UW Health Expands Telehealth Access for Rural Wisconsin Patients

For patients in Price and Iron counties, a trip to see a specialist has traditionally meant a drive of two hours or more down Highway 51 to Wausau or Marshfield. This winter, UW Health began routing more of those appointments through video screens instead of windshields, expanding a telehealth program designed to bring subspecialty care closer to home for residents of northern Wisconsin.

The expansion adds video-visit capacity for cardiology, endocrinology, and behavioral health consultations at a dozen partner clinics, many of them critical access hospitals that operate with limited on-site specialists. Patients can now complete an initial consultation from an exam room in their home county, with a nurse or medical assistant on-site to take vitals and relay information back to the remote physician.

Filling Gaps Left by Provider Shortages

Wisconsin's rural counties have struggled for years with a shrinking pool of specialty physicians, a trend that has accelerated as older doctors retire and fewer replacements choose to settle outside the state's metro areas. A hospital administrator at one of the participating clinics said the telehealth partnership has already reduced the average wait for a cardiology consult from roughly ten weeks to under three.

"We were losing patients to delayed diagnoses simply because they couldn't make the drive or take a full day off work," the administrator said. "Now a lot of that first conversation happens without anyone leaving town."

The program builds on infrastructure UW Health first put in place during the pandemic, when video visits became a necessity rather than a convenience. What began as a stopgap has since evolved into a more deliberate strategy, with dedicated telehealth coordinators, standardized equipment across partner sites, and training for local staff who serve as the patient's point of contact during remote exams.

Broadband Remains a Sticking Point

Not every household in the service area has reliable internet, a persistent obstacle for telehealth expansion in rural Wisconsin. State broadband data shows pockets of Bayfield, Ashland, and Vilas counties still lack consistent high-speed access, which is why UW Health has focused its rollout on clinic-based video visits rather than relying solely on patients connecting from home.

A nurse practitioner who helps coordinate the program at a partner clinic in the Northwoods said the clinic model solves two problems at once. "Patients get the equipment and the connection they need right here, and they still get that face-to-face moment with someone they know before the screen turns on," she said.

State health officials have signaled support for continued telehealth investment, noting that reimbursement policies adopted during the pandemic and extended by the legislature have made virtual care more financially sustainable for hospitals operating on thin margins. Without those payment structures, several rural administrators said, programs like this one would be difficult to justify.

What Comes Next

UW Health officials say they plan to add tele-oncology and maternal-fetal medicine consultations to the network later this year, two specialties with particularly sparse coverage outside Madison and Milwaukee. They are also piloting a remote monitoring component for patients with chronic heart failure, using at-home blood pressure cuffs and weight scales that transmit readings directly to a care team.

For families like those in the town of Park Falls, the practical impact is straightforward: fewer missed workdays, fewer canceled appointments due to winter road conditions, and faster answers when something doesn't look right on a test result. Whether the model can scale further will likely depend on continued state and federal support for telehealth reimbursement, an issue that remains under review in Madison as lawmakers weigh how to keep rural hospitals financially viable in the years ahead.