The Misalignment of Telehealth Policy and Funding Versus Who Actually Uses It Is Epic

Since the public health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic began, telehealth has been positioned as a leading solution to health care access challenges. But the utilization data tells a more nuanced story about how telehealth is actually being used today (and by whom), and whether the latest policy measures and funding figures are right-sized to market realities. Recently, pandemic-era telehealth provisions were extended in the omnibus bill.

From private companies to health care associations, stakeholders have pushed for Congress to make flexibilities permanent post-pandemic, calling the technology ubiquitous, among other characteristics.

On the surface, extending telehealth policy flexibilities and allocating funds to improve technology access make sense. Unfortunately, these frameworks become a lot less impactful if the technology they support is far from ubiquitous, only being used by a sliver of the population which is the very situation we find ourselves in today.