AS COVID-19 SPREAD across the nation from March to April 2020, use of telehealth services continued to grow.
That surge is shown by FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, which uses our database of over 31 billion private health care claim records – the largest such repository in the nation – to track the month-by-month evolution of telehealth.
According to the tracker, telehealth claim lines increased 8,336% nationally, from 0.15% of medical claim lines in April 2019 to 13% in April 2020. (A claim line is an individual service or procedure listed on an insurance claim.)
Original Source: By Robin Gelburd, J.D US News
I am suffering from a terminal cancer which, of course, requires a lot of doctor visits and consults. Being a veteran, I use the VA system (North Dakota’s VA is GREAT! Low population density, I guess).
The VA has been using a limited telehealth program for years now, where you go to a clinic and have a ‘visit’ with doctors at different locations. Net result, patients do not have to travel to the distant facility but still must visit a local clinic.
However, since covid-19, they’ve started using a program allowing patients to use their own computers to have a secure consult directly from home. I have used this system several times now and highly recommend it. It may be the routine health care of the future.