Telehealth Visit Volumes Drop 37% Since Peak Usage During Pandemic

Telehealth usage has dropped significantly since its peak during the pandemic, with visit volumes falling 37 percent from 73.7 million in the second quarter of 2020 to 46.4 million in the first quarter of 2022, according to a new report by market research firm Trilliant Health.

Further, telehealth's popularity among patients appears to be waning. Less than half (48.7 percent) of patients who used telehealth in 2021 did so once, and only 6 percent used the care modality five to six times last year.

This data "suggests that expanded availability of virtual care options has not had a widespread impact on consumer preferences," said Sanjula Jain, PhD, senior vice president of market strategy and chief research officer at Trilliant Health, in an email.

The report primarily analyzes Trilliant Health's national all-payer claims dataset, which includes commercial, Medicare Advantage, traditional Medicare, and Medicaid claims for more than 300 million Americans on a deidentified basis. Additional data analyzed was obtained from various sources, including hospital and health system financial statements and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Though the overall shifts in telehealth use indicate a move back to in-person care, certain sub-groups continue to flock to telehealth.

Telehealth continues to be widely used to access behavioral healthcare services, the report shows. In Q1 2019, 32.4 percent of all telehealth visits were related to behavioral healthcare. That figure spiked to 59.9 percent by Q1 2022.

For providers, "behavioral health presents the greatest opportunity, and deploying virtual behavioral health services can be a good way to reach broader populations, engage existing customers while bringing in new ones, and provide new revenue opportunities via engagement in other care services," Jain said.

In addition, telehealth-enabled prescribing is on the rise, according to the report. Around 35 percent of antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs were prescribed via telehealth in 2020 and 2021, compared to 1 percent in 2019.

In terms of demographics, telehealth use has seen several fluctuations. There was a 3.4 percent drop in telehealth use among women and an 11.2 percent decline among men between January 2021 and March 2022, compared to the same period the year prior.

Similarly, the report shows a 27.9 percent decrease in telehealth use within the 65 and over age group and a 27.3 percent drop among Medicare patients from January 2020-March 2021 to January 2021-March 2022. Telehealth use only increased within the 18-64 age group.

These changes in telehealth use are significant for providers and payers. Telehealth may not offer the same benefits for providers as it once did during the pandemic, particularly within the urgent and primary care arenas, while payers should take note of changing demographic preferences when creating virtual-first health plans, according to Jain.

"[Payers] must be cognizant of the target demographics that are using telehealth and have tailored communications strategies to reach them most effectively," she said. "Because telehealth volumes have declined in most (95 percent) markets nationwide, knowing and catering to your members, their preferences, and how they prefer to engage is even more critical."

As providers and payers consider how best to integrate virtual care into their service offerings, recent research has highlighted some clinical areas that could benefit from telehealth access.

For instance, a recent study shows that telehealth services reduced the odds of a no-show among two-thirds of surgical patients.

Another study revealed that the expansion of telehealth use during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a reduction in the odds of medically treated overdoses.