to access telemedicine as video visit services don't always offer proper translations or third-party interpreters, The Verge reported Feb. 24.

Amwell reported $252.8 million in revenue during 2021, up 3 percent from $245.3 million in 2020.

Many states are relaxing COVID-19 restrictions and dropping public health emergency designations, moves that affect payers' decisions on how to reimburse for telehealth services. Amid these changing policies, many hospitals feel like their telehealth programs are in a state of limbo.

Although the use of telehealth skyrocketed during the pandemic, it has more recently declined as the option to go back to in-person appointments is back in the cards. A February 2022 report from healthcare analytics company Trilliant Health suggests telehealth may just be a placeholder for in-person visits.

As many states relax COVID-19 restrictions and drop public health emergency designations, they face new decisions on how to regulate telehealth services, the National Law Review reported Feb. 21.

Teladoc's executives have positioned the company to becoming a leader in virtual care.

While telehealth boomed during the pandemic, easing of emergency measures has opened up the possibility of the service fading away, leaving telehealth companies vulnerable to changing policies at the state and federal level. However, advocacy groups, lawmakers and even the federal government have all made moves to keep telemedicine around for the time being. 

Liana Douillet Guzmán will join Folx Health, a New York City-based digital health service providing care for the LGBTQ community, as CEO.

Telehealth use has exploded since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and created a host of potential ways to improve care delivery, most notably by offering patients more convenience in managing chronic conditions and access to timely healthcare. 

Teladoc launched Chronic Care Complete, a program offered through Teladoc's Health app, to improve the health of patients living with multiple chronic conditions.

Sarah Rush, MD, serves as the chief medical information officer of Akron (Ohio) Children's Hospital, and in May 2020, she became what is believed to be the first endowed chair of telehealth in the nation. She spoke to Becker's about the creation of the role and what it has meant for the hospital.

The share of patients who believe telehealth provides the same or better quality of care compared with in-person visits is increasing, according to the "State of Telemedicine" report released Feb. 16 by health IT and telehealth networking platform Doximity.