An important acknowledgement of the benefit telehealth brings to the world happened this year in the United States, when the Telehealth Innovation and Improvement Act of 2017 was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colorado) and Gary Peters (D-Michigan). The bill amends titles XI (General Provisions) and XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to establish a telehealth service model and institute Medicare payment rules regarding specific services tested under the model. Full explanation here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/787 . The bill was referred in March to the Senate Committee on Finance.
According to the Physicians Guide to Telemedicine 2017, (63-page whitepaper published by PrognoCIS Telemedicine) “the global market for telemedicine will be worth more than $34 billion by the end of 2020. The Guide also claims that “currently, North America accounts for more than 40% of the global market. The facts/figures benefit to telemedicine (from the Guide) is that "telemedicine has the ability to deliver services to the 20% of persons who account for 80% of health care expenditures.” That’s an eye opener…and something important to stakeholders. But, nothing is more important than the person in that twenty percent.