Telehealth in the US: adapt or die?

When Covid-19 was classified as a public health emergency (PHE) in the US, telehealth visits climbed to approximately 50% at the pandemic’s peak in April 2020, as per the American Medicine Association (AMA) journal JAMA Network.Over the last year, there have been signs which indicate that telehealth utilisation in the US has been declining since its pandemic-era zenith.After a three-year run, UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Virtual Care shuttered operations in April 2024. Walmart soon followed suit, announcing that it would be shuttering its Walmart Health centres and Walmart Health Virtual Care operations, the grocery giant said it had determined there was not a “sustainable business model” for it to continue operating. Compounding this challenge, the US is facing a physician shortage which could result in a shortfall of 86,000 physicians by 2036, as per the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).