Telehealth Market Expected to Soar

For people who use telemedicine, the market's rapid growth won't come as a surprise. Thanks to the unparalleled access and convenience offered by Telehealth, this care modality is booming among aging populations, people struggling with exorbitant health care costs, and those who want to receive health care from the comfort and security of their homes. Read on to learn more about the upward mobility of the Telehealth market.

The Boom of the Telehealth Market

By 2020, Telehealth's global market is projected to be worth upwards of $34 billion. While Telehealth is available on a global level, North America is currently the single largest consumer, representing about 40 percent of the total market. The reason Telehealth is becoming so popular in this country is twofold: one is that the population in North America is aging rapidly and is suffering from more chronic diseases and health conditions than ever before. The strain the aging population has put on hospitals has been huge and, as such, many hospitals are trying to reduce the frequency and length of hospital stays. This effort has resulted in a renewed focus on in-home health care formats, including Telehealth. When patients can be monitored and receive health care from their homes, the need for hospital accommodations drops sharply, and people receive more personalized and timely care. The other is the outright convenience factor in that there is no scheduling issues with a doctors office, time the waiting room, etc

More States Passing Telehealth Laws

As of now, 49 states have Telehealth laws, and eight of those states are currently entertaining proposed Telehealth parity laws. The large number of states adopting Telehealth laws goes to show how prevalent the practice is becoming. Thanks to the remote nature of telemedicine, states that pass laws allowing the practice can provide their residents with things like teleconsultations and medication support on a remote basis, which makes health care more accessible to a broader base of patients.

Telehealth and Cannabis

While Telehealth is used for many things, cannabis is barely one of them. While California and Nevada do currently allow Telehealth cannabis evaluations, all other states require an in-person evaluation. Unfortunately, this does a dire disservice to patient access to cannabis treatments. When Telehealth evaluations are restricted for cannabis, patients are left with the choice of visiting an in-person clinic (which may be located in a seedy area of town or may be difficult for the patient to reach due to mobility or transportation issues) or simply going without much-needed cannabis care. If the Telehealth laws were expanded, however, cannabis treatment would be available to a much larger pool of patients, including the elderly, those limited by geographical location, and those too embarrassed to walk into a physical cannabis clinic. It's estimated that 7 million people will be using Telehealth services by 2018 and, if cannabis treatment were included in Telehealth care, that number would only grow.

While the current state of Telehealth and cannabis is limited to only a few states, many experts expect that Telehealth for cannabis will eventually morph into widespread Telehealth, which encompasses everything from Telehealth evaluations, recommendations and follow-up.

As it stands now, there are dozens of applications for Telehealth care. In addition to providing easy access to capable health care providers, Telehealth care also removes many of the barriers that previously stood between patients and care, including distance, cost, embarrassment and danger that may be associated with visiting cannabis clinics in a physical location. Because of these things, Telehealth is exploding (RNCOS Business Consultancy is calling for Telehealth to experience an 18.5% growth by 2018

• taking it to a worldwide value of $1.9 billion in the next two years). Thanks to the fact that Telehealth medicine makes care easier to access for aging or disadvantaged populations, it stands to reason that the industry will only continue to grow in the coming years and that more and more patients will soon have access to quality Telehealth medicine, no matter where they are.