Amwell CEO on what 2022 may hold for RPM and telehealth reimbursement

Remote patient monitoring, technological advances that impact the balance of where and how care happens, and temporary reimbursement enacted by government and payers for the sake of the pandemic are three hot topics in telemedicine today. To get an idea of where these areas of telehealth will evolve in 2022 and beyond, Healthcare IT News interviewed a heavy hitter in the realm of virtual care, Roy Schoenberg, president and CEO of Amwell, a telemedicine technology and services company. Q. What do you see in the realm of technological advances in telemedicine in 2022, and how will these impact the balance of where and how care happens in the year ahead? When I think about technological advancements in the year ahead, it's less about what else telemedicine will be able to do and more about how it will work with and be integrated with these new technologies to create a seamless, yet always-on healthcare experience. In fact, the ability to tie together in-person care, virtual care and technology-driven care is a completely new model for healthcare and, when done right, presents a much more economical experience for all. With the influx of various technologies and the plethora of use cases that virtual care is now being used for, however, we've put ourselves at risk of having a very disjointed healthcare experience. A. When we start thinking about how individuals can coordinate their care – not with the people who are next to them, but with the people who are right for them – we have to create a vehicle that will allow healthcare to travel over technology without breaking everything else in the system.