Telehealth is Here to Stay: How to Advance Your Practice With An Online Payment System
Telehealth is Here to Stay: How to Advance Your Practice With An Online Payment System
As COVID-19 led providers to go virtual, telehealth emerged as one of the biggest healthcare trends of 2020. Now, telehealth is here to stay — and online medical payments can help your practice operate successfully as we enter the new normal.
So what is telehealth? And how exactly will it shape the industry once the pandemic is over? We’ll explain the impact of telehealth and how healthcare payment technology like PayGround can help you adapt to the changing industry.
What Is Telehealth?
Telehealth refers to the use of online technologies to provide healthcare services. It allows patients to access care from virtually anywhere, using any computer or mobile device.
The concept of telehealth can be implemented in many areas of patient care. During the pandemic, healthcare providers increasingly offered telehealth services like virtual appointments, e-prescriptions, and remote patient monitoring to allow for uninterrupted care. They also enabled patients to easily access and manage their medical records online.
Medical practices also used telehealth to work together during the pandemic. As an example, through asynchronous telehealth, providers have been able to securely store patient data in the cloud and easily share with professionals treating the same patient.
There are endless ways for telehealth to improve the patient experience. It’s no wonder why digital care is expected to continue growing by nearly 40% per year through at least 2025 — long after the initial boom spurred by the coronavirus subsides.
What Is Telehealth’s Impact on Healthcare?
The rise of telehealth proved that there are equally effective, but more convenient ways to offer and access care than ever before.
Despite the slow adoption of telehealth pre-2020, 76% of patients are now interested in using it — a steep rise from just 11% in 2019. The majority of providers view it favorably and are comfortable using it now, as well.
With more people willing to adopt new tech, healthcare practices will be able to provide more customized, hybrid care based on patients’ exact needs. The healthcare industry is moving toward a more patient-focused model. Along the way, telehealth will allow practices to increase efficiency in the everyday processes.
So what is telehealth’s exact impact on healthcare? Better patient experiences, better quality of care, and a higher ROI for your healthcare practice.
Entering the New Normal With Telehealth
Now that telehealth has already transformed the healthcare industry, how will it continue shaping how practices in the post-COVID future? When life returns to a new normal, we predict:
1. Fewer Telehealth Restrictions
Due to the pandemic, government agencies led a rapid deregulation of telehealth to ensure patients everywhere could access the services they needed. Even Medicare coverage began to include many telehealth services.
As we move toward the new normal, we predict that many previous restrictions will permanently be lifted to make room for modernization. However, the security of both telehealth systems and healthcare payment technology will grow in importance.
2. The Specialization of Telehealth
Telehealth isn’t the perfect fit for all healthcare services. Coming out of the pandemic, telemedicine may not be as widely used in specific areas of healthcare.
Providers may start focusing telehealth services on areas where it can make the biggest difference. For example, telehealth can help select ER patients return home faster by offering the resources they need to recover remotely, therefore reducing overcrowded ERs. This specialization of telehealth will allow virtual services to become a staple part of new streamlined processes.
3. More Streamlined Healthcare Technologies
The healthcare industry is moving toward the digital space. We’ll see a greater adoption of technologies used for medical services, health education, and even online medical payments. And as this occurs, these technologies will more seamlessly fit into everyday processes like exams and online bill pay and work together.
How Healthcare Payment Technology Can Help in the Shift to Telehealth
Implementing healthcare payment technology like PayGround is a natural next step in making telehealth easier — which will be crucial as demand continues to rise. Online healthcare services are performed faster than ever. It no longer makes sense for patients to wait for bills to arrive in the mail, or for patients to have to take the time to send checks back.
Healthcare payment technology makes online medical payments possible from any device. With PayGround, your patients can make one-time payments online, or securely store their payment information on the platform to pay with a single tap.
With online medical payments, the telehealth experience will feel more cohesive for patients — and you’ll get paid faster, too.
PayGround is also a fully PCI-compliant platform that meets the highest standards of online medical payment security. As telehealth restrictions are lifted and security becomes the new focus, you can implement a platform that your virtual patients can trust.