Customer Experience

Telehealth kiosks make big strides during COVID-19

Funding has become more available for telehealth kiosks as a result of COVID-19. In addition, insurers, medical professionals and patients are all more accepting of them.

Photo courtesy of Pursuant Health.

September 9, 2020 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

Going to the doctor has rarely been convenient, but in the age of COVID-19, it is no longer seen as comforting, either. Expect to wait in a line standing six feet away from the person in front of you for a nurse to question you before checking you in.

Which is why telehealth services have taken on a new level of importance; they are more convenient and efficient for patients and care providers alike.

To help health care providers expand telehealth services, the federal government has allocated $200 million to offset the cost of providing these services under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The government has already approved 539 funding applications in 47 states and Washington, D.C., according the Federal Communications Commission.

COVID-19 changes the playing field

"The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed how patients and providers engage in health care delivery," U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui, a California Democrat, said in a prepared statement. "Now more than ever, we need to meet patients where they are at — and telehealth has proven to be a critical tool in doing just that."

Health care and telehealth officials contacted by Kiosk Marketplace agreed funding has become more available for telehealth kiosks as a result of COVID-19.

"The efforts here are all about expanding access to telehealth during the coronavirus emergency and provider tools to bring a wider range of health care services to where it's needed," Jordana Bernard, director of policy and public health affairs for InTouch Health, a telehealth services provider, said during a webcast on COVID-19 federal telehealth reimbursement policy.

And while patients naturally prefer to speak with medical professionals in the privacy of their own homes via their computers, care givers often need to take temperatures, measure blood pressure and heart beats to assess patients' health. Hence, the need for telehealth kiosks that offer capabilities like vision screening, health assessments, weight and body mass index calculators and blood pressure tests.

Experts weigh in

"There's a lot of money in the system from the government to support this which is going to create a lot of growth in this space," Art Cooksey, CEO and founder of Let's Talk Interactive, a provider of customizable telehealth solutions including a video conferencing platform, kiosks, medical carts and virtual clinics, told this website.

"I think that COVID-19 has positively impacted the need and value of telehealth overall," agreed Adam Smith, senior vice president, ambulatory services at Tampa General Hospital, which installed a telehealth kiosk for its employees last fall. "I believe people are now seeing the value in using this tool as an appropriate level of care in the care continuum."

The funding is only one part of the telehealth kiosk support infrastructure, said Cooksey.

4 pillars of telehealth

The four pillars to telehealth are the hardware, the software, the medical service provider network and customer acceptance, said Cooksey, who launched his company in 1999. The last item, public acceptance (both on the part of government and patients), has been the hardest to overcome.

"Pre-COVID, we were putting out studies to prove that telehealth wasn't snake oil," said Cooksey, who develops his own software and partners with hardware providers on hardware. "Post-COVID, not a problem. We don't have these conversations anymore. It's taken some time, but we've put all the pieces in place."

"All these places with cash injected into telehealth have never seen it before," he said. "I'm seeing it pop up in HUD (The Department of Housing and Urban Development), the Department of Education…it's everywhere."

Insurers embrace telehealth

Both Cooksey and Smith agreed that insurers have come around to accepting telehealth services.

In May, Health Net, a California managed care provider, awarded 138 grants totaling $13.4 million to expand telehealth services for California providers, the largest grant of cash dedicated to this cause by a health plan in California at the time.

"It has honestly been driven by CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and other payers who have been slow to recognize telehealth, and to reimburse for the services," Smith said.

Medical community steps forward

Acceptance by the medical community has also made a lot of progress. In the past, only about 15% of the medical professionals in Cooksey's care network would serve patients immediately. Some medical professionals would never participate in telehealth kiosk appointments.

"Post-COVID, everyone learned how to use the system to get on board because they couldn't do their jobs any more without it," Cooksey said. "Utilization used to be a challenge. Now it's not."

Patient acceptance improves

On the patient side, acceptance has also improved.

"It's moved telehealth ahead at least five years in the last few months," Cooksey said. And while there are now more providers in the market than ever, there're are not enough to meet patient demand.

Cooksey's telehealth clients have included prisons, schools, first responders, laboratories and businesses. He also sees telehealth kiosks going into courthouses, churches and other places people congregate.

Cooksey recently partnered with Soldier On, a nonprofit organization committed to ending veteran homelessness, to provide veterans with greater access to mental health services. Veterans can access the kiosks in temporary housing shelters.

Why kiosks are needed

The reason kiosks are important to telehealth is they ensure connectivity and privacy, Cooksey said.

"A veteran can obviously connect without a kiosk, but there's something to going and sitting in front of it," he said. The provider can zoom in on the patient and get a helpful facial image. The kiosk also can be equipped with examination equipment that the provider can access remotely, as many as 42 devices, such as a dermascope, an odoscope and ultrasound.

Part two of this two-part series will explore the capabilities of telehealth kiosks.

For an update on how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting kiosks, click here.