TELEHEALTH ESTABLISHES A PERMANENT PLACE IN U.S. HEALTHCARE

Patients, Clinicians, Healthcare Provider Organizations Plus

Commercial And Government Payers Are Embracing Telehealth

The pandemic has accelerated the uptake of telehealth across the nation. Medical,

behavioral health and other patient care is being effectively administred to thousands

of patients. Use of telehealth is being deployed across metropolitan, suburban, rural 

and remote areas across the United States. 

Telehealth was already steadily increasing in use prior to the pandemic and as the 

pandemic progressed use of telehealth escalated due to shelter-in place and 

social distancing measures. 

Business and government-sponsored health plans had no choice but to integrate

telehealth into their covered services to support consumers and patients plus 

reimburse clinicians for care that is provided through virtual means.

Telehealth has become a defined patient care and business 

segment in the healthcare industry.

As its acceptance grows and continues to demonstrates positive patient outcomes, 

more technology innovators and business interests enter the space.

Numerous mergers and acquisitions are occurring as well as new and established 

organizations seek to scale up their operations and revenue streams quickly.

This is a list of the leading telehealth enterprises which includes medical and 

behavioral health service providers and technology platforms:

• AbleTo (acquired by UnitedHealth Group – Optum)
• Amwell
• BetterHelp
• BetterUp
• Brightside
• Calm
• Doctor on Demand (merged with Grand Rounds)
• iCliniq
• Grand Rounds
• Headspace
• HealthSapiens
• HealthTap
• K Health
• LiveHealth Online
• Livongo (acquired by Teladoc)
• MeMD
• MDLive (acquired by Cigna)
• Online-Therapy.com
• PlushCare
• Talkspace
• Takeaway
• Teladoc 
• Vida Health
• Virtuwell
• Vivify Health (acquire by UnitedHealth Group)

Amazon is also building up its capabilties to care for its employees and their dependents plus those of other companies through its Amazon Care business unit.

While some medical and mental healthcare virtual sessions will transition back to in-patient appointments as the pandemic hopefully subsides, virtual healthcare venues will continue to provide a large portion of care for patients throughout the nation.

Clinical and technical innovation will continue to transform the telehealth (or telemedicine) healthcare industry sector and cultivate even more commercial opportunities for a variety of business enterprises.