Trump Expands Telehealth Services for Rural Americans

Trump expands telehealth services for rural Americans - An opportunity for healthcare owners!

“Healthcare & Technology, always a strong combination that worked great for humanity."

Well, Telemedicine was a known concept for some of the urban residents of the USA even before the arrival of the pandemic. But you know who is in the real need for such remote healthcare? The RURAL AMERICANS...

The lack of transportation services, shortages of healthcare centers in the nearest areas, and the absence of advanced knowledge in the healthcare providers lagged the quality of services reaching those people. 

Before the pandemic, Telemedicine was a less explored part of the human healthcare system, but the crisis and the need for social distancing have revealed the potential of this remote healthcare service to the world making it the basic and the only option for people to get themselves treated. 

Understanding the need for the current time and the importance of the Telemedicine industry, US President Trump has announced the expansion to the access to telehealth services as his next step towards rural development.

Well, a great move President!

Let's get a deeper insight into some latest steps by the government for the Telehealth industry. These initiatives are a must-know for someone looking for an opportunity to earn some bucks through this service. 

Recent moves by the US government to surge Telemedicine services in rural areas:

>> Increased telemedicine benefits for rural American, especially for the ones who find it hard to access the service

>> Orders to the HHS to announce a payment model that can empower hospitals in rural areas to provide healthcare on a larger scale. 

>> Deployment of strategic investments to improve rural communication infrastructures 

>> The order has been directed to the Federal Government with a time span of 30 days to launch a joint initiative that aims to improve connectivity and communication infrastructure to enhance remote healthcare service to the slum areas.

The president has announced the extension of the availability of these services even after the pandemic ends. "Telehealth is here to stay", says Trump and he is making all his efforts to unleash health-tech innovation to reach millions of Americans to get themselves with quality healthcare. 

 Other notable moves by President on Telemedicine:

● 4 executive orders have been signed to help low prescription drug costs by President Trump for the citizens 

● Relaxed training rules for nursing home staff, and special focus in terms of instruments for the most vulnerable nursing community. 

● A transparent Telehealth app payment policy where the price and the quality of services are revealed to the patients to make his choice of a doctor before receiving the treatment. 

● Pause on surprise medical billing, the doctors and the physicians are advised to accept funds from Provider Relief Fund for services like COVID-19 testing and other care facilities.

Well, you might be thinking what advantage do these actions provide to healthcare providers or a business owner? Here is your answer!

Benefits of these Telemedicine orders for healthcare or business owners:

● Increased chances of Success:

As per the reports, the use of telehealth services has soared with a huge number during the pandemic as it was never before. The number of virtual visits by phone or video call was reported to be 1.7 million per week from 14,000 before the crisis arrived. 

These numbers are the example of the increasing craze of the Telehealth services as more people are now understanding the need for such remote healthcare and are trying their hands over getting themselves treated through technology. This acts as an advantage for the healthcare providers as they can develop a Telemedicine app for their hospitals and clinics and can start providing remote healthcare thus saving costs of huge infrastructures. 

● Improved awareness:

Telemedicine was in the market even before the pandemic arrived, the difference was, not more people were aware of such services. With the government getting involved in the development of such healthcare technology, Telemedicine started getting into news and media coverage. 

The commercials and the advertisements explaining the importance of remote healthcare started taking whirl and thus people are now aware of what Telemedicine means and how it can make life easier. This acts as an advantage for business owners as the audience would easily connect with their product thus increases the chances of success now than it would have been years ago. 

● Relaxed healthcare laws:

As stated above, the President has offered many benefits and relaxation in terms of healthcare laws whether its for senior care, Department of Veterans Affairs, or Department of Defense. These make the Telemedicine app development process way flexible than before.

Healthcare app compliance is the hardest aspect of a healthcare app launch. Getting some flexibility here would make it easy for a business owner to get their product to the market without many hurdles that come along with such app usage. 

● Expanded audience:

The final and the most important advantage of rolling out such laws is the chance to reach more audiences. It's very practical that making the Telehealth services easy access for rural areas would increase the audience to be targeted for a Telehealth app. 

As the elevating buzz of such Telehealth apps would shortly increase the competition in the market, such an increase in the audience can help different apps to attain success based on their regions, unique offerings, and the patient's budget. Moreover, it also could help hospitals in rural areas to get themselves connected to urban doctors by forming a remote network for the underprivileged people to get quality care. 

Key takeaway for healthcare owners:

The white house is making all its efforts to improve healthcare through various technological means. Whether it is pushing researchers to develop a vaccine or helping citizens with Telehealth services, the government is putting the best foot forward to fight against COVID-19 along with improving healthcare for its people. 

The above steps by the US president have thus opened many opportunities for business owners to get themselves started with their Telehealth startup and thus make their long term investment plans, as with or without pandemic, telehealth industry is here to stay now!

Author bio: Parth Patel is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of SyS Creations – a leading managed IT services firm focused on technology-driven healthcare solutions and telemedicine app development with a customer-centric, journey-first approach. Operating the IT Infrastructure of Healthcare SMEs and startups keeps him on his toes and his passion for helping others keeps him motivated.