By ALEXA B. KIMBALL MD, MPH

The tipping point for telehealth just happened. Many ways of doing business will change forever after the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, and health care, too, will never be the same. 

Between the release from some HIPAA requirements announced by President Trump this month, shifts in payor policies, and mandated insurance coverage of telehealth visits, innovation and adoption are taking off like wildfire. As patients and outpatient-based physicians hunker down at home, they are rapidly experimenting, and improving the way care is being delivered remotely. 

Our institution, which had no prior program, faced with an imminent shut down of elective activity, developed an enterprise-wide telehealth program in days, rendering hundreds of visits as soon as we launched it. This activity is being replicated all around the country.