Pandemic Action Plan Policy and Regulatory Summary Telehealth Policy and Regulatory Considerations During a Pandemic

Abstract

Reports, studies, and surveys have demonstrated telehealth provides opportunities to make health care more efficient, better coordinated, convenient, and affordable. Telehealth can also help address health income and access disparities in underserved communities by removing location and transportation barriers, unproductive time away from work, childcare expenses, and so on. Despite evidence showing high-quality outcomes, satisfaction, and success rates (e.g., 95% patient satisfaction rate and 84% success rate in which patients were able to completely resolve their medical concerns during a telehealth visit), nationwide adoption of telehealth has been quite low due to policy and regulatory barriers, constraints, and complexities.