Even patients in rural areas can save with telehealth

An ongoing telehealth study in Michigan outlines how rural Americans are embracing the concept of interacting with health care providers online.

The Connected Nation (CN) Michigan program began in 2009 as an attempt to track technology, access, adoption, and usage of telehealth in the state. The results of a 2019 survey were released in 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down businesses and many aspects of clinical health care. The Connected Nation program has helped researchers understand how telehealth was utilized in 2020 and how consumers are continuing to use it to access health care.

“When we released the key findings from our initial study, we had no idea how timely it would become — just days later, the pandemic shut everything down,” said Eric Frederick, Executive Director, CN Michigan. “We already knew that it was important to better understand how patients use and perceive telehealth and to examine what barriers there may be to accessing this tool that can help improve health outcomes. What we didn’t know when we started our study in rural Michigan is that telehealth would become critical for keeping people safe during the pandemic.”

At a time when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has estimated a 3,000% increase in U.S. telehealth usage among Medicare recipients during the pandemic, the researchers wanted to track how rural Americans are continuing to use telehealth services, and whether the use of telehealth is a temporary development that will be less favored when in-person health care is fully available.

Trends identified in the survey

Using surveys of five Michigan counties, the new report identified several findings about telehealth usage. They include:

• The share of households that went online to interact with health care providers rose significantly, from 34% in 2019 to 54% of households in 2021.
• Adults aged 54 and younger, as well as households with children, were the most likely to interact with health care providers online.
• The most popular way to interact online with health care providers was via email, followed by interacting on the provider’s website, in video meetings, and through texting.
• Nearly 3 out of 10 households (29%) said that seeking health information online saved them trips to a health care provider’s office in the prior 12 months. On average, those households saved an average of 4.02 trips, for a total of 69,602 fewer visits over one year.
• In five counties surveyed, telehealth usage represented a savings of nearly $13.6 million in one year, simply for 15-minute visits to general practitioners.
• More than 2 out of 5 telehealth users (42%) started using telehealth tools less than 12 months ago. Three out of 10 (30%) said that concerns about COVID-19 had a major effect on their decision.

Patients were increasingly comfortable with telehealth

The study also found that those surveyed were increasingly comfortable with telehealth as time went on. The use of online provider services has traditionally raised some concerns, including data privacy, internet access, insurance coverage, and others. But the survey showed that the number of people expressing concern over those topics decreased over time.

Three-quarters of households in the survey (75%) say that in the next year, they plan to continue using telehealth applications as much as they do now. Another 6% say they plan to use telehealth applications more frequently.

At the same time, the survey also found that respondents were not ready to give up in-person health care—51% said they preferred in-person visits. Only 9% said they preferred telehealth visits, while 29% said they had no preference.

The report concluded by calling on policymakers to expand access to telehealth services and to continue to monitor its use.

“Overall, the study shows that telehealth saves patients significant time and money because they don’t have to travel, take off work, or pay for childcare so they can attend an in-person doctor’s visit,” said Chris McGovern, Director, Research Development, CN and CN Michigan. “We also found that among the biggest barriers for expanding telehealth is the need to expand high-speed internet service in rural areas while also lifting restrictions that limit doctors’ use of telemedicine.”