In recent years, telemedicine has surged in popularity, with a staggering 76% of people expressing interest in using telehealth services. What began as tentative steps toward remote medical consultations has evolved into a thriving industry, reshaping the delivery of healthcare.
Telemedicine offers unparalleled convenience, accessibility, and efficiency, with a growing number of clinicians switching to online as one of the core ways to provide care. 76.7% of primary care physicians and 73.1% of medical specialists were able to provide telemedicine quality of care comparable to in-person visits.
While telemedicine implementation is relatively easy, you need thorough preparation to start a telehealth practice that is effective and compliant. This guide is a roadmap for entrepreneurs and healthcare professionals who want to provide telemedicine services. From understanding market dynamics to selecting the right technology partner, we explore how to start a telehealth business step by step.
Industry Overview: What Makes Starting a Telemedicine Business So Attractive
What surged during the pandemic as a way to connect isolated patients with medical staff has become a dominating market trend. According to the recent Deloitte survey, the demand for accessible digital health solutions remains high. In 2024, 94% of consumers who had a virtual health visit within the last 12 months were willing to have another one.
Hence, the first reason to start a telemedicine business is the fact that the niche is growing. Besides the demand, there is evidence that telemedicine adoption doesn’t lead to additive or duplicative care. Research by Epic has shown patients are unlikely to need an in-person follow-up visit within 90 days after a virtual consultation. For many specialties and types of healthcare services, telemedicine may be enough. General illnesses, preventive care, and mental health services are a particularly good choice to start a telemedicine business.Finally, the US is likely to face an 86,000 shortage of physicians by 2036. Telemedicine apps can help avoid the disaster of overloaded healthcare systems that lack the capacity to serve everyone in need. Powered by new technologies like GenAI, telemedicine tools can considerably speed up the work of clinicians, automating clinical documentation, medical coding and billing, patient communications, and administrative tasks.
Find more insights in our telemedicine industry overview.
Before You Start: Key Components of a Telemedicine Business Model
To start your own telemedicine business, you need a reliable business model that will give you the framework on what services to offer and how. You must understand your target audience, the potential value, revenue streams, cost structure, and other aspects. Find out the key components of a telemedicine business model below.
Target Audience
Define your audience, break it down into smaller segments, and identify their specific needs. You may target seniors aged 65+ in urban areas for chronic disease management or working professionals aged 25-40 for convenient primary care consultations. Identifying specific customer segments will help tailor your telehealth services and marketing efforts.
Product Value
Understand the uniqueness of your services and the socioeconomic problems they can solve. For instance, your telemedicine service can provide affordable access to care for underserved rural populations or offer specialized virtual consultations for complex medical conditions.
Overall, the most common issues a telemedicine app can solve are:
- Easier access to care
- 24/7 access to medical staff
- Reduced wait times
- Lower cost of care
- Anonymity
- Prescription refills
- Increased patient engagement
The choice of the target audience directly determines what problems you should try to manage with telemedicine services. People with diabetes need powerful health tracking features, while users with depression may value anonymity above all.
Service Offerings
Evaluate what medical services you can provide based on your medical facility’s resources or ability to engage external medical professionals. When starting a telehealth private practice, you don’t need to cover all services. Focusing on one or several fields is enough for a solid business model. You can provide general medical consultations, mental health services, chronic disease management, follow-up care, or specialist consultations.
Delivery Channels
Plan how users will access your services to determine what software you need to implement. Mobile apps, web platforms, phone consultations, integrated platforms with versatile functionality, and white-labeled solutions are the most common options. If you serve the elderly, phone consultations are a must. For tech-savvy generations, a one-in-all platform can be a good choice. Yet, you need to run product discovery and research the needs of your potential users before choosing delivery channels.
Revenue Streams
Identify revenue streams that align with your business model and customer needs. This could include subscription-based services, one-time consultations, premium features or add-ons, partnerships with insurance providers, or revenue-sharing agreements with healthcare facilities.
Key Resources
Ensure you have access to the necessary resources to support your business operations. This includes technology infrastructure, skilled personnel (such as healthcare professionals, software developers, and customer support staff), strategic partnerships, and financial resources.
Partnerships and Collaborations
Define who you need to start a telemedicine business and offer services. Healthcare is a strictly regulated and demanding industry, and you won’t be able to work without partnerships. Depending on your business specifics, you may need to collaborate with insurance companies, technology vendors, marketing partners, laboratories, pharmacies, medical billing services, and regulatory bodies.
