By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

In the early days of the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak, BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) stepped up as one of the first health insurance plans to announce reimbursing telehealth visits “at parity” with face-to-face office visits for all providers and specialists. Chief Medical Officer Rahul Rajkumar talks us through the strategy behind that decision to “flip the switch” for telemedicine — which was made in just one meeting (!) – and what metrics and outcomes the Blue plan will be looking at post-pandemic to decide if the switch remains on.

Conversation Highlights:

• Changing reimbursement policies to cover ALL COVID-19 testing and treatment
• 6:45 min: The role of virtual care during COVID-19 and reimbursement at parity
• 11:11 min: How will telehealth be evaluated post-epidemic?
• 13:58 min: Telehealth innovation, B2B use, remote monitoring (looking to providers to lead the way)
• 17:25 min: What’s going to happen with healthcare costs in 2021?

For more on how health tech companies in digital health, telehealth, remote monitoring, health data, and more are responding to the COVID-19 crisis, check out the other interviews in this special series at www.wtf.health/covid19.