After a spike in telehealth during the public health emergency, a study suggests that virtual care appears to be leveling off.
Telehealth visits are leveling off for health systems in the year since most providers lifted COVID-19 restrictions on non-emergency care, a new survey shows.
More than 80% of the 96 healthcare executives responding to the Center for Connected Medicine survey this spring said telehealth represents about 20% of their non-emergency visits.
A smaller number of hospital executives said telehealth represents about 30% or more of their patient volumes, but they expect those percentages to decline in the coming months as the COVID-19 pandemic ebbs.
Even though telehealth volumes are expected to decline in the coming months, the survey found that many health systems are planning to expand their telehealth services to monitor and manage patient populations, lower readmissions, and reduce costs.
Chronic care management, behavioral health and urgent care were the top three service lines cited by survey respondents for future expansion of telehealth.
"Telemedicine is an important technology for advancing care and improving value at health systems," said Rob Bart, MD, CMIO at UPMC and a founding partner at CCM.
"While utilization has declined compared with pandemic highs of 2020, we continue to invest in our telehealth capabilities because it is the right thing to do for our communities," he said.
The survey also found that 92% of respondents were measuring telehealth use by patients to better understand the technology's value, up from the 77% of respondents to the same question in a survey taken in 2020.
In addition, about 25% of respondents reported measuring health outcomes for patients using telehealth in the latest survey, up from 12% who said they were doing so in the 2020 report.
Even with temporarily loosened regulations and higher reimbursement for telehealth services during the PHE, health systems identified ongoing obstacles for telehealth, including patients' inability to access the technology and broadband and provider uncertainty around reimbursements.
“While utilization has declined compared with pandemic highs of 2020, we continue to invest in our telehealth capabilities because it is the right thing to do for our communities.”
Rob Bart, MD, CMIO, UPMC, founding partner, CCM
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Even though telehealth volumes are expected to decline in the coming months, the survey found that many health systems are planning to expand their telehealth services.
Chronic care management, behavioral health and urgent care were the top three service lines cited by survey respondents for future expansion of telehealth.
More than 90% of respondents were measuring telehealth use by patients to better understand the technology's value, up from the 77% of respondents to the same question in a survey taken in 2020.
About 25% of respondents reported measuring health outcomes for patients using telehealth in the latest survey, up from 12% who said they were doing so in the 2020 report.
Health systems identified ongoing obstacles for telehealth that include patients' inability to access the technology and broadband and provider uncertainty around reimbursements.