Telemedicine making sense for more doctors, patients

Increasingly, health-care providers are turning to telehealth — physician services provided over a video or telephone connection — to save dollars and deliver care to remote areas or to patients who may have difficulty getting to medical facilities. The American Medical Association endorsed the use of remote monitoring and delivery of services at its annual meeting in June 2014. At the same time, the organization noted that the market for telemedicine is expected to grow from approximately $1 billion in 2016 to $6 billion by 2020. In Washington state, for example, Premera Blue Cross, the state's largest insurer, began offering its telemedicine services this year.