Leveraging telehealth to serve underrepresented populations: Bridging gaps and promoting health equity

Telehealth has immense potential for expanding access to healthcare, especially for underrepresented populations facing health disparities. With telehealth, patients can conveniently access medical care and advice from the comfort of their homes. 

By integrating telehealth with value-based care and population health strategies, providers can deliver more personalized, cost-effective care making it possible for patients to receive timely, quality care—regardless of location or socioeconomic status—which helps to bridge gaps in care and promote health equity.

Understanding health disparities and gaps in care

Health disparities based on race, ethnicity, geography, and socioeconomic status persist across the United States. Minority groups and rural communities often experience higher rates of chronic disease, worse health outcomes, and reduced access to care. 

Consider:

Social determinants of health like socioeconomic status, education level, language barriers, physical environment, and access to care play a major role in driving health disparities. For example, many individuals in low-income communities’ face barriers to quality care because it can require insurance, transportation, or time off work for appointments. 

Those with less education may have reduced health literacy, making it difficult for them to navigate the healthcare system. Poor environmental conditions like substandard housing can exacerbate medical conditions. Together, these social factors result in underserved populations shouldering a disproportionate burden of disease while facing gaps in the care needed to overcome health inequities. Identifying and addressing these gaps is crucial for improving population health outcomes.

The role of telehealth in promoting health equity

Minority patients

Language barriers exist at a higher rate for minority groups than for white individuals in the U.S. The following populations report having limited proficiency in speaking English:

• Asian Americans - 31%
• Hispanics – 28%
• Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander – 12% 
• American Indian or Alaska Native – 4% 
• Black - 3%
• White – 1%

Telehealth services can easily connect physicians who speak the same language as their patients to improve their patients’ health literacy.

Rural patients

Telehealth helps bridge these gaps by providing convenient access to medical services through phone, video, and other modes of telecommunication. Patients in remote areas can connect with physicians without the barrier of transportation access. 

Studies have shown telehealth effectively serves vulnerable populations and helps reduce disparities. For example, telehealth improved outcomes for rural diabetic patients by increasing rural patients’ access to regular specialist consultations.

Limited-mobility patients 

With telehealth, patients with limited mobility can receive care from home. Telehealth breaks down barriers of cost, proximity, and convenience that commonly restrict healthcare access for patients who can’t easily leave their homes or facilities.

Remote patient monitoring enables providers to track health metrics and intervene early before conditions worsen. It has been shown to lower hospital readmissions for low-income and elderly patients with multiple chronic conditions such as heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 

How telehealth assists value-based care initiatives 

Truly fulfilling telehealth's promise requires aligning with value-based care principles, focusing on improving health outcomes while reducing costs. This model depends on population health management, illness prevention, and health optimization across entire communities. 

Video visits allow for regular consultations and education, enabling patients to better manage chronic conditions from home. These virtual appointments can be further supported by at-home test collection kits, allowing patients to conveniently perform important health screenings, such as colorectal cancer, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease. By combining video consultations with at-home testing, providers can more effectively monitor patients’ health, ensure timely interventions, and meet quality measures through individual tests or broader gaps-in-care programs.

Integrating telehealth with comprehensive laboratory and pathology services enhances the ability of physicians to make timely and accurate diagnoses. While lab tests generally require a visit to a lab or patient service center, telehealth helps streamline the process by allowing virtual consultations to assess, order, and discuss necessary diagnostics. For patients in underserved populations, this reduces the need for frequent in-person visits while ensuring they have improved access to essential care. By leveraging telehealth, providers can help reduce unnecessary emergency visits and hospitalizations while improving health outcomes for vulnerable patients.

Challenges and opportunities in leveraging telehealth 

Of course, realizing telehealth's full potential requires overcoming barriers like tech access, literacy gaps, and program funding. There are opportunities to address these challenges better through strategic partnerships, community outreach, education campaigns, and flexible solutions.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated telehealth’s capabilities and accelerated adoption, as usage increased from increasing from 15% in 2019 to 86% in 2021.

This delivers guidelines-based clinical decision support to physicians to help reduce duplicative tests and increase patient satisfaction—all in the electronic health record in real time at the point of care.