
Telemedicine or telehealth has seen dramatic growth in recent years. With both patients and physicians finding this technology easy to use, this growth trend should continue.
An article posted on Care Innovations website says, “Take, for example, the escalating patient demand for virtually-delivered care. In 2017, a patient survey found that two-thirds of healthcare consumers would prefer seeing a doctor via virtual visits — a finding that takes on added importance given that the same percentage of patients say they’ve put off seeking care in the past for a variety of reasons such as convenience and cost.”
Stuart Pologe, COO of Night Nurse, which helps to provide telephonic triage services in 37 states across the U.S., suggests that remote care has become more accepted by patients and others due to the shortage of providers in some areas. Telehealth has helped to bridge that gap.
“Access to care needs to be more universally available, whether in the city or rural [setting],” says Pologe.
Thomas Davis, MD, FAAFP, a consultant based in St. Louis, has added that telemedicine has the potential to increase a physician’s overall productivity. “I can treat more than twice as many acute patients per hour in a telemedicine practice as I can in the office,” Davis said.
Noticeable trends in telehealth/telemedicine
A recent Harvard public-health study published in a research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association discovered that among members of one particular health plan, their annual telemedicine visits increased from 0.02 per every 1,000 members in 2005 to 6.57 per every 1,000 in 2017. More than 83 percent of these members lived in urban areas.
“It’s not just for rural areas,” Matchinski agreed. “Telemedicine is used in large metro areas.”
As of 2016, 32 states have passed parity laws, which require proper coverage and reimbursement for telemedicine. The Harvard study found that mental health-centered televisits have increased in areas with no psychiatrists and more comprehensive mandates on parity. Despite this, parity laws have not helped to expand primary care based telemedicine visits.
Kwong has added that the most reimbursed specialty by public programs, including Medicaid, is telepsychiatry.
Research firm, Mordor Intelligence, released an analysis they did of the global telemedicine market share and have forecasted that there will be a compound annual growth of 18.83% between 2018 t0 2023. The report valued the telemedicine market in 2017 at $32,842 million. The drivers of this market include Medicare reimbursement for telehealth claims.
The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services has expended reimbursement in the 2019 fiscal year for Internet communication technologies, such as virtual check-ins and various remote evaluation services.
Vidyo is an embedded video technology company based in Hackensack, New Jersey, and they recently released a study through which it was discovered that more than 75% of 300 health care delivery organization respondents reported that they were currently operating or planning to launch telehealth services soon. Around two-thirds of the respondents to the survey said that they plan to spend 20% or more of their tech budget on telemedicine.
Chief marketing officer at Vidyo, Elana Anderson, said in a release that she fully expects that “2018 will be the year that ‘telemedicine’ becomes standard medicine and mobile or remote access becomes the new normal.”
Anderson has attributed this prediction to patient satisfaction and the timeliness of care provided, along with how efficient telemedicine is along with the high return on investment that telemedicine is showing.
Addressing specific needs
Kwong reported that on both the state and federal levels that there is a public health telemedicine trend towards addressing the opioid epidemic because of the limited number of professionals that are trained to treat substance abuse disorders. “A lot of policy has focused on counseling and mental and behavioral health,” she said.
The Opioid Crisis Act includes a push for agencies to create rules that are related to prescribing opioids through telemedicine platforms.
Emergency departments in community-based hospitals often rely on telestroke communication with a neurologist located at a major medical center. Telemedicine services have also been used to help remote victims of man-made and even natural disasters.
A multitude of professionals, including but not limited to dentists and anesthesiologists, can practice using telehealth.
“Dentists usually have a dental hygienist with the patient, working the exam camera,” said Kwong, explaining that while patients may be seeing the hygienist for the cleaning portion of the exam, the dentist could be performing the check-up remotely. This helps to ensure that dentists are able to provide services for as many patients as possible.
Jobs in the field
Kwong has reported that while most of the telemedicine physicians she works with only practice telemedicine part-time, some full-time telemedicine jobs do exist with large providers, such as American Well and Teledoc. Some locum tenens jobs like Medcare Staffing can include a full or part-time telemedicine element.
Opportunities in telemedicine are also available for nurse practitioners, allied professionals, registered nurses, and physician assistants, with various models for oversight and supervision.
With some of the barriers surrounding telemedicine breaking-down and patients is expected to move towards a trend of more remote care, the technology will likely grow in its popularity, thus supporting more jobs.
“This change is coming,” Kwong said.
Are you interested in telemedicine jobs? Please contact a consultant at MedCare Staffing to discuss opportunities today!
Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.
What we do: We place Physicians & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs
To contact MedCare Staffing call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!