According to Jonathan Linkous, CEO of The American Telemedicine Association (ATA), Washington, DC, after 40-plus years of development, telemedicine is finally becoming mainstream in transforming the delivery of care. He said that more than five million Americans had their medical images read remotely last year, approximately 10% of all the intensive care unit beds in the US use telemedicine; and one million Americans benefit from remote cardiac monitoring for implantable devices or for checking on a suspected cardiac arrhythmia. There are now more than 13,000 consumer health applications for the iPhone alone.
In fact, the ATA estimates that more than 10 million Americans have directly benefited from some sort of telemedicine service this past year, probably double from just three years ago. In the past, many compared the health care industry's slow adoption of telehealth with other sectors that have rapidly adopted telecommunications technology, such as banking, entertainment, and publishing.
But, the biggest problem, the ATA says, is the red tape and top-down regulatory reticence demonstrated by various government agencies. Since ATA was launched in 1993, the leading barriers to the deployment of telemedicine in the US have almost all involved government policy: reimbursement by Medicare and Medicaid, state-based standards of care and professional licensing, device regulation, and telecommunications policy.
But expectations are high that 2013 will be a season of big changes. The triple whammy of rising costs, provider shortages, and increasing demand for health care is forcing policymakers to finally consider alternatives that were never on the table before. Also, state legislators, patient groups and organizations, medical societies, private payers, and health system CEOs have all demanded access to, payment for, and inclusion of telemedicine for themselves and their members.
Sixteen states have already adopted legislation requiring all private payers in the state to reimburse for telemedicine for services that would be reimbursed if they were provided in person. With the support of the groups of state legislatures pledging change, several more states are expected to be added this year.
Linkous says “It is a year for federal and state governments to play catch up with the rest of the health and technology sectors by either supporting the use of telemedicine or at least by ceasing to be a roadblock in its pathway to the future.”
