Will COVID-19 Create a Tipping Point For TeleHealth and Mobile Apps?

by Clive Riddle, March 6, 2020

mHealthIntelligence reminds us that the emergency spending now passed by Congress "will waive Medicare’s geographical restrictions on telehealth during a public health emergency, enabling providers to use telehealth in urban and rural areas as well as in the patient’s home" and "also loosens restrictions on the use of a telephone to deliver care, as long as that phone has audio-visual capabilities."

The Wall Street Journal notes that "doctor groups, hospitals and health insurers are increasingly steering people with mild or no symptoms toward initial visits conducted by phone, interactive video or secure messaging. They are also starting to use the technology to care remotely for people with suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus."

CNBC reports, from a market perspective, that “Coronavirus could be a boon for telemedicine, as health industry hopes to keep ‘worried well’ out of the hospital” and that “the coronvirus outbreak could provide a bright spot for one sector of the health industry that has struggled to gain widespread acceptance: Telemedicine. Health insurer Anthem, for instance, is staffing up more doctors for its  service, LiveHealth Online, in case there are more cases in the United States. Telemedicine start-ups are also bracing for a rush of customers.”

But StatNews tell us that "Telehealth can help fight the novel coronavirus, but U.S. challenges could limit its potential," noting that "there are obstacles to telehealth in the U.S., since its health care system is not well-suited to widely adopt digital health tools. The biggest challenges stem from factors that don’t exist in China, like our vast array of private, state, and federal payers with varying reimbursement policies and state-based medical licensing."

These U.S. obstacles also impact adoption rates for mobile apps – which are evident not just with the urgent issue of COVID-19, but with the increased prevalence of chronic disease. Avalere has just released a report “Chronic Disease Mobile Health Apps Need Better Value Propositions and Evidence” that tells us this “increased prevalence of chronic disease in the US are incentivizing stakeholders to develop new solutions to tackle these issues. Many have turned to digital health innovations like mobile health applications to facilitate care prevention and management for chronic disease, but significant gaps remain in their ability to be used in real-world practice.”

The crux of the problem? Avelere says “mobile health apps are difficult to sell directly to patients, introducing additional complexity for how to fund the provision and maintenance of these technologies. With relatively few patients willing to pay for digital tools, health care organizations – providers (health systems or primary care practices) and payers (self-insured employers or health insurers) – often assume the costs. To date, little evidence demonstrates improved health outcomes or lowered costs that can justify the cost of development and adoption. However, some promising examples demonstrate clinical efficacy and cost savings in digital chronic disease management solutions”

Avalere advises that “to drive broader use and adoption of digital solutions in chronic disease, app developers need a strong value proposition that can demonstrate improved outcomes and cost efficiency to organizations that can both pay for apps and incentivize providers and physicians to use them.”

Perhaps COVID-19 might be an impetus with value proposition that could stimulate greater overall adoption that would benefit chronic disease initiatives as well.