By Sean Slone, CSG senior policy analyst
This is the first in a series of reports on how telehealth is being impacted by policy changes and investments during the coronavirus pandemic. Future articles will address state policy activities, continuing challenges for telehealth access, how telehealth is impacting care during the crisis and whether the changes of the last few weeks will survive the pandemic to reshape telehealth’s future.
While the concept of telemedicine has been around for more than a quarter century, its adoption by patients and doctors alike has been relatively slow to evolve and a patchwork of state and federal regulations governing it—not to mention an underdeveloped technology infrastructure—has made it difficult to overcome that hesitation. But it appears the extraordinary circumstances presented by the pandemic could be changing that. Actions taken by Congress and a number of federal government agencies over the last two months are helping to advance the accessibility of telehealth during a time when in-person doctor visits are fraught with public health concerns.
Continue reading “Federal Actions Advancing Telehealth During Pandemic”