Telehealth was touted as a potential response to the crisis hospital closures in rural Georgia, but telemedicine programs aren’t catching on as many had hoped. Both parents and practitioners have cited problems.
For parents, the lengthy paperwork needed for health insurance to cover the services has been discouraging, explained Tyler Williams, vice president of strategy and business development at Habersham Medical Center. That facility is located in Habersham County, where four schools ended their telehealth programs in 2018.
Another challenge is lack of administrative support and low buy-in from medical practitioners, explained Loren Nix, director of school-based telehealth at the Global Partnership for Telehealth.
In a report for Georgia Health News, Crysta Jones, a graduate student studying emerging media, wrote about at length about Georgia’s struggles with telehealth. Click here to see her full post.