Telehealth is here to stay - and here's what's next

Early in the COVID pandemic, we saw a dramatic shift to telehealth as more and more consumers and providers scrambled to safely seek and offer healthcare.?Some saw this leap forward as temporary, but adoption remains significantly higher than pre-pandemic – especially for mental health services.?Telehealth?is here to stay.?The American Medical Association’s own data reinforces this point: the percentage of physicians using tele- and virtual- visits grew from 14% in 2016 to 80% in 2022.?According to Cigna’s research, availability and access to virtual health?has become increasingly important. Another study?shows?76% of people are interested in using telehealth, compared with just 11% who used telehealth in 2019. Even after the pandemic ends, 83% of patients expect to use virtual care. Sixty percent of consumers’ most recent mental health visits were via telehealth.

?There’s a good reason for this shift: consumers want health care designed around them, rather than being forced to navigate the complex system we have.?Virtual care offers an easier, faster and more affordable way to see a provider.??This starts the devices in the palms of our hands and in our homes.?I came to Cigna from financial services, where you can manage your banking at the tips of your fingers.?At Cigna, we are investing in a future that allows you to manage your health and wellness on a smartphone.?This includes virtual health tools like wearables or remote patient monitoring as well as telehealth.?Not every dimension of health can be digital or virtual, but more and more will be – from collecting health data, to many of our interactions between patients and their care providers.?We’re investing in data access and interoperability, digital experiences and in 2021, Cigna acquired the telehealth company MDLive.?Today, Cigna customers who are enrolled in employer-sponsored plans have access to MDLIVE's network of virtual primary, urgent, behavioral and dermatology care for routine care visits, sick visits, prescription refills, or to follow up on a condition that was not addressed during a wellness visit.?

So here is the state of play:

·???????The pandemic accelerated the move to telehealth

·???????It’s here to stay

·???????It improves access to care

·???????Patients want it

·???????The technology exists to provide it

·???????It produces good outcomes at less cost

?Still, telehealth is not yet ubiquitous.?What needs to happen next in order to fully realize its potential??Here are a few essential needs:

·???????Interoperability in health care, so that data can be connected across sites of care for consumers and providers – and across virtual forms of care, including telehealth, wearables, remote patient monitoring, etc.

·???????A seamless patient and provider experience so it’s easier and more reliable to access telehealth as part of total health care.

·???????Physician telehealth woven into regular operational flows.?In a?recent McKinsey survey, “two-thirds of physicians and 60 percent of patients said they agreed that virtual health is more convenient than in-person care for patients, but only 36 percent of physicians find it more convenient for themselves.”

·???????An conducive environment from a regulatory and reimbursement perspective so that telehealth realizes its potential to increase access to care for all populations

At Cigna, we’re working on these and other pre-requisites to great digital-first, virtual-led care.?What is your experience with virtual care, and what do you think needs to happen next to fully realize the potential??