Cost Structure
Develop a comprehensive understanding of your expenses and potential costs for launching and scaling your telemedicine business. This includes upfront costs such as software development, hardware, licensing fees, regulatory compliance, marketing, staffing, and ongoing operational expenses. Consider conducting a thorough cost-benefit analysis to ensure the financial viability and sustainability of your project.
How to Start a Telemedicine Business in 8 Steps
Since entering the healthcare field and scaling your services requires considerable investment, you must carefully prepare for that. Connecting a telemedicine app is not enough. You must analyze the market, develop a business model, select the appropriate software, and continuously attract new users. Here are the steps to guide you on how to start a telehealth business:
Step 1. Learn Telemedicine Laws Globally and in Your State
HIPAA compliance is the first thing you should keep in mind. In addition to HIPAA, some security and data exchange standards, including FHIR, ICD-10, and XDS/XDS-I, might be applicable. If you plan to use features that fall under these regulations, your telemedicine platform must meet their requirements.
Besides, healthcare laws, including licensing requirements, prescribing rules, insurance and Medicaid reimbursement, and informed consent, vary from state to state. Therefore, you must clarify what rules govern telemedicine services in your state and other locations you plan to target. Most states still require informed consent before providing telehealth services. The reimbursement policies also vary: in some states, parity laws apply with telehealth reimbursed at the same level as in-person care, while in others, the coverage is only partial. Understanding the applicable restrictions will allow you to stay compliant and inform users about reimbursement options.
Step 2. Understand Your Market Position and Business Model
You must create a realistic business plan and factor in all expenses. We recommend analyzing your key competitors, their services, and pricing. Let’s say you want to design something similar to MDLive. A medical consultation costs between $0 and $82, depending on the patient’s insurance coverage. In Amwell, the price of a visit is $79. In other comparable apps, the pricing ranges from $0 (for a fully reimbursed visit) to $200 for physiatry.
Understanding the market situation allows you to set balanced prices to attract users and business partners. Calculating the ROI of different features is also important to understand what functionality is worth its money and what isn’t. In your quest to set up a telemedicine practice, this will allow you to design a solution that starts generating revenue shortly after the launch.
If you’re unsure about estimating software profitability, consider engaging experts. Find a software development company with skilled business analysts who will conduct research for you.
Step 3. Evaluate Your Tech Capacity and Readiness
The foundation of any telemedicine solution is the tech infrastructure. This includes reliable servers, a stable and high-speed Internet connection, and high-quality video and audio capabilities. The reliability of this infrastructure directly impacts the effectiveness of the telemedicine application. Lost connections, poor video quality, or delayed audio can hamper the diagnostic process and compromise the quality of treatment.
You must also consider the future integration with your existing systems. You may already use an EHR system, billing and insurance services, scheduling modules, and other tools. Learn more about the integration options available to select a telemedicine app that is supported.
Step 4. Choose the Type of Telehealth App
The next step on how to start a telemedicine practice is choosing the type of application. Although each app has unique functionality and capabilities, most solutions fall under two broad categories. Telehealth applications are either synchronous or asynchronous based on the approach to information exchange.
- Synchronous telehealth solutions support a two-way audiovisual connection between a patient and a healthcare provider. They substitute in-person appointments with video conferencing.
- Asynchronous telehealth applications transmit recorded medical history to a health practitioner. They don’t connect patients and clinicians directly. Patients just upload their data to the platform, enabling clinicians to follow the treatment progress.
The preferred type depends on your target audience and what features they need. Once you decide, you can move to more specific tech choices. Find more information about types of telemedicine apps.
Step 5. Plan the Features
Do you know that you need a physical address to bill insurance? A telemedicine app cannot handle insurance without address collection and verification. Some features are must-haves, depending on the type of app and services you want to offer.
If you build a synchronous telehealth solution, you won’t do without video streaming. Asynchronous communications require secure messaging, image uploads, and digital intake forms. Solutions used for diagnostics must support high-resolution images. These are only a few examples of the things to consider.
You must figure out what features you need before investing in a telemedicine solution to avoid disappointment down the road and provide compliant and high-quality virtual care services. Find a detailed review of telemedicine app features in our blog.
Step 6. Choose a Telemedicine Platform
Once you understand the applicable regulations in your case and the desired telehealth functionality, you can select a suitable telehealth app.
A range of criteria must be considered when starting a telemedicine business. In particular, a good telehealth platform must meet the following requirements:
- Combination of rich functionality and simple UI. The first impression depends on designs by 94%. Applications with poor UI/UX won’t make users comfortable and fail to create trust, which is essential in healthcare. As a result, you will have trouble selling such software on the market and attracting users.
