To avoid a government shutdown, President Joe Biden American Rescue Act of 2025This legislation helped extend reimbursement for certain telehealth services for Medicare beneficiaries through March 31, 2025.
The legislation removes previous geographic restrictions and allows Medicare beneficiaries to receive telehealth services from any location, including their home, according to . blog post From the Center for Telemedicine and e-Health Law (CTeL).
Telehealth has also become available to a wider range of health care providers, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists, and telehealth has expanded to include audio-only communication. It also extended exemptions to allow hospitals to provide home monitoring, including virtual care.
However, the period covering these services is much shorter than previously outlined in the continuing resolution, which was expected to be voted on in December. The resolution includes a two-year extension of the ability to care for Medicare patients through telemedicine, a five-year extension of the Home Acute Hospital Program, and an allowance to provide cardiopulmonary rehabilitation services in the homes of Medicare beneficiaries in 2025 and 2026. was included. Telemedicine.
While we wait to see what happens under the second Trump administration, below are some new angles to help spark story ideas about telehealth or focus news coverage on telehealth. Show.
Telemedicine is Popular with adults with dementia
According to , telemedicine can be beneficial for people with dementia. recent research The study compared primary care appointments at the University of California, San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif., before and after the coronavirus pandemic.
Investigators noted that appointments for patients with dementia who were seen only in person decreased from 60% to 27% at Keizer University and from 99% to 35% at UCSF.
In contrast, telehealth-only visits by phone or video increased from 5.5% to 29% at Kaiser and from 0.3% to 20% at UCSF. Researchers say people who take longer to drive to the clinic and the oldest patients are most likely to use telemedicine, perhaps because they have difficulty traveling to appointments. Any exceptions? People with limited English proficiency.
Women turn to telemedicine for abortion pills
After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, many women began using telemedicine to receive prescriptions for abortion pills.
For example, Wisconsin law prohibits the use of telemedicine for abortion services; report The organization #WeCount found that approximately 130 orders for abortion pills are shipped to the state from health care providers in other states each month. Wisconsin Public Radio reported..
In the fall of 2023, New York City Public Hospital began offering abortion care via telemedicine, becoming one of the first public health systems to do so.
Telemedicine in ambulances supports paramedics and patients
With a shortage of trained emergency medical personnel and often long journeys to medical centers by ambulance, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services turned to telemedicine.
After contracting with an outside vendor, the company equipped 65 ambulances in 26 regions with cabin-mounted telemedicine tablets. This allows a single technician to ride in the back with the patient and instantly connect with an experienced emergency physician, EMT, or nurse for real-time support. Consultation during transportation, Healthcare IT News It was reported in August last year.
Mayo Clinic last year have entered into similar partnershipsa hands-free headset inside an ambulance that allows for remote monitoring of patients en route to the hospital.
Telemedicine used to engage clinical trial participants
Approximately 63% of consumers said they would be more likely to participate in a clinical trial if offered a virtual visit option. According to a survey from Lindas Health, a contract research organization.
Integrating telemedicine into clinical research “has the potential to dramatically improve the patient experience by removing logistical barriers to participation, such as lengthy in-person research visits and travel to and from the facility.” Yes,” he said. Company news release About the investigation. Nearly all of the 136 people surveyed said they were comfortable using technology to report data.
As an example in 2023 of how this works, The Ohio State University Cancer Center launched the first cancer clinical trial of “smart drugs” in telemedicine. Becker’s Hospital Review reports. This virtual trial used a drug that targets genes that cause mutations in pancreatic cancer. Patients were shipped medication, participated in telemedicine visits with researchers, and received blood tests and imaging tests from local oncologists.
Telemedicine for remote cancer treatment results in high patient satisfaction
Radiation treatment for cancer is highly travel-intensive, requiring patients to travel to a medical center every day for several weeks. Memorial Sloan Kettering physicians announced they have designed a teleradiation oncology model that allows patients to receive radiation therapy at a cancer center near their home and receive initial consultations, treatment planning, and other management via telemedicine. . TechTarget Articles.
in retrospective study Of approximately 3,000 such patients, 98% rated their satisfaction with the program as “good” or “very good.” In addition, out-of-pocket savings from travel savings totaled $612,913 ($466 per patient) and estimated carbon emissions decreased by 174 tons.
Satisfaction with telemedicine may vary by race
However, ongoing challenges with telehealth visits remain for some users. a study In a survey of approximately 773 cancer patients at two academic health systems about their experiences with telemedicine, Black respondents found that telemedicine visits were more likely to help determine health needs and ask questions. They found that telemedicine visits are not easy to understand and communicate with a healthcare provider. compared to non-Black respondents. They were also more likely to report that telemedicine visits were less private.
