Medicaid Patient Benefits of Telehealth

Medicaid currently provides health insurance to more than 70 million Americans, or about 20 percent of the U.S. population. This number continues to grow with shifts in policy, demographics, economics, overall societal health, and aging patterns change. Medicaid has been facing significant challenges in providing quality care while controlling costs since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, which allowed states to expand coverage to low-income adults under the age of 65. Getting timely access to care is often difficult for patients, especially the Medicaid population. Providers are less likely to accept new Medicaid patients than privately insured patients, resulting in extensive waits.

Access challenges occur across geography and impact patients’ ability to get needed care and treatment from specialists. AristaMD provides a solution that benefits Medicaid patients, ensures cost control, and timely access to specialist doctors to improve patient health and outcomes.

In 2017, two-thirds of dermatologists in the top 15 metro markets of the U.S. did not accept Medicaid, according to Merritt Hawkins. It was also found that new patient wait times increased significantly to an average of 24 days, up 30 percent from 2014.