Telehealth has helped boost access to historically underserved populations, older adults living in rural areas, patients with chronic conditions and those with mobility or transportation issues.
But extension of telehealth insurance coverage and payment parity isn’t guaranteed and may expire after Dec. 31, 2024, or be subject to outdated and burdensome regulations.
To guard against this, delegates adopted policy to “encourage policymakers to recognize the scope and circumstances for underserved populations including senior and patients with complex health conditions with the aim to ensure that these patients have the technology-use training needed to maximize the benefits of telehealth and its potential to improve health outcomes.”
Supporting telehealth is an essential component of the AMA Recovery Plan for America’s Physicians.
Telehealth is critical to the future of health care, which is why the AMA continues to lead the charge to aggressively expand telehealth policy, research and resources to ensure physician practice sustainability and fair payment.
“We need to better understand what underlying challenges and barriers exist to digital health literacy. With that information, the AMA will continue advocating for solutions to meet the needs of marginalized populations of varying location, education, culture and age,” said AMA Trustee Alexander Ding, MD, MS, MBA. “Digital literacy is an important health equity issue with the power to bring us closer to achieving best health for all.”
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