Telehealth’s Double-Edged Sword: Bridging or Perpetuating Health Inequities?

Excerpt

Healthcare inequities among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC),¹ immigrant, and low-income communities are driven in large part by inadequate access to healthcare.^1‐4 Telehealth, defined as the “use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to provide healthcare,” offers the promise of increased access to medical care, especially when barriers to care include resource and time scarcity.^5,6 Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth encountered multiple barriers to use, including reimbursement, cost, and liability concerns.^7,8 The pandemic forced the dissolution of these barriers for health systems to rapidly deploy telehealth technology, enabling health systems an opportunity to reduce health inequities. However, despite its promise, telehealth has become a “double-edged sword”: the technology with potential to reduce health inequities by increasing access to healthcare also holds the capacity to exacerbate structural inequities. …