Telehealth services in the USA report significant increases on text, phone or video consultation in 2015. The European market lags behind as most countries have not set up clear regulatory guidance and only a few telehealth companies have managed to partner with leading payer organizations within the countries.
Follow R2G on LinkedIn to get soon the summary results of our latest research study on “What drives success in the digital health market?”
In a recent project research2guidance assessed the maturity of the telemedicine market in Europe based on an analysis of 7 selected countries. The market conditions for telehealth services are diverse as in the rest of the EU countries. There are countries like UK and Switzerland that support telehealth solutions and others like Belgium that don’t.
The main factors that define the market condition for telehealth services are:
Of the seven European countries assessed Switzerland appears to have the most mature market. This is due to its favorable regulatory environment, which states that the same laws apply for telemedicine as to face-to-face consultations, the high number of privately insured people, and its strong telemedicine service offerings. Indeed, Medgate, a Swiss telemedicine center, claims to be the largest telemedicine solution provider in Europe, and is currently partnered with more than a dozen payer organizations.
However the remaining 6 countries assessed provide only vague regulatory references regarding public reimbursement of telemedicine services. Similarly most of the countries do not have clear regulations governing telemedicine parity. Belgium provides the least mature telemedicine market, in contract to Switzlerland, given the lack of regulation regarding telemedicine, the preference given to face-to-face consultation over remote consultation, and the dearth of telemedicine solutions partnered with payer organizations.
In stark contrast, telemedicine in the USA is being reimbursed in Health Professional Shortage Areas and in states outside the Metropolitan Statistical Area, enshrined in their Medicare programme. This year alone Telehealth services in the USA reported a significant increase on text, phone or video consultation.
That being said the EU Commissions has started to address the impact and potential of telemedicine. As part of their “Digital Agenda for Europe” the EU has begun to promote the use of telemedicine as a means of improving healthcare and increasing access to care whilst saving resources. However European countries retain their rights to either, grant full parity to telemedicine solutions, and embed telemedicine service within their public healthcare systems or not. Therefore it will be a long time until we see regulation standardized across the EU.
For those developing app based telemedicine solutions, they will have to wait for the market to catch up with innovation. That being said, innovative companies, like MeeDoc, might want to consider entering those countries with a favorable telemedicine market by partnering with PMIs, and help to promote the use of telemedicine biding their time until regulation catches up and their services are reimbursed.
As always comments are welcome!
You may also like:
Top 3 therapy fields with the best market potential for digital health apps