Dive Brief:
- Industry research firm IBISWorld is predicting that revenue in the telehealth services industry will grow 30.7% to $320.2 million over the next five years, including revenue growth of 23.1% this year.
- According to an announcement from the research group, technical advances such as wearable self-monitoring devices and digitized medical scans are behind the rapid growth, along with sky-high medical service costs, an oncoming doctor shortage and an aging population.
- While telehealth is set for growth, two factors that will hold it back are companies' difficulty in finding talent they need for product and software development, as well as the need to develop systems that do not violate patents.
Dive Insight:
Telehealth may indeed be poised for explosive growth, but it's still held back by reimbursement issues. As FierceHealthIT notes, Medicare's 2014 physician fee schedule expands coverage for telehealth services, coverage is scarce among commercial providers of health insurance. When the commercial insurance world accepts telehealth fully, that's when you'll see your explosion of growth in telemedicine use.