Profitable or Not, Cost Savings May Demonstrate Value in Virtual Care

One of the business arguments against telehealth is that no one has demonstrated it has strong revenue-building capabilities, to date. That’s still the case, but Intermountain Healthcare has quantified that cost savings can be realized with virtual medicine rooted in urgent care. As detailed in an article recently published on HealthLeaders, the average total cost of virtual care for a specified selection of presentations was $429, compared with $661 for on-site visits. (Compare both with $707 for traditional primary visits and $3,403 for emergency room visits for the same complaints.) The essential decision, according to Intermountain, is to define which conditions can be treated safely and effectively by virtual means. Their study reflected claims data for diagnosis of sinusitis, conjunctivitis, urinary tract infection, upper respiratory infection, influenza/pneumonia, bronchitis, dermatitis/eczema, ear pain, digestive symptoms, and cough between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017. While those were the primary measures, the study also showed no no differences in follow-up rates between virtual and urgent care, and no significant difference in the use of antibiotics in virtual care vs urgent care and PCPs.