Telegenetics—providing genetic counseling through virtual channels—arose as a solution to address the capacity and access issues that tend to impede genetic counseling programs. It’s often a second thought after developing a genetic counseling service, or viewed as a temporary fix when programs can’t meet the demand or cover the geographic reach that they’d like to with in-person genetic counselors.

Within the context of a health system’s entire service offerings, telegenetics can fall to the bottom of the priority list for development. There are several reasons that telegenetics doesn’t garner greater prioritization:

It’s viewed as a “nice-to-have” add-on service, but rarely stood up intentionally as part of the program’s broader strategy.

It’s challenging to make the case to invest in telegenetics without a clear path to securing financial returns on the service.

It’s daunting to navigate the operational challenges and highly variable regulatory policies around both genetic counseling and telehealth.

On the other hand, organizations also see these same factors as reasons to adopt telegenetics. As a service that does not require a physical exam, where reimbursement for both telehealth and in-person counseling is already dubious at best, and where there is a lower bar of regulatory restrictions for telegenetics than for other virtual medical visits, virtual genetic counseling has been a logical place to focus telehealth efforts.