Virtual care a slim margin of total visits
Telehealth appointments only make up about 20% of all doctor appointments.
That’s according to a new report from KLAS and the Center for Connected Medicine, which examined telehealth implementation and adoption by health systems. The report found health systems are providing fewer telehealth visits than may be expected. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth visits surged as Americans put off going to the doctor in person to prevent transmission of the virus. In addition, health systems cited telehealth visits as a top priority in a previous survey.
The majority of health systems in the study––80%––said less than 20% of their total visits are telehealth visits. Those that said 30% or more of their visits are telehealth stated that the visits are still elevated due to the COVID pandemic, and their long-term figures are expected to fall.
Despite this, healthcare systems are still expanding telehealth. The top five specialties targeted for future expansion identified include chronic care management (63%), mental/behavioral health (54%), urgent care (51%), primary care (50%) and neurology (41%). Telehealth may help solve some of the problems of chronic care and urgent care patients, including providing more consistent care and preventing costly in-person visits.
While health systems are bullish on telehealth, the biggest barriers to expanding the care type are on the patient side, with lack of patient access to technology and broadband issues being the top barriers. However, another key barrier is reimbursement. The pandemic prompted new rules to include more reimbursement for telehealth care, but healthcare organizations will still face challenges getting paid for the services.
“COVID-19 legislation has been an enabler for reimbursement,” a virtual health manager said in the report. “I hope we don’t go back to 2019 rules when those waivers expire.”
A third barrier is the need for better telehealth technology and electronic health record (EHR) integration, the authors found. The need for rapid adoption of telehealth during the height of the pandemic left some healthcare organizations scrambling to keep up with the technology, making telehealth still a key area for investment.
Only one-third of health systems stated telehealth has advanced their value-based care programs, while 56% said it effected no change.
Amy joined TriMed Media as a Senior Writer for HealthExec after covering home care for three years. When not writing about all things healthcare, she fulfills her lifelong dream of becoming a pirate by sailing in regattas and enjoying rum. Fun fact: she sailed 333 miles across Lake Michigan in the Chicago Yacht Club "Race to Mackinac."