telemedicine reimbursement

Medicare reimbursement for telehealth services is notoriously patchy.

On its fourth quarter earnings call, Teladoc reported increases in total visits, utilization, and revenues, but also in net loss.

An American Well video visit.

This week the American Telemedicine Association's annual event is taking place in Los Angeles and apart from the important pair of policy-focused reports the ATA published (more on that below), the other news coming out of the event so far is that American Well has expanded its scope and is now working to convince physicians to use its platform to connect with their existing patients.

A survey by the law firm Foley & Lardner LLP of 57 executives at provider organizations found a healthy interest in telemedicine, but that concrete adoption is still in the early stages, and possibly more than a decade away.

Most healthcare practitioners are either using telemedicine or planning to use it soon, but less than a fifth of them are being paid for those services.