Top 6 Telehealth Adoption Challenges and Opportunities

Before the pandemic, only six states required telehealth services to be reimbursed at the same rate as equivalent offline services. The lack of legislative efforts to provide equal reimbursement is one of the biggest barriers to telehealth that inhibits the broad adoption of telemedicine services. According to the 2020 Telehealth Impact Study Physician Survey, over 73% of healthcare organizations believe reimbursement will be one of the most significant challenges with telemedicine after lockdown is lifted. The government has made progress in service and payment parity after the COVID-19 outbreak by implementing laws that made insurance companies and patients pay for telehealth as they would for traditional healthcare. However, only 14 states offer true payment parity, establishing that medical practitioners are reimbursed at the same rate for telemedicine services and in-person medical care.