Telehealth: “Should I Stay or Should I Go...?”

Up until a few years ago, the prevailing perception of telehealth was that it was some futuristic, Jetson-like nice-to-have for a limited set of use cases. Of course, this was misguided, but it really wasn’t until the Covid-19 pandemic when the illusion was finally shattered.

Now, nearly 40% of US patients see doctors virtually. Roughly 85% of physicians use telehealth, with 60% saying it enables them to provide high quality care and 44% saying it reduces the costs of care. And according to a recent analysis by Omada Health and my colleague Christina Farr, 30% of care could theoretically be virtualized under existing CPT codes.

But we’re nearly three years into this saga, and there’s still no real certainty about what support there will be for telehealth — from a federal level — when the public health emergency ends.