Advocates at American Telemedicine Association’s Annual Conference Focus on Safeguarding Telehealth

The updates are from the annual conference held on Telemedicine by the American Telemedicine Association. The advocates at the meeting warned that Congress must safeguard telehealth access.

The federal government in the US had enabled flexibilities in the telehealth services at the start of the COVID-19. The telehealth industry since then has seen a massive boom. But now, after the covid-19 vaccinations, Telemedicine is witnessing a dip.Healthcare experts are skeptical about the future adoption and access status of telehealth. As a larger population is getting vaccinated, infection rates are slowly decreasing, Covid care precautions are getting eased.

Mr. Tim Scott, in opening remarks for a panel, said, Telemedicine has played a critical role in safeguarding the lives of senior citizens during Covid-19, and the same flexibility should be given to the telehealth providers. He said that telehealth services should be made accessible after the pandemic also. Mr. Tim Scott had cosponsored two major telehealth bills in Congress.  In his explanation, he added, even if the country recovers from the pandemic, the federal government should ensure that the telehealth efforts move forward, not backward.

Mr. Kyle Zebley, the panel moderator, said that Congress must act towards the flexibilities that now exist in telehealth and should be maintained before the public health emergency ends.  Emily Yoder, the analyst, said that Congress should address the statutes in telehealth that were temporarily framed at the start of the pandemic.