Telehealth In Acute Care Settings: A Cost-Benefit Study

By Megan Williams, contributing writer

As innovation in the telehealth space continues, the question of cost and benefit is beginning to arise more frequently. It will be a primary concern for your clients, and one that you should be able to address competently.

Dale H. Yamamoto has asked this exact question in the acute care space and examines the ROI of telehealth in this study.

The study states that it set out to answer the following questions:

• What is the annual use frequency of telehealth services?
• What types of conditions are being treated in the commercial market?Megan Williams
• Where would patients have gone for treatment if telehealth services were not an option?
• What is the estimated cost of in-person care?
• Would Medicare see savings if telehealth services were substituted for in-person care where appropriate?
• What are the costs associated with follow-up care for those patients who are not able to resolve their issues during the initial, telehealth visit?

Highlights
The study highlighted the difference in estimated cost between a telehealth visit and an average, in-person visit for acute care, at a difference of between $40 and $50 and $136 to $176 respectively, with the average number of yearly telehealth visits per patient coming in at 1.3.

The most common diagnoses made were sinusitis, cold/flu/pertussis, and urinary tract infections. Resolution of the patient issue during the visit occurred in 83 percent of the cases studied.

The study highlights the fact that telehealth visits stand to save around $126 per session. Savings could still be realized, even in an environment where Medicare reimburses telehealth sessions at the same rate as in-person care, and that it is even in the program’s best interest to encourage a telehealth alternative (when appropriate) to realize an approximate savings of $45 per visit.

Pages 6-11 offer a breakdown of cost and cost savings, with an analysis that highlights the break even point where telehealth visit cost is the same as an in-person visit. It also pays particular attention to analysis of the costs of patients whose cases were not resolved during the telehealth visit, comparing both commercial and Medicare alternatives.

Beyond Cost
While your clients will be very interested in potential cost savings, they will also likely be interested in how offering a telehealth option can change patient utilization habits. The study found that telehealth options were used at roughly the same rate (between 13 and 16 percent) across the entire week, as opposed to in-person options that are usually heavily concentrated on weekdays.

Telehealth is also making some fascinating inroads into the ICU. To read more on that topic, read our article “Where Are The VAR Opportunities In eICUs?”