HEALTH CARE our alarm goes off . Still impossibly tired , you lay under the blankets checking your smartwatch sleep report while summoning the energy to get out of bed . Breakfast is oatmeal . While it cooks , you take an electrocardiogram from the medicalgrade EKG monitor you received because heart disease runs in your family . You rub the last of the sleep out of your eyes as you double-check today ’ s reading : abnormal .
Quickly , you open the patient portal app on your phone and schedule an 11 a . m . virtual visit with your doctor . You finish your morning routine , using the smart toilet that scans stool and urine for health data before it ’ s flushed away , then shower and head to work .
It ’ s a struggle to focus today . You are feeling unsettled by the abnormal reading and try not to succumb to catastrophic thinking . Thankfully , 11 a . m . rolls around quickly . You take an early lunch and visit with your doctor on your smartphone for 20 minutes in the parking lot . She guides you through a routine exam using a digital device with a stethoscope extension , and you share that morning ’ s EKG report with her . She is going to e-consult with a specialist and will send you a message this afternoon to let you know if you need to come in for further tests . You go back to work feeling a little anxious but reassured that you ’ ll have more information later that day .
This hypothetical situation is not as futuristic as it sounds . All of the technology exists now — indeed , even a smart toilet prototype — and is part of a rapidly growing mode of health care known as telehealth .
The Center for Connected Health Policy , a nonprofit nonpartisan organization advocating for widespread telehealth implementation , defines telehealth as “ a collection of means to enhance care and education delivery .” It includes synchronous care , such as virtual appointments ; asynchronous care , such as messaging ; and remote patient monitoring that uses devices to collect data and flag problems as they are identified . The definition of telehealth is constantly expanding as
“ In the last 40 years , I have never seen such a watershed moment . … COVID demystified and democratized ( digital health ) and made it accessible to physicians and patients like never before .”
DR . ASHISH ATREJA Chief information and digital health officer UC Davis Health
the scope of what can be done increases with developments in technology . The term is used somewhat interchangeably with digital health , though digital health is a more general term which includes health-care-adjacent technology , such as fitness tech .
Telehealth has been mired in red tape for years with a complicated patchwork of regulation on the federal , state and commercial levels . Generally speaking , reimbursement has been restricted to certain points of origin ( usually a clinic ) in certain geographic locations ( usually rural ) using limited modes of communication by a limited number of provider types and services . In 2020 , the Coronavirus Aid , Relief , and Economic Security Act enacted general waivers enabling the Department of Health and Human Services to temporarily lift policy restrictions , which created ideal conditions for telehealth to finally take off .
The CARES Act provision enacted a number of temporary telehealth waivers and flexibilities , including expanding the types of billable telehealth visits , allowing providers to bill telehealth services the same as in-person services , removing point of origin limitations and allowing patients to access telehealth from inside their homes , expanding geographic locations to patients outside of rural areas , increasing the types of providers who could use telehealth , and allowing flexibility in privacy laws so providers could use common platforms like Zoom to provide care .
It ’ s unclear if telehealth will remain on its current trajectory once the pandemic is over , but one thing is clear : Decisions made now will be critical for the future of its innovation . For years , the U . S . health care industry has widely been considered a prime target for disruptive innovation due to its lack of affordability , inconvenience , low trust , unutilized technology and complicated regulatory framework . According to the Brookings Institution , national health spending accounted for 17.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2018 and is projected to continue climbing under current laws . Simultaneously , it is estimated that 30 percent of medical spending doesn ’ t correspond to an increase in quality of care .
50 comstocksmag . com | April 2021