To avoid such problems, consider usability when selecting a telemedicine platform and take time to test it. It’s essential to integrate a platform that fully covers your software needs without including any unnecessary features. These will only confuse customers and make the product overpriced.
- Compatibility with existing software and hardware. Telehealth software is often used simultaneously with other applications. When connected, they create a powerful multifunctional system that automates physician-patient communications and the treatment process. That’s why you must ensure interoperability with other tools and hardware you use. In particular, telemedicine software should allow you to record important communications in an EHR system automatically.
- Software scalability. The ability to scale is crucial in selecting a telemedicine platform, as it ensures proper operations even under high user loads. You certainly don’t want to rebuild your platform in a year or switch to the new infrastructure because your old provider wasn’t ready for your success.
- Tech support. If you integrate a subscription solution, ensure the tech provider offers reliable technical support to troubleshoot any issues that may arise. Read user reviews and ask your network for referrals. If you invest in custom telehealth app development, your software development partner must have sufficient resources to provide ongoing support for your team and customers. This may include dedicated support personnel to ensure timely responses and proactive troubleshooting to effectively address any technical challenges.
- Data security. The average cost of a healthcare data breach reaches $4.45 million. Therefore, by adopting a secure platform, especially in terms of secure messaging, you ensure the safe processing of confidential data and protect yourself from severe penalties.
If you cannot find a ready-made telemedicine platform that meets your requirements, consider custom telemedicine software development services. Custom platforms will have unique features that perfectly fit your market needs. No existing platform can offer the same flexibility and security as customized solutions.
Step 7. Plan Marketing
Creating a marketing strategy is an integral part of launching a telemedicine business, as you should attract users and convince them to pay for virtual care services to make them profitable. You may need to create a website promoting a mobile telemedicine app, run digital ads, partner with insurance companies that would recommend your software, etc. The strategy depends on your target audience, type of telehealth services, and available budget.
Define the ways, like social media and traditional or online advertising, by which you’ll make the target audience aware of your product or services. For example, if you’re targeting a local customer segment aged 40-70, consider an advertising campaign in the local newspaper and find relevant community groups on Meta.
Lots of things you can do yourself, but, as usual, it’s better to hire experienced professionals who would develop an effective marketing plan for you. It will save you time and optimize expenses. Since investment in telemedicine software implementation may be considerable, it’s better to avoid skimping on marketing.
Step 8. Launch and Gather Data for Monitoring
You don’t only need to plan how to start a telehealth business but also think about how to keep it afloat and relevant. Rely on historical and real-time data on user behavior to understand whether users like the app functionality and what can be improved. Compare data after any changes are made to see how they impact users. What we assume often differs from what people really like, so you must rely on data.
Gathering this information will allow you to know how people use your app and also measure its profitability and ROI. You will see whether your investment pays off and find ways to increase the revenue.
TOP 5 Telemedicine Apps to Integrate
Out-of-the-box telemedicine solutions provide a ready-to-use platform with core capabilities for providers looking to launch virtual care services quickly. Many providers opt for these solutions as a starting point before potentially transitioning to a more customized platform as their needs evolve. Here are five popular out-of-the-box options, along with some key features and use cases.
| AmWell | A comprehensive, enterprise-grade telemedicine platform that offers video visits, remote patient monitoring, and integrated EHR/PM solutions. AmWell serves large health systems, health plans, and employers with capabilities for web-based and mobile virtual visits, e-prescribing, clinical documentation, and care coordination tools. |
| Doxy.me | A simple, web-based video conferencing solution designed for the healthcare industry, it features virtual waiting rooms to manage patient flow, screen sharing for sharing clinical images/results, and provider-to-provider consultations. Doxy.me is popular among smaller practices for its ease of use and affordable pricing. |
| Updox | Updox is an all-in-one platform that combines video visits with secure messaging, appointment reminders, and patient engagement tools tailored for practices of all sizes. It supports virtual visits and messaging directly within the patient’s EHR for seamless documentation. |
| Thera-LINK | A HIPAA-compliant telemedicine solution purpose-built for mental and behavioral health providers. Thera-LINK offers HD video sessions, secure document sharing, e-prescribing, and tools for group therapy sessions. It is well-optimized for telepsychiatry and telepsychology use cases. |
| SimplePractice | While focused on virtual visits for mental health professionals, SimplePractice also includes full practice management capabilities like scheduling, clinical documentation, billing, and telehealth-specific features such as client intake forms and progress tracking. |
If you feel like an off-the-shelf solution cannot meet your practice needs, consider custom telehealth app development. Custom apps are tailored to your workflows and requirements as they are developed from scratch based on your unique business needs. They are more expensive than third-party solutions, but at the same time, they offer much better scalability and business potential. Read the telemedicine app development guide for more information on custom software development.
