S&P Global has released a new report revealing that telehealth patient volume increased 3,000 to 4,000 percent during the early month of the COVID-19 outbreak. Its usage is high as local governments have tried to ease communities back into pre-pandemic conditions.
The numbers indicate the durability of virtual health care, largely consisting of patients consulting care providers through video or phone. But they are uncertain as to how long this trend will continue because, patients would prefer to return to in-person care.
The report also mentioned that the government had temporarily waived a lengthy list of Medicare payment and coverage regulations to encourage greater use of telehealth, also referred to as telemedicine.
Shabana Khan, director of child and adolescent telepsychiatry for NYU Langone Health, an academic medical center in New York City shared with S&P Global that changes like increasing the number of services included by Medicare, paying for virtual care at a similar rate as in-person care, and allowing doctors to treat patients across states without the need of new license have encouraged the use of telemedicine.
Khan added that NYU Langone was the center of the US pandemic and saw around 7,000 video visits per day in the peak of the crisis, with around 100,000 video visits in April, compared to the roughly 300 visits prior to the pandemic.
But a few who spoke to S&P weren’t sure for how long the trend would continue when the coronavirus restrictions ease?
Telehealth could play a larger role in the U.S. healthcare system that it did previously, according to Ateev Mehrotra, a professor of healthcare policy at Harvard. But he believes it won’t grow in leaps and bounds that quickly.
The temporary telehealth regulations are supposed to expire on July 25. S&P states that the question is whether the regulatory changes will become permanent after that.
It reported that 30 senators had signed a letter to Senate leaders requesting to make the temporary telehealth provisions listed in the prior coronavirus pandemic legislation, permanent.
Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chairman mentioned during a June 17 hearing that he suspects we are talking about the biggest change in healthcare delivery in a long time, maybe ever.