Supplementing traditional in-person health care with virtual care can reduce total medical claims spend by between 2.3% and 3.1%, according to a recent study by the technology platform Solera Health and machine-learning company Health at Scale. This shift could result in annual cost savings of as much as $37 billion to more than $50 billion, based on Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services estimates of private insurer expenditures in 2022.

"In this analysis, we sought to understand the true potential of meaningful expansion of virtual care delivery across a broad set of conditions and at greater scale within the population," said Dr. Byron Crowe, chief medical officer at Solera. "Our findings clearly highlight that there is an enormous opportunity to improve outcomes and reduce costs by offering patients virtual care earlier and more often in the care journey."