Recently, Circle Square published its 2019 annual summary on health and consumer information technology. The company found among the ups and downs of digital health, that telemedicine adoption is leading all other initiatives in private practice. A survey from American Well stated that 69% of physicians said they’d be willing to use telemedicine, up from 57% in 2015.
- Physician telemedicine adoption is up 340%, dwarfing EHR’s early adoption rates
- Telemedicine use is increasing most among non-hospital-based providers
- Recent telemedicine M&A activity points to a healthy, maturing segment with notable telemedicine funding
We’ve been hearing for years that telemedicine is growing in popularity among providers and patients. What is so remarkable is the number of barriers to entry that have been broken down in the past few years:
- Fear: Uncertainty around reimbursement. Fact: Claims related to telemedicine overall grew 624% from 2014 to 2018.
- Fear: Not worth the workflow overhaul. Fact: Specialists are increasing the desire use telemedicine – especially those who are getting “burnt out”. Top specialties willing to see patients virtually include urology, neurology, emergency medicine, infectious disease.
- Fear: Not relevant to my specialty/caseload. Fact: Conditions most associated with telemedicine use are upper respiratory infection, mood disorders and anxiety or other non-psychotic mental disorders.
- Fear: My patients won’t use it. Fact: Those most likely to use telemedicine services were aged 31 to 40, accounting for 21% of claims. Women used telemedicine more often than men, accounting for 65% of claims.
- Fear: My technology can’t support it. Fact: Online patient portals and telemedicine are the technologies most often deployed in practice’s patient engagement efforts.
AdvancedMD offers integrated telemedicine, patient portals and online scheduling within our unified suite of PM+EHR so you easily can treat patients and get paid without taking on additional overhead. Here are several resources featured in our telemedicine resource library that you may find helpful.
- Video: Telemedicine Overview
- Video: Telemedicine Demo
- Video: Telemedicine Executive Overview
- eGuide: Making Telemedicine Seamless for Patients and Practices: 5 ways to mainstream telemedicine into your practice
- eGuide: Protecting your Practice from Patient Loss with Telemedicine
- eGuide: Navigating Telemedicine Workflow Challenges
- eGuide: Telemedicine: The Ultimate Guide to Billing Success & Maximizing Revenue
