When the coronavirus pandemic hit, many doctor’s offices closed or severely limited their in-person visits as a precaution to flatten the spread of infections. To accommodate patients, they started to use video-conferencing software to conduct visits instead. While telemedicine, as it’s called, was already around before the pandemic, this situation has accelerated its adoption in doctors’ offices by around three years, some estimate. On this episode of Reopening America, Oscar Ramirez talks to Wall Street Journal reporter Sarah Krouse about this speedy adoption, the companies and platforms currently competing for that business, and what the future of telemedicine might be after the pandemic is over.
Sarah tells us that telemedicine was slow to be used at first mainly for financial reasons: Insurance companies wouldn’t reimburse for video or phone visits like they will for in-person visits. But the coronavirus changed all that; now, Medicare is covering telemedicine visits, insurance companies are reimbursing at the same rates, and even some privacy regulations aren’t being enforced, to enable patients to use platforms like FaceTime or Zoom to speak with their doctors. The question is how permanent these changes will be; if we revert completely back to pre-pandemic policies, the use of telemedicine may dip to pre-pandemic levels.
But most people in that sector don’t see a slowdown; the convenience of telemedicine for both patients and doctors is hard to overstate, especially for routine medical care, like the management of chronic conditions or post-partum instruction. And plenty of telemedicine providers are seeing dollar signs, too: TeleDoc, the largest of the telehealth platforms, agreed to a $18.5 billion deal to buy a chronic care management company recently; AmWell, another telehealth platform, filed for an IPO; another company that concentrates on mental health and therapy is seen as a target for expansion. However, as with many things during the pandemic, the future is still a little hazy as these telehealth platforms wait to see how the regulations will change, or not, with the times. Hear all about the present and future of telemedicine on this episode of Reopening America.
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