Expand Your Telehealth Therapy Opportunities to Grow Your Business
While telehealth offerings have been around for some time, it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic upended our lives that digital therapy sessions entered the mainstream.
In fact, one recent report found that 64 percent of U.S. households used a telehealth service within the last 12 months.
It appears as though telehealth therapy will only become more and more popular as we move further into the future. According to Precedence Research, the global telehealth market — which brought in $40.3 billion in 2020 — is poised to reach $224.8 billion by 2030.
One of the main reasons that growth is projected is because of the number of benefits telehealth therapy delivers to clients and practices alike. Keep reading to find out what those are.
What Are the Benefits of Telehealth Therapy for Clients?
There’s a reason telehealth therapy services are becoming more popular: the approach to therapy has a lot of upside from the client’s perspective.
It’s easier for clients to access telehealth counseling
For starters, telehealth therapy enables clients to access the services they need from the comfort of their own homes. Booking telehealth appointments with therapists is easy; simply self-serve the available times and pick one that works with your schedule. Additionally, since clients don’t have to commute to the therapist’s office and back again, they’re able to save time and keep appointments even when they’re busy.
Clients can access therapy services from far away
Not everyone is lucky enough to live close to the kind of therapist they need to see. For example, if someone is suffering from trauma and needs to see someone who specializes in an uncommon niche, they may have a hard time finding a therapist who meets the bill. By booking telehealth counseling appointments, however, individuals can see the perfect therapist for their needs — even if that person lives on the other side of the country.
It enables clients to avoid infectious diseases
In the COVID-19 era, many clients either skipped appointments or had them canceled as everyone stayed home to flatten the curve and stay safe. In fact, some practices reported no-show rates as high as 60 percent. By enabling clients to see therapists from the comfort of their own couches, telehealth has been particularly helpful for ensuring appointments are kept and communities stay safe.
It’s easier to have a family member involved in the process
Many clients might prefer to have a family member nearby during therapy sessions for moral support and comfort. But what happens when the person you’d want to be there the most lives in another state? Using telehealth therapy, clients are able to include their family members and friends into the process as needed, making sessions more productive.
Quality of care improves
Getting the best client outcomes starts with patient engagement. Since telehealth technology has earned high satisfaction scores from the folks who use it, practices that embrace telehealth therapy are able to deliver more effective treatment to clients.
What Are the Benefits of Telehealth Therapy for Practices?
Now that you have a better idea of some of the main benefits telehealth brings to clients, let’s turn our attention to the ways the technology can benefit your practice.
You can serve a larger geographical area
If you run a practice that’s in a suburban area and you only offer in-person appointments, chances are the bulk of your clients will either live or work in that area. In other words, it’s unlikely that someone will commute three hours just to see you, no matter how effective you are. By embracing telehealth therapy, it’s possible to cater to clients across the country — significantly expanding your total addressable market by flipping a single switch.
You can see more clients
Broadly speaking, telehealth appointments are much more efficient than in-person ones. You don’t need to wait for someone stuck in traffic or for two clients to wrap up a conversation in the waiting room before moving on to the next appointment, for example. As a result of this efficiency, you’re able to see more clients in the same amount of time.
Stronger revenue and a healthier bottom line
During the pandemic, the government expanded the list of covered telehealth services for Medicare. As a result, practices are able to charge as much for a telehealth therapy session as they would for an in-person session. By embracing telehealth therapy, it’s possible to treat more clients over the course of the day, thereby strengthening your practice’s financial position. Plus, clients are less likely to cancel, which compounds those gains.
Improved work-life balance
Telehealth enables clients to attend sessions from any connected device. The same holds true for therapists. Instead of having to go to the office every single day, therapists can use telehealth therapy to break up the work week and conduct sessions from the comfort of their home office. This improves work-life balance and helps therapists avoid burnout.
Quality of care improves
By being able to treat clients who need your services across a larger geographical area in an engaging and convenient way, you increase the chances that you give each client the care they need in a way that appeals to them the most. This, in turn, makes it that much easier for you to accomplish your goal of helping each of your clients live their best lives.
Getting Started with Telehealth Therapy
By now, you’re probably thinking that telehealth therapy sounds great. But you might be wondering how you can get started with the technology.
Luckily, there are a number of proven solutions on the market designed specifically for the telehealth use case, including:
- Updox Telehealth, which enables therapists to host video sessions over a secure, HIPAA-compliant platform. The solution also lets you communicate with your patients via secure texting and SMS, keeping them engaged.
- iSalus AnywhereCare, an easy-to-use telehealth solution for individual providers that integrates with the other tools your practice uses regularly. In addition to supporting telehealth therapy, AnywhereCare also enables you to easily bill clients for telehealth visits in just a few clicks.
If you’re looking to add to or grow your telehealth therapy options to increase client reach and improve business and client outcomes, EverCommerce can help. Learn more about whether Updox or iSalus is right for you.
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