Kaiser Permanente believes we must meet patients where they live, work, and play.
Telehealth technologies enable Kaiser Permanente members to receive a wide variety of clinical care services safely, conveniently, and free from geographic constraints. These technologies, including video, phone, and email, support interactions between patients and their physicians and other health professionals; remote patient monitoring; remote evaluation of prerecorded video or images; and virtual consultations between practitioners. Telehealth tools are proving critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. About 50% of our ambulatory care visits across the enterprise are now conducted virtually by video or phone call, including an average of nearly 45,000 video visits per weekday. As of early October 2020, KP had conducted 18 times as many video visits as in all of 2019.
Despite strong evidence that telehealth can be an essential component of care delivery, there are policy and payment barriers to widespread use. Policymakers can save patients’ time and increase affordability by championing policies that support and expand its use.
Kaiser Permanente supports the following principles:
1 Kaiser Permanente Digital Metrics Report, 2019.
2 Accenture Consulting, 2018.
3 MarketWatch, 2014.