Telehealth, not to be confused with telemedicine, is the delivery of health-related services and information via telecommunications technologies. It is yet another way to address healthcare quality issues and offer consumer-centric healthcare. InMedica’s most recent report, “The World Market for Telehealth – A Quantitative Market Assessment – 2011 Edition,” projects the telehealth market will “exceed $1 billion by 2016 and could jump to $6 billion in 2020”. The telehealth frenzy is being driven by two seperate, but complementary streams – Its noted cost-savings and increases in quality and the heightened attention on managing chronic diseases and the government telehealth grants. Together these seperate streams of information are spurring the adoption of telehealth as a cost-effective solution to engage patients, decrease costs and increase outcomes.
According to the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, telehealth is a prime solution to meet the needs of underserved people by providing alternative care to patients with mobile difficulties due to disease or geographic location. Telehealth can be used to educate and care for patients who need to manage illnesses but do not require an office visit. This type of alternative is a win for all parties. Currently, payers boast of telehealth cost-savings by discouraging frivolous practices. Providers see telehealth as an alternative way to increase quality, better manage illnesses and treat more patients.
Meanwhile, the benefits of telehealth have been noticed by consumers. Patients are excited to have the ability to manage their illness/es from a distance and avoid spending time traveling to and from time-consuming doctor visits. Consumers also view telehealth as a way to receive affordable care and become more engaged in their care. Engaging patients in care allows providers and payers to get better results by motivating, coaching and integrating healthcare with social networking that is shown to alter healthcare choices.
If patients have it their way, telehealth will become the norm to managing illnesses and disease – of the surveyed U.S. healthcare consumers, half of the respondents say they would use telehealth. It is time that capitalism does its thing and providers consumers with more and better telehealth options.
