Insurers adopt telehealth to widen access to healthcare

US Insurers pulling back some telehealth coverage

Meanwhile, in the United States, the government removed barriers through the enactment of Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act to encourage widespread use of telehealth.

Soon, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid released a toolkit encouraging state Medicaid agencies to adopt CARES policy changes to promote the expansion of telehealth and curb the spread of COVID-19. Many private insurers followed suit and paid health providers who conducted telehealth visits at the same rate as office visits, a step that led to explosion of telehealth services.

But this is slowly changing due to financial loss by insurance companies; with a section of big private insurers such as UnitedHealthcare pulling back some of their coverage of telehealth for non-COVID-19 issues.

This comes as the global telehealth market is expected to grow from US$83 billion in 2020 to US$319 billion in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.9%, according to a global research firm, The Business Research Company.

The market is then expected to grow to $521 billion in 2030 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.3%.

The rapid growth of the global telehealth market in the forecast period of the market is attributed to increasing demand for telehealth services in diagnostics for COVID-19 and other illnesses.

Further, a study carried out by Willis Towers Watson, global advisory, broking and Solutions Company based in London states that 53% of insurers have indicated that less than 10% of insured members access general practice services via telehealth, and almost a third (32%) of insurers say that 10% to 19% are doing so at the moment.

But, by the end of 2021, over a quarter of insurers (29%) expect that 20% to 29% of those covered under their plans will use telehealth to access general practice services in health care providers.

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