Overcoming the Digital Dilemma: How Policy Can Work for Transformation in Health Care

If the United States has made any progress in overcoming this digital dilemma in the last decade, it was (perhaps ironically) during the most disruptive public health crisis of the past fifty years: the COVID-19 pandemic.While the pandemic strained in-patient systems and challenged public health infrastructure, it forced the relaxing of many telehealth policies, especially those around Medicare and state Medicaid programs, finally allowing for the rapid adoption of telehealth, and cementing it as a feasible and valuable mode of care (Shaver, 2022).The areas that have seen increased adherence and usage as a result of this rapid adoption of telehealth include mental and behavioral health and chronic disease management (Shaver, 2022; NCQA, n.d.).We have also seen the rapid uptake of remote patient monitoring (RPM) and remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM), especially in primary care and its various subspecialties (Joo et al, 2025).The breakout success of digital-first healthcare companies like Ro, Hims/Hers, and GoodRx has further demonstrated the value of telehealth in bridging certain care gaps (DrugPatentWatch, 2025).In fact, attempts to reinstate stricter telehealth policies have caused public concern and even outrage (Daniels, 2024;Harris, 2025;Lapowski, 2023).And yet, rather than embrace emerging modes of health service delivery that have been shown to lower costs while maintaining, or even