Financial barriers still get in the way of telemedicine adoption

Providers have been slow to take up virtual care due to financial barriers, especially when they come from small practices, according to a new study published in the December edition of Health Affairs.

In general, physicians in larger practices and those in rural areas were more likely to use telemedicine, researchers found.

“Small practices and physician-owned practices have to learn and talk to other organizations that have done this before to learn what the pathway is for them,” said Carol Kane, an author of the study and director of the American Medical Association’s division of economic and health policy research.

Kane and Kurt Gillis, the AMA division’s principal economist, examined the AMA’s 2016 Physician Practice Benchmark Survey...