A new pair of studies suggests that virtual care is demonstrating some attractive long-term benefits, including lower costs and improved health access for underserved populations
One such study comes from Cigna, whose Evernorth health services division recently closed on its acquisition of virtual care vendor MDLIVE.
As part of the study report, Cigna notes that less than 2 percent of outpatient behavioral health and medical claims were for virtual claims before the pandemic. Today, virtual visits account for almost 25% of all visits, Evernorth’s research found. According to estimates by Accenture cited in the report, one of every three visits will eventually be virtual.
Part of what makes this important is that the increasing use of virtual care stands to subtract costs from the healthcare system, according to Cigna research. The health plan’s data shows that the average cost of a non-urgent virtual care visit is $93 less than the average cost for an in-person visit. Meanwhile, the cost of seeing a specialist averages $120 less for virtual care than in-person encounters and a virtual urgent-care visit averages $141 less than being seen in an urgent care clinic.
Not only that, but virtual care can also help patients get in to see doctors when they would otherwise have to wait a significant amount of time to be seen. For example, the average wait time to see a behavioral clinician is 48 days, patients can sometimes see one in two to three days via virtual care channels.
The benefits of this improved access to care can be tangible, the health plan concluded. According to Cigna, more than 75% of its customers who had an MDLIVE virtual wellness screening had no assigned primary care screening. Further analysis by MDLIVE found that two-thirds of patients without a PCP learned they had a health condition because of their virtual screening.
Meanwhile, research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania has concluded that telehealth can also reduce racial inequities in follow-up care after hospitalization. Researchers found that as 2020 moved ahead and telemedicine became one of the key modes of delivering primary care visits, the rates at which Black patients showed up to follow-up appointments after hospitalization climbed substantially.
The study, which drew on data from five Penn Medicine hospitals on post-hospitalization primary care, leveraged information from appointments from 2019 through 2021.
The impact on post-discharge PCP visits wasn’t limited to one population. Overall, post-discharge primary care visit completion rates climbed from 62% to 72% from January to June 2020, but the impact on Black patients was more pronounced, from 52% to 70%.
Other benefits observed across all populations included a shorter time to be seen. The time between discharge and the first PCP appointment fell by a day and a half when the appointment was held virtually.
Taking a look at these numbers, it looks like telehealth should have already hit the industry like a bomb, particularly the cost of delivering services. They certainly make a good argument for health plans to keep wading into virtual care reimbursement and buying telehealth companies.
The truth is, though, that the endless billions that have been spent on brick-and-mortar infrastructure are massive sunk costs, which means that providers have very strong reasons to stick to the systems they’ve already got in place. Sure, they’re likely to move into telehealth on a larger scale over time, but not overnight. Health plans will need to do more with incentives if they hope to see providers move into virtual care more quickly.
