“Telemedicine adoption has grown exponentially since the advent of COVID-19,” said Rini Mukhopadhyay, eMarketer forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence. “Historically, US consumers have been a little slow to adopt telemedicine due to their lack of insurance and concerns over the quality of telemedicine visits. However, slowly, more consumers are willing to adapt to the unique characteristics of seeing a health professional digitally.”
Consumer willingness to try out telemedicine has been driven by a mix of factors: People are looking for ways to see their healthcare providers while under quarantine, and the federal government changed its policies amid the pandemic to make telehealth services more accessible.
What’s more, an increasing number of health insurance companies are now accepting most telehealth bills, including for primary and emergency care. Over the past few months, telemedicine has also seen technological advancements. Tech companies and startups are building apps and platforms to make the overall patient experience—from booking a visit to interacting with physicians—as seamless as possible.
We expect telemedicine technology to make even more strides in the future.
“There are possibilities in real-time audio and video, as well as store-and-forward technology and artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies have been on the rise in recent years,” Mukhopadhyay said.