Managing Editor
@ShahidNShah
@ShahidNShah
Telehealth in the US: adapt or die?
When Covid-19 was classified as a public health emergency (PHE) in the US, telehealth visits climbed to approximately 50% at the pandemic’s peak in April 2020, as per the American Medicine Association (AMA) journal JAMA Network.Over the last year, there have been signs which indicate that telehealth utilisation in the US has been declining since its pandemic-era zenith.After a three-year run, UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Virtual Care shuttered operations in April 2024. Walmart soon followed suit, announcing that it would be shuttering its Walmart Health centres and Walmart Health Virtual Care operations, the grocery giant said it had determined there was not a “sustainable business model” for it to continue operating. Compounding this challenge, the US is facing a physician shortage which could result in a shortfall of 86,000 physicians by 2036, as per the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Medigy Insights
Kaveh Safavi, senior managing director for Accenture’s global healthcare business, believes that the shuttering of Optum and Walmart’s telehealth operations should not be taken as a statement about virtual healthcare writ large, but that they are more reflective of a particular business model’s failure.This assertion is borne out of the fact the telehealth devices market in the US is projected to reach a value of $101.3m by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.84%, versus $72.7m for telehealth software and services growing at CAGR of 4.98%, as per GlobalData analysis.According to Safavi, its use in extending the reach of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and physical therapists, for services that can be done at a distance, is what providers are taking advantage of now.
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