Telehealth has become the new frontier for healthcare providers. Moreover, telehealth access can make healthcare more accessible for consumers and providers alike. Insurance coverage, broadband access, and interoperability continue to be important issues moving forward to provide equitable telehealth access.
Telehealth Coverage
Since the pandemic, many healthcare plans have included telehealth temporarily with the idea that this would come to an end following the pandemic. However, after seeing its impact and usefulness, many groups are pushing to make this permanent. By including these permanently in medical coverage it becomes easier for consumers to receive care and providers to receive payment for their care. In addition to this, many state healthcare programs are beginning to include telehealth at no extra cost to the consumer.
Expansion of Broadband for Telehealth Access
In order to effectively normalize telehealth coverage, access to Broadband must be expanded. Telehealth allows us to expand access to healthcare. For this reason, the Infrastructure Improvement Act allocated billions of dollars to this project. This gives funding to state and local programs tasked with expanding broadband connection to all communities. This will expand access to telehealth services in remote communities that may have fewer medical services.
Interoperability of Telehealth
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is coming up with a process for improving the exchange of electronic healthcare information and interoperability. Additionally, processes are seen in most health and pharmacy data collected. There is a high priority to ensure that the most up-to-date standards are used in regard to sharing health information digitally. However, it is equally important to ensure that no burden is created for providers.
Get Certified
American Medical Compliance (AMC) is a leader in the industry for compliance, billing, and HR solutions. Learn more about preparing your healthcare staff for the future of telehealth by taking AMC’s Telehealth Training for Healthcare Providers 3.0 course today. Visit https://americanmedicalcompliance.com/ for more information.
Reference
Health IT News (2023, January 23). What’s ahead for health IT policy and legislation in 2023. Retrieved from: https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/whats-ahead-health-it-policy-and-legislation-2023
