Telemedicine still uncommon
New research led by researchers at Harvard University in the US and published in JAMA has found that telemedicine is still uncommon, despite laws passed in more than 30 states that require health insurance coverage and payments to virtual care providers. The research explored trends in telemedicine use and its association with regional factors within a large commercial health plan and found that telehealth by commercially insured Americans is still a small percentage of enrollees in one large health plan.
New research led by researchers at Harvard University in the US and published in JAMA has found that telemedicine is still uncommon, despite laws passed in more than 30 states that require health insurance coverage and payments to virtual care providers. The research explored trends in telemedicine use and its association with regional factors within a large commercial health plan and found that telehealth by commercially insured Americans is still a small percentage of enrollees in one large health plan.
A summary accompanying the JAMA research letter said: “Annual telemedicine visits among all members in this health plan increased from 0.020 to 6.57 per 1,000 members between 2005-17, with the largest increases in use beginning in 2015. Most telemedicine users lived in urban areas, although the attention given to telemedicine is often to encourage its use in rural settings.”
In the research, claims from 2005-17 from an OptumLabs Data Warehouse selection of privately insured and Medicare Advantage plan enrollees in a “large, private US health plan” were analysed. “Most telemedicine visits were either telemental health (53 per cent) or primary care telemedicine (39 per cent),” said Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health researcher Dr Michael Barnet. “Primary care telemedicine visits grew 36 per cent annually before 2016 and then increased sharply to 136 366 visits in 2017, while telemental health grew 56 per cent annually to 57,095 visits in 2017. By 2017, primary care telemedicine was the most frequently used form of telemedicine.”