HHS Grants $55M More to Bring Telehealth Services to Underserved in the US

Signaling a sense that telehealth can reach and help patients in ways the healthcare system perhaps wasn’t before, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is putting millions more in grants into it.

On Monday (Feb. 14) HHS announced it is awarding $55 million to 29 HRSA-funded health centers “to increase health care access and quality for underserved populations through virtual care such as telehealth, remote patient monitoring, digital patient tools, and health information technology platforms.”

This is on top of more than $7.3 billion from the American Rescue Plan that was awarded to community health centers in the prior year “to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19.”

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said, “Virtual care has been a game-changer for patients, especially during the pandemic. This funding will help health centers leverage the latest technology and innovations to expand access to quality primary care for underserved communities.”

According to the statement, government-funded practices offering telehealth services went from 478,333 in 2019 to 28,550,608 in 2020 calling it “a remarkable 6,000 percent increase. In total, the number of health centers offering virtual visits grew from 592 in 2019 to 1,362 in 2022, an increase of 130 percent. These new awards will enable health centers to sustain an expanded level of virtual care and identify and implement new digital strategies.”

See also: Senators Push Bill to Keep Telehealth Medicare Coverage as Private Insurers Lean Into Virtual

There are over 1,400 HRSA-supported health centers in America that act as the primary care providers for underserved communities and populations. View a list of award recipients here.

“More than 90 percent of health center patients are individuals or families living at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (about $55,000 per year for a family of four in most states) and approximately 62 percent are racial/ethnic minorities,” HHS said.

In an interview with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster, Michelle Davey, founder and CEO of virtual care company Wheel, dubbed the current surge of video doctor visits as “Telehealth 1.0.”

“A lot of healthcare in this country hasn’t been [focused] on wellness and preventative care. With virtual care, we’re seeing a lot of that evolve,” Davey said.

“We’re seeing health and wellness companies add virtual care offerings to their platforms or applications so that the patients who are pre-patients — they’re just consumers at that point — are getting access to care from clinicians.”

See also: ‘Telehealth 2.0’ Will Blur Lines Between Virtual and In-Office Care

In another recent PYMNTS interview, Experian Health Vice President of Product Management Victoria Dames spoke of digital identity issues raised by the expansion of telehealth services, and the challenges of authentication and patient matching.

Of telehealth growth, Dames said, “Intuitively, providers, payers, everybody knew that this was the direction we were going. The demand increased because of our situation as a nation. It has [been] a great catalyst. I don’t think there’s any issues with wanting to embrace it.”

She added, however, that telehealth creates new streams of sensitive healthcare data, saying, “It’s both inefficient, because there can be duplicates, as well as a huge security and fraud risk.”

As for the latest HHS grants, they add to a previous HHS investment of more than $19 million in August 2021 distributed to 36 recipients as the agency helps fund what amounts to a connected national telehealth network backed by numerous programs started during the pandemic.

See also: Telehealth Growth Raises Data, Digital Identity Concerns