According to a survey conducted by Sage Growth Partners, 44 percent of healthcare organizations have not yet implemented telehealth but 86 percent stated it was a priority.

Telehealth can connect providers and patients no matter the distance and reduce overall healthcare costs, but insight into how healthcare executives view the technology varies. In this report, Sage conducted a survey of 100 healthcare executive to gauge the application and adoption of telehealth technology.

Findings included:

• 56 percent have already implemented telehealth within their organization, 44 percent have not and 86 percent view it as a medium to high priority.
• 66 percent have telehealth budgets of $250,000 or less, almost three-quarters expect their budget to increase in the next year and 26 percent expect their budge to stay the same.
• 75 percent of respondents believe telehealth has the potential to transform the standard of care in different specializations.
• Only 9 percent of respondents believe that a quarter or more of their patient encounters will be virtual in the next three years.
• 79 percent of respondent believe telehealth will contribute to less than 15 percent of their total revenue in three years.

"There has been an incredible amount of hype around telemedicine," said Dan D'Orazio, Sage Growth Partners CEO. "Our survey reveals that, despite its potential to transform many critical areas of care, more than two in five organizations have not yet adopted telemedicine. And for those hospitals and health systems that have made the leap, their budgets are still modest. Reimbursement and regulatory issues have been a huge factor in slowing the adoption of telemedicine, but a lot can change, and quickly—having CMS increase its reimbursement for telehealth would significantly accelerate its implementation. The value that telemedicine can deliver is clear to healthcare executives, but they must see a return on investment before they will increase their investments from modest to meaningful."