Patients mostly use telehealth for prescription renewals, follow-ups

Patients are primarily using telehealth for prescription renewals and follow-up visits, with a majority agreeing that the integration of virtual care is changing the healthcare system for the better, according to new survey results.

Commissioned by Elevance Health and conducted by research firm Suzy, the survey polled 2,000 United States adults in July 2023.

The survey shows that most US adults find virtual care useful and plan to continue using it. A majority (90 percent) agree that virtual care offers access for those unable to participate in in-person care, and 73 percent said they would recommend virtual care to their family and friends.

Most (81 percent) also agree that the healthcare system is changing for the better with the inclusion of virtual care.

US adults are mostly turning to virtual care for prescription renewals (71 percent), follow-up visits (62 percent), and wellness visits (51 percent), the survey shows.

Further, the survey sheds light on US adults’ satisfaction with various virtual care modalities. A majority of survey respondents (72 percent) said they were satisfied with their audio-only telehealth experience, followed by satisfaction with video visits (54 percent), texting (48 percent), and in-app chats (46 percent).

“The pandemic acted as a catalyst, propelling virtual care to the forefront of healthcare delivery,” said Anil Bhatt, global chief information officer at Elevance Health, in a press release. “Virtual care persists as an integral part of healthcare, demonstrating how technology has reshaped healthcare delivery. We’re seeing this at Elevance Health, where more than 800,000 virtual visits occurred in 2023. Telehealth continues to gain traction, indicating that consumers are continuing to embrace virtual visits as part of their healthcare.”

However, there is some apprehension regarding the efficacy of telehealth. About 62 percent of survey respondents said they were concerned that virtual visits do not allow for physical examinations, and 40 percent noted the potential for delays or missed diagnoses with virtual care.

US adults also emphasized the need for virtual care integration, with 83 percent of survey respondents saying it’s essential for their virtual care services to be integrated in a way that all their healthcare providers, including primary care, specialty, and virtual care providers, have access to the same information.

The survey comes as healthcare stakeholders strive to better understand telehealth use and adoption patterns.

For instance, federal data published last month revealed that primary care physicians and medical specialists said they could provide similar quality of care via telehealth and in person, making them more likely to be satisfied with telehealth technology than surgical specialists.

The data, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), comprises survey responses from 10,302 US physicians.

Though telehealth use has decreased overall among US physicians, most primary care and specialty physicians were satisfied with telehealth technology and care quality.

The survey showed that 65.5 percent of primary care physicians and 63.6 percent of medical specialists said they were satisfied with telehealth technology, compared with only 49.5 percent of surgical specialists.

Similarly, nearly 77 percent of primary care physicians and 73.1 percent of medical specialists said that the quality of care they could provide during telehealth and in-person visits was similar “to some or a great extent.” In comparison, only half of surgical specialists (50.6 percent) said the same.

Even in the telemental healthcare arena, utilization patterns for virtual care modalities varied widely.  

A study published in February 2024 assessed trends in psychological distress and outpatient mental healthcare among US adults between 2018 and 2021. It found that video visit usage was higher for younger adults than for middle-aged or older adults, women than men, and college graduates than adults without a high school diploma. Further, higher-income, employed, privately insured, and urban US adults were more likely to engage in video visits than their respective counterparts.