Bloomberg Businessweek May 24, 2021 pp39-40 |Politics|”Averting a Telehealth Cliff” “As legal relaxations on remote health care expire, supporters scramble to keep them” "The Bottom Line. Removing barriers to telemedicine beyond the pandemic could help rural Americans in particular, although fraud and higher spending as concerns."
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“Remote Health Care Surges During the Pandemic” “Telehealth visits as a share of all visits (Baseline is 0 for week of March 1-7, 2020). Not too long after the lockdowns from the COVID-19 pandemic, Telehealth (TH) visits surged to nearly 12% then fell to about 6% and remain now at about 8%. March 2020 was up 154% when compared to March 2019.
By medical specialty the participation levels are cited as 56% Behavioral health, 25% Endocrinology, 17% Neurology, 17% Rheumatology, 14% Gastroenterology, 14% Anesthesiology, 13% Pulmonology, 12% Adult primary care, 8% Pediatrics and 7% Allergy/Immunology.
Emergency government “measures early in the COVID-19 pandemic” facilitated TH by sweeping “aside some of the legal and insurance thicket that for years held back technological progress in the almost $4 trillion U.S. health-care sector.” This includes allowing “practicing medicine across state lines without the usual licenses”, allowing “virtual Medicare visits” and “charging the same for online visits as in-person” care. While these provisions reach the end of emergency status, governments are scrambling to delay the deadline and even “expand telemedicine access, particularly for Medicare.” Many note that TH has been a “lifeline for people in rural” areas and Ron King (Democrat congressman from Wisconsin) remarked “And I feel, and I think most members do feel, that there’s no going back at this point.” “The Biden administration has signaled” support to extend TH emergency-provisions through 2021.
TH as a business is getting an infusion of “more than $10 billion into telehealth startups last year, up from $6 billion in 2019” this according to CB Insights. As usual crooks have rushed in as well. “In October federal prosecutors charged more than 86 criminal defendants with submitting $4.5 billion in false claims to Medicare and other government insurers.” If that trend continues push back could follow. American Well Corp AKA AMWELL (AMWL) are “fighting against retrenchment.” AMWL revenues jumped 65% last year to $245 million. The stock went IPO September 18, 2020 at $23.02 and on news of competition and declining demand for TH sits currently at $11.89.
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