Many of us are impatient for a future where telehealth reduces our visits to health professionals. Whether you are geographically isolated, tired of waiting hours in a waiting room for an overdue appointment or simply have felt the pain of dragging yourself from your sick bed to a doctor’s surgery to acquire a sick note for an employer, consumers are keen to see a change. Current health providers are expanding their services to include remote health. Health tech startups such as mediconecta and couch are creating new stand-alone services for remote care.
However substantial barriers exist for telehealth in practice according to a new survey of the 114 chief information officers, IT directors, telehealth managers and other professionals by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and KLAS.
About 59% of respondents listed reimbursement as a limitation, noting that some payers have been slow to reimburse telehealth visits1 and or reimburse at rates lower than face-to-face care. Most said integration between their electronic medical record and virtual care platform vendor was nonexistent or unidirectional. They also cited improved patient access as a major benefit, and three-quarters reported that they were actively planning to either expand the number of specialties served or expand patient access to providers using their present solution.