Telehealth Growth Highest in a Trio of Subsegments

As telehealth continues to take root as a viable way to administer care, especially for patients in rural areas, a few subsegments are seeing sharper growth than others. Codes for specialty telehealth (which includes inpatient and outpatient care, ED visits, and postacute care consults) for Medicare beneficiaries were applied 191,000 times in 2015, according to new data from Advisory Board. In addition, the volume of telebehavioral health services provided grew 16-fold between 2012 and 2013, owing to a shortage of behavioral health workers and how well mental health care meshes with the telehealth model overall. Virtual chronic disease management also saw sharp growth, accounting for 1.25% of all telehealth volumes in 2015. The addition of new care management codes this year is expected to spark even more growth