With relaxed regulations during the pandemic, Medicare telehealth visits increased 63-fold in 2020, from 840,000 in 2019 to 52.7 million, according to a Dec. 3 HHS report. 

States would be rejecting a significant opportunity to improve healthcare delivery if they discontinue the telehealth policy relaxations enacted during the pandemic, Naomi Lopez, director of healthcare policy at the Goldwater Institute, wrote in a Dec. 2 op-ed for The Hill.

Most Americans view telehealth as playing a role in the future of medical care. However, the majority still prefer an in-person visit over a virtual one, according to a study published Dec. 1 in JAMA Network Open.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Institute for Digital Health & Innovation is expanding its virtual health push by launching five telehealth training centers across Arkansas and Tennessee, it announced Nov. 30. 

HHS is making $35 million in American Rescue Plan funding available to Title X family planning providers for telehealth infrastructure upgrades and expansions, it announced Nov. 23. 

The National Telehealth Policy Resource Center analyzed telehealth laws and Medicaid program policies for every state and Washington, D.C., in a recent report.

Half of U.S. states have stopped emergency declarations that waived licensing requirements for out-of-state clinicians conducting telehealth visits, leaving patients across the country unable to access care or scrambling for new providers, The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 22.

Orange, Calif.-based UCI Health is partnering with at-home care provider DispatchHealth to launch a hospital-at-home program.

While lawmakers and government regulators continue to consider the effects virtual care standards have on patients, recent moves at the federal and state levels give a glimpse into where telehealth might be headed, according to a Nov. 18 report in JD Supra, a company that provides legal information.

Telehealth is here to stay. In 2020, virtual health solutions and stopgaps were sped into place to enable the delivery of healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. These solutions — which provide important benefits for patients and providers — have now become a permanent fixture in healthcare. However, as hospitals, health systems and health plans contemplate their future digital care strategies and investments, they are realizing they must pursue a more strategic and integrated approach to ensure that virtual care continues to fuel a higher quality and more seamless care experience.

Patients who saw their physicians via telehealth didn't need more follow-ups than patients who had in-person appointments, according to an Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente study published Nov. 16 in JAMA Network Open.

Forty percent of patients say they interact with their healthcare providers more because of telehealth, according to research released Nov. 15 by GoodRx.

Most employers expanded telehealth offerings for their employees since the start of the pandemic, with 1 in 10 large firms inking new deals with telehealth providers, according to a Nov. 10 Kaiser Family Foundation report.

Zoom is the most popular platform providers use for telehealth visits, according to research released Nov. 15 by GoodRx.

Only 36 percent of patients who have never had a telehealth appointment say they prefer face-to-face visits, according to research released Nov. 15 by GoodRx.

Care that is provided virtually goes by several different names, and patients respond differently to each of those terms, according to research released by branding agency Monigle.

The Federal Communications Commission on Nov. 10 announced the fourth round of funding for its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, awarding $709 million to support the development of high-speed broadband networks for more than 10 million Americans who live in rural areas.

The Federal Communications Commission approved Nov. 9 an additional 75 applicants for funding in its second round of the COVID-19 Telehealth Program, providing a total of $42,163,705 in the round.

Hershey, Pa.-based Penn State Health, Pittsburgh-based Highmark Health and Nashville, Tenn.-based Contessa, an acute care company, inked a joint hospital-at-home venture.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge, University of Birmingham and other U.K.-based hospitals and universities launched a study to gauge clinicians' and patients' perception of virtual visits, according to a Nov. 2 report published in Oxford Academic.