Opportunities to Alleviate the Health Care Workforce Crisis: Telehealth and Emerging Technologies

Below is an edited excerpt from a white paper authored by Manatt Health and Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Click to read the full report.

The U.S. health care system is facing a severe and worsening workforce crisis, characterized by a shortage of providers, geographic maldistribution of providers, and record levels of burnout. This crisis spans various clinical specialties and provider types, including physicians, advanced practice providers, registered nurses, and social workers, among others. In 2024, the Health Services and Resource Administration (HRSA) estimated the supply of physicians and registered nurses only met 90% of the total demand for each respective workforce needs, and the problem is only getting worse, with a growing patient population that needs more care and a limited number of providers to care for them. By 2037, HRSA projects that nonmetro areas will experience a 60% shortage of physicians and metro areas a 10% shortage. The workforce crisis hinders patient access to necessary care and compromises quality of care, leading to sub-optimal health outcomes.

Telehealth is a promising solution to mitigate the workforce crisis. Telehealth modalities—in particular, virtual nursing, eConsults, and video visits—offer innovative ways to extend the current workforce, expand the geographic reach of providers, and maintain the existing workforce by reducing burnout and improving work-life balance. However, despite this potential, many telehealth programs are sub-scale due to limited coverage and reimbursement, insufficiently robust evidence, cultural barriers around adopting new technology, and other factors.

Even at full scale, telehealth alone will not meaningfully address the workforce crisis. Other emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), have the potential to significantly unlock workforce capacity. AI can assist, augment, and automate certain activities currently performed by clinical and administrative staff, thereby increasing efficiency and improving access. AI tools can streamline clinical documentation, enhance decision support, and automate routine administrative tasks, allowing providers to focus on patient care. AI tools can also be used to accelerate the adoption and impact of promising telehealth models by enabling significant gains in efficiency through automation.

To fully realize the potential of telehealth and AI in addressing the workforce crisis, several key considerations must be addressed. These include establishing clear and consistent reimbursement models, incorporating telehealth and AI into education and training curricula, addressing the digital divide, and investing in research and implementation resources. Additionally, broader policy and industry changes are needed to attract, optimize, and retain health care professionals, including enhancing financial and workplace incentives and prioritizing provider well-being.

While there is no silver bullet to addressing the workforce crisis in the U.S., scaling high-impact telehealth programs and accelerating the adoption of high-value AI can produce meaningful improvements in workforce shortages, maldistribution, and clinician burnout.

Click to read the full report.

National Center for Health Workforce Analysis. Health Workforce Projections, Bureau of Health Workforce, https://bhw.hrsa.gov/data-research/projecting-health-workforce-supply-demand. Accessed 20 Mar. 2025.