1. Increase Availability of Virtual Care Services
During a digital panel session, patient consultant Stacy Hurt shared her personal experience with telemedicine. When her son, who is nonambulatory and immunosuppressed, had to see about 60 different specialists in 2006, she wanted to make some visits virtual, but was told it couldn’t be done. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated telemedicine, and more than a decade later, she’s hoping these advancements will stick around.
“Just to know that we can have that option of telehealth for routine test results or follow-up visits, it eases our minds a lot,” said Hurt.
However, with a “telehealth cliff” on the horizon, how can providers ensure continuity of virtual care services? If policies and regulations aren’t better streamlined and clarified, patients could experience a lot of confusion.
American Well Chief Medical Officer Peter Antall said it is important for the federal government to act definitively, since commercial payers will fall in line with Medicare practices, and that all stakeholders should speak out on improving telehealth policies.
“Imagine if, a year from now, there’s going to be a new regulation that bars anyone from doing online banking. How would consumers feel about having to go back to bank branches to do all their banking? That’s how we view this,” Antall said.