Rural communities face significant healthcare challenges, including provider shortages and long travel distances for care. Telehealth is bridging this gap, offering a lifeline to essential medical services.
Almost one in five Americans live in rural areas, which often have higher rates of poverty and lower educational attainment. Rural residents are disproportionately impacted by chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease and stroke.
Compounding this problem is the fact that rural residents experience a significant disparity in access to and quality of healthcare services compared to urban areas, including:
Limited Access to Healthcare Providers
Physician Shortage: Rural areas are home to 20% of the U.S. population but are served by fewer than 10% of its physicians. As of 2020, the patient-to-primary-care-physician ratio in rural areas was 5.1 per 10,000 residents, compared to 8.0 per 10,000 in urban areas.
Rural areas have fewer hospitals and healthcare facilities per capita than urban settings. In other words, nearly 80% of regions designated as medically underserved are in rural America.
Aging Workforce: The average age of rural doctors is three years older than urban doctors, with half over 50 and over a quarter older than 60, and predictions indicate a 23% decline in the number of rural doctors by 2030.
Reduced Access to Specialty Care
Rural healthcare facilities lack specialty and subspecialty providers on-site, so rural residents often must travel long distances to access specialized healthcare services. The cost of traveling for medical care adds an extra burden on patients, including travel expenses, lost work hours, and increased caregiver costs. These challenges result in delayed care, poorer health outcomes, and increased economic burden for rural residents.
Addressing these disparities requires multifaceted approaches, including expanding telehealth services, improving broadband infrastructure, and implementing policies to attract and retain healthcare providers in rural areas.
Telehealth: Addressing the Disparity
During the pandemic, we saw an explosion in telehealth, which uses electronic information and telecommunication technologies to provide health-related services and information remotely.
Telehealth services encompass digital healthcare activities, including remote clinical services, diagnosis, monitoring, and treating patients. Telehealth services can also include educating patients about their health and chronic conditions and making them aware of public health initiatives.
Telehealth utilizes various technologies, such as:
- Video conferencing/virtual visits: Live, interactive video or audio encounters between patients and healthcare providers.
- Store-and-forward imaging: Transmission of medical data (e.g., images, documents) for later review by a specialist.
- Remote Patient Monitoring: The collection and transmission of patient health data through monitoring devices like insulin pumps and cardiac monitors.
Telehealth is not limited to physician services and can include behavioral health services, nursing care, pharmacy services, social work, and physical and occupational therapy.
Benefits of Telehealth
There are multiple benefits to using telehealth services for rural residents, including improved access to care, enhanced continuity of care, and support for chronic disease management. Furthermore, telehealth is convenient for patients and providers, and healthcare organizations can realize potential cost savings.
Telehealth Technological Barriers
There are several significant barriers to the widespread adoption and effective implementation of telehealth:
- Limited access to high-speed internet, especially in rural areas, where only 72% of adults had access to high-speed broadband in 2021.
- Poor internet connectivity can lead to disruptions during telehealth sessions.
- Lack of necessary devices for some patients, particularly older adults, may not have access to smartphones or computers required for video visits
- Audio/visual quality issues, such as poor audio or video quality, can hinder effective communication during telehealth sessions.
- Language and cultural barriers hinder access to culturally and linguistically appropriate telehealth services.
Adobe Population Health: Working with Telehealth Care
Adobe Population Health is a comprehensive care management service provider that focuses on delivering innovative healthcare solutions—both virtual and in-home care delivery. Our hybrid, integrated model offers preventative care, services like regular wellness checks and care gap closures, and aims to reduce emergency department visits and hospital readmissions.
Furthermore, Adobe Population Health specializes in Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans, helping patients overcome the challenges of working with insurance. For example, Medicaid in Arizona, known as AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System), covers telehealth services, including primary care visits, chronic disease management, behavioral health services, and physical and speech therapy.
Adobe Population Health’s mission is to improve lives by delivering whole-person care that addresses health and social needs, ultimately changing how healthcare is delivered.