AMA outlines key steps for advancing telehealth equity

The association's proposals include broadband expansion, intentional design, health system investments and community partnerships.

"Telehealth has the potential to be an important tool for addressing long-standing health inequities among historically marginalized and minoritized communities that have been impacted disproportionately by the COVID-19 pandemic," said the organization in an issue brief. "To realize telehealth’s full potential, the AMA believes that those developing and implementing telehealth solutions must prioritize partnerships with historically marginalized and minoritized populations to ensure that solutions are designed to be accessible and work well for all," it continued. Investment initiatives at hospitals, health plans and health systems aimed at widening access to care via telehealth, including devoting resources toward improving workforce diversity. "Far more emphasis needs to be placed on ensuring that telehealth solution functionality, content, user interface, and service access are designed with and for historically minoritized and marginalized communities," said the association in its brief. "Patient access to telehealth is inextricably linked to whether telehealth services provided by their physicians – the physicians with whom they have a relationship – are covered by their health plan," said the AMA in its brief this week.