June 10, 2021 – Vizient, Inc. hosted a virtual congressional briefing on Wednesday, June 9, “Telehealth, Not Just a Pandemic Back-up Plan.”
Panelists discussed how hospitals provide telehealth services, lessons learned regarding the increased utilization of telehealth and what is needed to continue to support providers and patients beyond the pandemic.
“As the data shows, virtual health services are something that hospitals are clearly committed to investing in post-COVID,” said Saloni Jain, VP, analytics and informatics at Vizient and moderator of the panel. “Over the past 18 months the conversation amongst providers has shifted from whether telehealth should be a service offered, to overcoming barriers in the implementation of such services across a wide range of hospitals with varying levels of technologically focused infrastructure in place.”
The discussion focused on hospital systems centered in both rural and urban communities, though the issues shared included common themes:
- Increased access to broadband
- Revised legislative and regulatory framework
- Appropriate reimbursement and payment parity
- Focus on increasing patient connection and trust