Prior to the onset of the pandemic, telehealth was slowly increasing in availability and adoption. But the risks to patients and providers of in-person visits during COVID-19 led to a dramatic increase as 2020 wore on.
“The meteoric rise of telehealth during the pandemic has not only helped us combat the virus, but also prompted a new conversation around the future of patient-centered care,” reads a press release from late July from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In fact, nearly 44 percent of in-person primary care Medicare visits utilized telehealth in April 2020, compared with less than 1 percent in February.
Another area with far-reaching impact from the pandemic was the American justice system. Courts at every level, jury trials and so many other procedural operations ground to a halt when stay-at-home orders were first issued. But as the spread of COVID-19 continued, tech experts were called upon to enable new ways of conducting court business with significant remote components. In September, Law.com characterized virtual jury trials, piloted in a few rare instances this summer, as “morphing from experiment to expectation.”
Below, we consider eight other areas of government life that have experienced large-scale disruption this year, and the leading role that COVID-19 played.
— Noelle Knell, Editor