Chronic Care Patients 88% More Likely to Use Telehealth Than Their Peers

Research from athenahealth shows that despite a decrease in pandemic-related restrictions, telehealth continues to improve care delivery by helping to fill care gaps and providing various benefits aside from solely replacing in-person visits.

athenahealth conducted a survey that gathered information regarding telehealth use and patient demographics. The survey, fielded by Dynata, polled 2,000 US adults between Jan. 1, 2019, and April 30, 2022.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many providers turned to telehealth amid in-person care restrictions. The survey notes that virtual visits accounted for approximately 12.1 percent of all visits during spring 2020.

Although that figure dropped to 8.9 percent in the first half of 2022, the research indicates that telehealth has enhanced care access and emerged as a reliable mode of treatment delivery.

The survey shows that 24 percent of respondents used telehealth due to the absence of an in-person visit requirement.

Further, patients with chronic conditions were 88 percent more likely to adopt telehealth than non-chronic patients in 2022. About 23 percent said their visits were regular check-ins for chronic conditions, and 9 percent said they used telehealth for ad hoc check-ins related to chronic conditions.

Survey responses also provided information regarding how telehealth use correlates with patient gender and race. Male patients had a 15 percent lower telehealth use rate compared to female patients. Also, patients who worked with a single male provider were 60 percent less likely to use telehealth compared to those who received care from a female provider.

The survey also reveals that although Black and Hispanic patients had a high likelihood of using telehealth, they were less likely to receive care from a single provider.

“Beyond gender, the data painted a very surprising and nuanced picture of how telehealth is addressing racial health equity. Black and Hispanic patients are using telehealth more often, but they’re not using it the same way white patients are. When white patients leverage telehealth, it’s more often in the context of a continuous relationship with a single provider,” said Jessica Sweeney-Platt, vice president of research and editorial strategy at athenahealth, in an email.

Patients with mental health conditions benefit highly from telehealth services, according to the survey. About 25 percent of respondents said they scheduled a telehealth visit for mental health conditions, of which 23 percent stated they would continue to obtain care through virtual services.

Sweeney-Platt believes this number shows potential, as it may indicate that telehealth makes it easier to obtain mental healthcare services.

Overall, the survey shows that telehealth can successfully be used as a complement to in-person care. 

“Telehealth has become a key tool that is now engrained across the healthcare continuum. It will never replace in-person care, but rather it will continue to be an extension of in-person care and help healthcare providers maintain and enhance the ever-evolving patient-provider relationship,” said Sweeney-Platt.

Various research efforts from the past months have indicated that telehealth can be highly beneficial for various populations.

A study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine in June found that patient characteristics such as race, insurance status, and residency location all impacted the extent to which patients used telehealth. This led researchers to conclude that reviewing this data is necessary when deploying telehealth intervention methods.