Telehealth for Rural Healthcare: Regulatory Barriers and Opportunities

Creating and growing the telehealth program for such underserved areas has many hurdles. When the program started, sustainability was difficult. What are regulatory barriers and opportunities related to telehealth for rural healthcare? What other difficulties do medical professionals face when helping these individuals?

Licensing

Each state has assigned license and credentialing details for providing healthcare. Anyone wanting to learn more about telehealth rules must research each state independently. Some states needed to provide licenses not in the state where they are but where their patients will get services. These features can restrict experienced providers from getting help who need instant services.

The global pandemic has caused many difficulties in licensing and fulfilling different parameters, and with that, changes are continuously occurring. Some states have collaborated to make interstate compact, but it is not for all conditions. and easy for residents to get benefits from telehealth services provided in a different state. But it is not for all conditions. Rural organizations are credentialed telehealth providers, which comes with the process,so these healthcare workers can’t provide services and help more people.

Reimbursement

Telehealth providers sometimes think about not being reimbursed for services. States define the requirements for reimbursement for providers who work with medicated patients. As a result of the pandemic, reimbursement increases for many healthcare services. Such as all states provide medicated reimbursement when patients and doctors have live video visits. Just 34 states reimbursed providers for remote monitoring of patients. Rural providers mostly define there is clarity lack for regulations, and some providers are willing to take part in asynchronous telehealth because this clarity is lacking.

Sustainability

Different rural telehealth programs get off the ground to falter. Sustaining services continues to be difficult for some states of the country. These rural organizations do not have features for monetizing the value of telehealth services to define whether they need to continue. Low patient volumes make patients in rural areas unable to handle specialists since the need for these medical professionals is sporadic. The organization also faces difficulties in paying for and maintaining the need for requirements for telehealth since they mostly do not have funds without this equipment. Charges for connectivity are also another barrier.

Limited High-Speed Internet and Smartphones

There are internet issues in some areas, and the federal government is working to make improvements. But still, some areas do not have services of telehealth. Without the internet, they are not able to share health data with doctors, not get any video consultations or monitoring for health, and send data to the medical team.

Different individuals do not have smartphone facilities, so monitoring health is not easy. Most wearable devices need phone applications for saving and data transmission. Some extra funds can be needed to provide rural citizens with phones to get benefits from mobile health programs and interventions.

Electronic Health Information Exchanges

Rural healthcare providers can face difficulties in accessing electronic health data. They do not have proper methods for sharing this data or getting patient access to electronic health records. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has some more regulations that make accessing and sharing records more challenging.

Malpractice Concerns

There is concern for doctors that they will not be covered by telehealth services if they sue for malpractice. It is a valid concern. Some malpractice policies do not pay well if the doctor is sued for the telehealth services they provide. Some steps must be taken to handle these difficulties. Some barriers, like a lack of high-speed internet, must be solved, but more is needed. Healthcare inequality is also an issue until all Americans have equal access to telehealth services.