Chronic Care Management is Key to Telehealth’s Post-Pandemic Strategy

Telehealth utilization has dropped as the pandemic emergency has waned. For telehealth utilization to meet the higher expectations set during the pandemic, the technology must be wielded for more than just episodic or urgent care. Surveys have shown that most healthcare providers thought telehealth would stay at pandemic levels or even increase.

In fact, 85% of our healthcare costs are attributed to chronic conditions, where continuous care delivery combined with deeper insights is a necessity for outcome improvements. We know that continuity of care positively influences both healthcare outcomes (Hospital readmissions) and activation/engagement, especially for chronic disease patients. Integrating with diagnostics, lab data, and the various touch points within the chronic patient journey will deliver deeper insights to in-person and remote care teams, driving better outcomes and utilization.

Instead, telehealth companies were working on only one part of the patient journey to solve healthcare challenges that occur at multiple different points. Telehealth, as a part of digital health, is what can help transform healthcare, but standalone it’s just one part of the patient care journey. Telehealth won’t revolutionize healthcare if it can only address 20% of the problem.