Telemedicine has been around in various forms since the mid 80's. Technology has significantly improved over that past 10 years but there are still a number of barriers that have to be overcome before it is readily accepted by the overall mass market. In any growing / advancing new marketplaces there are the obvious issues that need to be addressed of educating and training the marketplace on the benefits, operations, and situations to use the technology. In addition to these issues there are 2 main barriers that need to be addressed before telemedicine is accepted by the masses.
1. Funding - traditionally telemedicine programs have been grant funded. To transform this market telemedicine needs to move from the grant supported arena to an economic justified sustainable business model.
2. Reimbursement - Telemedicine needs to reach a critical mass of acceptance from both private 3rd party payers and federal medicare and medicaid programs.
A significant portion of this blog will be dedicated to addressing these two barriers, discussing the current situation, and what needs to be addressed in the future from all parties interested in seeing this technology continue to grow.
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