The future of Medicaid looms in the balance, leaving lawmakers struggling to focus on how they can improve telemedicine access. Telemedicine could help reduce the costs of healthcare by allowing all of the providers in one location the ability to treat those elsewhere in the country.
Since the state Medicaid plan is now able to cover telemedicine to a certain extent, it is paving the way for healthcare. It used to be that only 24 states offered this type of coverage in 2005, but now, all states are participating in the program.
There are also other trends that are on the rise, such as added dental services and even more options for patients needing care. In short, the situation looks rather promising when you look at everything being done right now. Providers and employers alike are able to use telemedicine to get patients the treatment needed.
Insurance companies, Medicaid agencies and the state lawmakers are all looking at telemedicine as one of the more affordable solutions out there to help reduce the gap in coverage and deliver quality healthcare to patients.
Still, there are challenges that need to be addressed. That’s where the government needs to step in and help. Each state has their own specific set of regulations and standards that cause problems with being able to use telemedicine. Remote healthcare services in various states have shown to be not only cost-effective but effective in being able to deliver the level of services needed. These services aren’t often available to Medicaid beneficiaries, so this is taking things to a new level.
Even though practices and health systems are starting to offer better and more efficient services for patients, there is still a lot of confusion in the state variations. It is preventing consumer access and causing more problems. Because of these conflicts out there, it is causing problems for patients, health systems and providers and preventing them from being able to take advantage of telemedicine.