While telehealth continues to be adopted by healthcare providers and integrated into patient care, the delivery method is still viewed as a separate entity of healthcare, according to an American Medical Association blog post published this week.
At the HLTH conference in Las Vegas on Oct. 27, panelists discussed actions that need to be taken to help streamline telehealth adoption so that virtual care can be viewed simply as healthcare.
Here are things that need to happen to help telehealth reach its "tipping point," according to the AMA:
1. More patients need to embrace telehealth. Younger patients specifically have generated momentum that will continue to grow among other patient populations around telehealth for its factor of convenience.
2. Virtual care delivery needs alterations. Not all care can be provided virtually, so telehealth must offer physical places where patients can go for follow-up care.
3. Policy and payment reimbursement must support telehealth. For telehealth to become a mainstream method of care, payment reimbursements and policy regulations must improve support for its integration with healthcare services.