4 Ways Coronavirus Changed Telehealth
Once the coronavirus pandemic began to spread in the United States, everyone was forced to adapt. People needed to make changes in their day-to-day lives and businesses across all industries felt the impact. Without a doubt, the healthcare industry was among the most heavily affected. While hospitals were overwhelmed with COVID patients, care providers who were working with other types of patients needed to find ways to provide people with the care they need.
As a result of the pandemic, many people voluntarily decided to postpone medical visits that weren’t absolutely necessary, leading to many medical practices seeing a decrease in patient volume. But for those who did need to talk to their healthcare provider, there’s a good chance that they may have done so via telehealth services rather than an in-person visit.
Telehealth has been around in varying degrees for several decades now, but with as much potential it has, it only accounted for a small amount of healthcare claims before the pandemic. How exactly did coronavirus impact telehealth? Here are a few ways:
It Became More Widely Used
As of August 2019, Patient Engagement reported that just 9.6% of American had used telehealth care, largely because many people either didn’t have the technology to use it or because they weren’t sure if it was an option that was available for them. Even though one of the biggest benefits to telehealth is that it could potentially improve access to healthcare in rural areas that have limited medical resources available to residents, this study found that only 8.7% of rural patients had adopted telehealth in comparison to 11% of of suburban patients and 12% of urban patients. Telehealth services were also more widely adopted by younger patients than older patients.
As the coronavirus pandemic grew, telehealth was pushed into commonality. Nationwide, telehealth claims increased from 0.17% of all medical claims in March 2019 to 7.52% in March 2020. Fierce Healthcare reported in April 2020 that nearly half of doctors were using telehealth to treat patients, thanks to changes from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that increased the ability for Medicare providers to be compensated for telehealth care.
More Leeway for Technology
Like so many other industries, the healthcare industry needed to adapt very quickly in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Healthcare is, most decidedly, an essential service, whether someone has COVID-19 or needs to take care of other health needs. With widespread concerns over people spending time in crowded environments like waiting rooms, where there’s a good chance someone could be contagious or have conditions that make them susceptible to COVID-19 complications, it was vital for people to have a way to get the care they need without putting themselves in harm’s way.
The first step in that was removing some of the obstacles that have limited the growth of telehealth. In response, a series of changes were issued through the CMS and the CARES Act that allowed telehealth to be more accessible. This included some relaxed standards for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Before to the pandemic, problems related to technology were among some of the most widely-cited reasons why telehealth hadn’t caught on, whether it’s access to the technology itself or because the technology isn’t user friendly.
According to Wachler & Wachler, prior to the outbreak, Medicare providers needed to meet certain requirements in regards to the technology used for telehealth services and widely accessible mobile apps like Skype and FaceTime had not been considered HIPAA compliant. But because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Health & Humans Services Office for Civil Rights were given more flexibility to waive HIPAA violation penalties when some of these types of applications were used by Medicare providers to provide telehealth services in good faith during the pandemic. Some types of telehealth services were also allowed to be given over the telephone instead of a system that utilizes both audio and video.
It Was Used for a Greater Range of Purposes
Telehealth isn’t ideal for all situations and that remains true as we work our way through this public health emergency. But because of restrictions on reimbursements for types of telehealth services, telehealth was being used in very limited ways. Under the changes from CMS, Medicare-covered telehealth services were temporarily expanded to include many additional telehealth applications, such as clinician home visits, initial nursing facility visits, and group therapy sessions.
It Could Be Provided From More Locations
One of the biggest benefits of telehealth is that it’s supposed to broaden the reach of healthcare. But while this is true for the patient, it didn’t necessarily apply to the physicians administering care. Prior to the pandemic, Medicare providers were required to administer telehealth services while working from an approved location, such as a healthcare facility or physician’s office. But given the need to promote social distancing, Medicare providers were given the flexibility to provide care from other locations, such as their own home.
With the large-scale impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on society, it’s too early to tell whether or not many of the changes we’ve adopted in response will last in the long run. In many different industries, some people believe the pandemic may have had the effect of accelerating trends that had been slowly progressing over time. Only time will tell if some of the changes to telehealth will be part of a larger trend toward making it more accessible.