Cost of Starting a Telemedicine Business
Whether you are a startup or a healthcare business owner looking to start a telehealth practice, the cost of starting a telemedicine business is the key component to factor in.
If you need custom software development, expect to spend at least $50,000. Such a telehealth app will be tailored to the clinical workflows and the needs of end-users. Custom software is a preferable option for the majority of telemedicine business models. Additionally, outsourcing is an effective way to reduce the cost of custom telemedicine. You can delegate telehealth software development to a remote company with lower rates in the market but equally skilled engineers.
An MVP will cost you up to $20,000 and take less time to develop. Testing your product before investing in a full-fledged version is a good time and cost-efficient option. Still, the functionality of MVPs is too limited to use them instead of custom applications in a long-term perspective.
There are also white-label telemedicine apps that cost around $15,000. They have the core features, but you won’t be able to offer anything unique or innovative. Attracting users to such applications can be challenging.
Note that the cost will be much higher if you need to invest in hardware (tablets, headphones, etc.) and software development. This is a usual extra expense for healthcare providers who adopt telemedicine solutions.
Tips on Convincing Others to Adopt Telemedicine Software
The road to getting everyone on board with telemedicine has its bumps, mostly because of doubts, not knowing enough about it, and worries about how it’ll work. Getting past these roadblocks is crucial to starting a successful telehealth business and growing your user audience. Explore ways to tackle these challenges and make the shift to a more digital-focused way of doing healthcare.
Highlight ROI
One effective approach to overcoming resistance is by demonstrating the concrete Return on Investment (ROI) of telemedicine. This requires a detailed assessment of the advantages, including the financial benefits from lower no-show rates, improved operational efficiency, and the ability to reach more patients. When healthcare providers are presented with concrete evidence of telemedicine’s positive impact on both the financial health of their practice and patient outcomes, their inclination to adopt this technology increases.
A recent study found that telehealth was associated with substantial cost savings for patients with cancer. The estimated mean cost savings ranged from $147.4 to $186.1 per visit, with higher savings for new or established visits ($176.6 to $222.8) compared to follow-up visits ($141.1 to $178.1). These savings were driven by reduced travel costs ($79.7 to $146.0 per visit) and lower lost productivity costs ($61.4 to $77.2 per visit) resulting from the use of virtual visits instead of in-person appointments.
Ease Technology Learning Curves
At first glance, telemedicine software can seem quite overwhelming. To mitigate this situation, it is helpful to implement training programs that target different skill levels. Streamlining user interfaces and offering direct support are key strategies to drive adoption. The main goal is to make the technology user-friendly and intuitive, thereby instilling confidence in healthcare providers to integrate it into their daily practice. This approach focuses on ensuring that technology enhances, rather than complicates, the process of medical care.
Promote Practice Continuity
Emphasizing how telemedicine can enhance practice continuity is crucial. It enables healthcare organizations to maintain patient care during crises, like pandemics and offers flexibility to continue consultations under various circumstances. Highlighting these aspects reassures providers that telemedicine software is an extension, not a replacement, of their traditional practice.
Prioritize Patient Satisfaction
Patient satisfaction is a powerful motivator. Demonstrating how telemedicine app improves patient experiences — through shorter wait times, increased accessibility, and personalized care — can persuade hesitant providers. Positive feedback and success stories from patients who have experienced the benefits of telemedicine software can further reinforce its value.
Manage Capacity Concerns
Addressing capacity concerns is fundamental. The telemedicine platform must be robust enough to support projected daily video conferencing volumes without impacting network speed and reliability. Convincing vendors of the platform’s capabilities and reliability, perhaps through demonstrations or testing, can reduce concerns about system overload or unreliability.
Final Thoughts
Telemedicine enables providers to reach underserved areas, reduce costs compared to in-person visits, and deliver quality care efficiently. Starting a telemedicine business offers numerous benefits, but it also requires careful planning. You must follow state and federal regulations like HIPAA and data security standards. By understanding the market dynamics, crafting a targeted business model, and selecting the right technology partner, you can reap the benefits of the modern telemedicine approach.
If you’re ready to build a standout telemedicine solution tailored to your unique needs, Empeek offers expert custom healthcare software development services. Our experienced team has deep knowledge of healthcare regulations, telemedicine best practices, and the latest technologies. We work closely with clients to understand their requirements and design user-friendly, secure, and scalable telemedicine platforms. From ideation to launch and ongoing support, we provide end-to-end development to ensure your telemedicine business succeeds.
Check out our projects to learn about our approach, or contact us to discuss your business idea.
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