Barriers and Obstacles of Telehealth

Telehealth is something that presents tremendous potential, offering advantages such as reducing the spread of infectious diseases, making healthcare more convenient and accessible to underserved communities, the ability to include family members who might not live nearby in a virtual visit, and beyond. In spite of all the benefits that telehealth presents, however, there are still a number of obstacles standing in the way of its full-scale adoption. To help better understand the challenges associated with maximizing the potential of telehealth, we’ll explore each of these obstacles as well as how they might be overcome.

Patient Privacy and Confidentiality

Anytime information is transmitted electronically, the potential for that information to become compromised is a real threat. Compared to in-person encounters, therefore, telehealth services are much more vulnerable to security risks. In spite of the fact that most telehealth platforms are highly secure, the potential for hacks and data breaches can never be completely eliminated. Better cybersecurity technology and protocols will go a long way toward reducing this risk, but healthcare practices providing telehealth services will always need to be vigilant regarding their security measures and their compliance with the various laws and regulations that set standards for patient privacy and confidentiality.

Misdiagnosis Due to Inaccurate Data

As telehealth technology advances, providers are able to offer an increasingly wide range of medical services without ever meeting their patients face-to-face. Unfortunately, technological limitations do sometimes create the potential for inaccurate data. This can lead to possible misdiagnosis if providers place too much trust in the data that they are gathering without being aware of the limitations of the technology used to gather that data. One study, for example, found that internet bandwidth can affect the accuracy of virtual fine motor task measurements. As with many of the obstacles in the way of telehealth, better technology and provider training is the key to solving this issue. For now, though, the potential for misdiagnosis due to inaccurate data is concerning.

“Telehealth is something that presents tremendous potential, offering advantages such as reducing the spread of infectious diseases, making healthcare more convenient and accessible to underserved communities, the ability to include family members who might not live nearby in a virtual visit, and beyond.”

Prescribing Controlled Substances

In order to crack down on online pharmacies that were distributing controlled substances online, the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act was passed and went into effect in 2009. While this act does not directly prohibit the prescribing of controlled substances through telehealth, the American Telemedicine Association did describe the act as “restrictive” to telehealth providers. Today, there are a number of regulations that must be complied with in order for providers to legally prescribe controlled substances online – including regulations mandated by the Ryan Haight Act and beyond. In order to avoid penalties for infractions, telehealth providers must carefully ensure that they are abiding by all of these regulations.

Limitations of Care

Although the evolution of telehealth technologies is enabling physicians to remotely provide an ever-increasing number of services, there are still plenty of services that require face-to-face care. We don’t want to go as far as to say that this will always be the case; those throughout history who have tried to predict the limitations of technology have often ended up embarrassed in little time at all. For now, however, there are certainly plenty of limitations as to the type of care that can be effectively provided through telehealth services.

Insurance Coverage

Progress is being made in regards to the number of insurance programs willing to cover telehealth services, but there is still a long way to go before providers are able to count on full reimbursement for all of the telehealth services that they provide. The need for telehealth services as a means of slowing the spread of COVID-19 has spurred many payers to increase their coverage of telehealth services. However, telehealth services can provide an additional source of revenue that needs to be managed in the revenue management cycle. Additionally, Medicare as well as numerous state Medicaid programs and commercial insurance plans continue to treat telehealth much differently than traditional medical services. In time, this is an issue that will likely resolve itself. Assuming that the popularity of telehealth continues to grow, the pressure for insurance programs to cover telehealth services as well as potential legislation requiring them to do so will be too much to ignore.

Medical Liability

Several of the issues that currently plague telehealth – including the potential for data breaches that expose a patient’s medical information and the potential for misdiagnosis due to inaccurate data – are also issues that make healthcare practices more vulnerable to medical liability lawsuits. It is also important to note that many professional liability policies do not currently include telehealth services in their scope of coverage. For this reason, it is essential for providers to carefully examine what exactly their professional liability policy does and does not cover before offering telehealth services.

Multistate Licensure

One benefit of telehealth is that it allows providers to offer services that are not restricted by geography. However, this benefit also presents a challenge to any provider planning to offer telehealth services in multiple states. A lack of multistate licensure and provider enrollment means that providers would be required to obtain licensure in each state where their patients are located – even though the physical location of the provider themselves when these services are conducted remains the same. In order to help eliminate this challenge, the Federation of State Medical Boards created the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, which was designed to ease the multistate licensure requirements for providers offering telehealth services in multiple states. Nevertheless, it is still important for any provider offering telehealth services to patients located outside the state where the provider is licensed to ensure that they meet all telehealth licensure requirements.

Conclusion

Telehealth is poised to play a prominent role in the future of healthcare. In order to maximize the many benefits that it offers, though, the current obstacles of telehealth certainly deserve special attention. Fortunately, a combination of better policies, legislation, and technology will help overcome most of the challenges standing in the way of telehealth.

At Bikham Healthcare, we are committed to helping healthcare practices navigate the current healthcare landscape as well as prepare for the future through innovative technological solutions and industry-leading services. To learn more about the various solutions that we offer at Bikham Healthcare, feel free to contact us today!

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