Top 15 Specialties Embracing Telehealth During COVID-19

As the country begins the re-opening phase state by state, scheduling appointments and surgeries previously put on hold will gradually resume, following CDC guidelines and new triage protocols to determine in-person visits vs telehealth visits.  

“ZOOM has clearly become the tool for business continuity and TELEHEALTH is for continuity of patient care”

While no one can predict exactly how much telehealth will be used once the pandemic is over, experts and physicians on the front lines agree that this experience will result in telehealth being more widely used than it was before the pandemic.

Sandy Marks, AMA’s senior assistant director of federal affairs says:

“There are going to be changes in the practice of medicine going forward based on all this use of telehealth. We are quite certain of that. We are definitely going to be pushing for some of these new policy flexibilities to remain in place.”

Areas of healthcare embracing Telehealth

Some disciplines of healthcare never imagined using Telehealth until now thanks to CMS placing much needed policy flexibilities so providers of all specialties could continue to provide patient care. Areas where Telehealth was already in place may not be listed below. FQHC and RHC are getting a boost on Telehealth from the CARES Funding program.  

• ER Visits
• Initial Nursing Facilities visits
• Home Health, Home visits
• Inpatient Neonatal and Pediatric Critical Care
• Group Psychotherapy
• Psychological and Neuropsychological Testing
• Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and other therapy services.
• End-stage Renal Disease Services
• Remote patient monitoring
• FQHC – Federally Funded Community Health Centers
• RHC – Rural Remote Health Centers

Specialties embracing Telehealth and gaining momentum

The momentum Telehealth had been gaining in recent years was propelled by COVID-19 forcing physician practices of all specialties to quickly figure out how they can best use the technology to provide patients with care while practicing physical distancing.

A “Re-set” happens when things need to start again. It is like a refresh, very much like the familiar “reboot the computer”.  Things get so jumbled up that it is better to just shut it down and start again. Are we experiencing a re-set-in healthcare?

In July of 2019 Doximity did a study of the top 15 specialties most and least engaged with Telemedicine job postings. Less than a year later COVID-19 makes a drastic adjustment to this study. The great majority of the least engaged have joined the ranks of the most engaged.

Where does your specialty fit in using Telehealth? 

“We are watching how Telehealth continues to reshape patient care as the country moves forward past COVID-19 and beyond.”