Policy Considerations To Ensure Telemedicine Equity

Telemedicine use has exploded during the past two years, but it has done so without sufficient attention to disparities by payer, age, race and ethnicity, income, English language proficiency, and geography. The process of designing permanent, postpandemic telehealth policies must center on equity. Current conversations on equity have focused on broadband access and payment parity between telemedicine modalities (audio only and audiovisual) and in-person care. However, creating telehealth policies that ensure equity will require a more comprehensive, cautious approach that acknowledges the unknowns about how to implement telemedicine to improve health, addresses the multilevel barriers to equity, and reconsiders the purpose and value of telemedicine.

Automated summary

Telemedicine has experienced a surge in usage over the past two years, but without sufficient attention to disparities in various factors. To address equity, the design of permanent telehealth policies needs to consider unknown factors in implementing telemedicine to improve health, overcome barriers to equity, and reassess the purpose and value of telemedicine.