Survey: One third of physicians use telemedicine, one fifth are reimbursed

Most healthcare practitioners are either using telemedicine or planning to use it soon, but less than a fifth of them are being paid for those services. That's according to a survey recently conducted at the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine (AIHM) annual conference in San Diego. AIHM surveyed 754 practitioners, 78 percent of whom were physicians. Neither the academy nor the conference is specifically focused on telemedicine or technology, but rather on acute care, a spokesperson told MobiHealthNews, so there is no obvious sampling bias toward telemedicine. Overall, 33 percent of physicians surveyed said they were using some form of telemedicine and another 29 percent said they were planning to, making a total of 62 either using or considering telemedicine, defined as "care via telephone, video visits, web cam visits – or other consultations not in person".