Page 2 Unlocking The Potential of Physician to Patient Telehealth Services The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

However, the regulatory and policy environment has not kept pace with the technology,
and several barriers must be overcome before patients and doctors in the United States can
fully enjoy the benefits of telehealth. Steps needed include: establishing common standards
of care for patients; simplifying inter-state licensing requirements for health care providers;
and creating reimbursement policies that support telehealth services. This report describes
the new telehealth opportunity, analyzes the benefits from telehealth, examines the barriers
to widespread adoption in the United States, and proposes a number of recommendations
for government. In particular, policymakers should:

 Adopt a standard definition for telehealth;
 Establish a single, national license for telehealth providers;
 Create technology-neutral insurance payment policies;
 Promote interoperability among state prescription drug monitoring programs; and
 Fund research to continually improve the quality and lower the cost of telehealth
programs.

The technology has THE TELEHEALTH OPPORTUNITY
reached the point where, There is no widely accepted definition of telehealth or telemedicine, and these terms are
in many situations, sometimes used interchangeably. In this report, telehealth refers to health care services
health care providers can provided directly to patients using telecommunications technology, including the Internet
use IT to offer a and the telephone. Health care providers can use telehealth to remotely diagnose, treat, and
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comparable quality of manage the care of their patients. Patients can be seen remotely by physicians in their
homes, places of work, or at a dedicated telehealth center, and physicians can treat patients
clinical health care remotely from a hospital, medical facility, or other places of work including their own
services remotely as they homes or even while on vacation, as long as they have access to the Internet. The ability to

could in person. connect physicians and patients without regard to their respective locations is one of the
most compelling benefits of telehealth services.

While also important, telemedicine services such as teleradiology, where a radiology
specialist provides a service to another physician, or consultations provided remotely by
specialists to patients in a hospital or other medical facility are not a focus of this report.
Nor are other beneficial health care technologies, like mobile apps, smart pill bottles, and
other Internet-connected devices that help consumers manage their care, send them alerts,
and provide them educational resources. While these related technologies do offer insights
on the potential benefits of telehealth, this report focuses primarily on physician-to-patient
services whereby patients receive physician care from home, a place of work, or any
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location other than a doctor’s office.
There are multiple types of telehealth services including:

 Real-time services: Health care providers interact with patients in real time to
provide clinical services as a substitute for in-person encounters. These encounters
use communication tools like interactive, two-way video conferencing, online
text-based chats and messaging, and the telephone. For example, patients may use
their home computer to connect to a doctor using a telehealth service, sharing

THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION FOUNDATION | MAY 2014 PAGE 2