The Telehealth revolution

 Washington Examiner:

Earlier this month, a group of 17 House Republicans released several ideas for modernizing the healthcare system, improving access to care, and lowering costs.

One of the proposals — safeguarding expanded access to telehealth — could help achieve all three of those goals. Lawmakers would do well to relax permanently the telehealth restrictions that were temporarily waived during the pandemic. Those waivers have eliminated onerous barriers to virtual care. For example, Medicare beneficiaries no longer have to travel to a designated healthcare facility just to connect with their physician online. Waivers have also allowed patients in many states to schedule virtual appointments with doctors licensed in other states.

As a result, telemedicine has exploded. According to a recent report from Doximity, a social network for medical professionals, nearly 70% of patients had at least one telehealth visit last year — compared with just one-quarter of patients before the pandemic. But future access to virtual care is far from guaranteed. Many pandemic-era telehealth waivers could run out after the expiration of the federal public health emergency, which could happen later this year.
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My wife and I recently used a virtual appointment with our primary care physician to schedule treatment for Covid.  That resulted in a team of providers coming to our home and treating us with monoclonal antibodies that greatly helped in dealing with the virus and speeding our recoveries.  It was similar to a facetime phone session.