Telehealth Utilization Increases Nationally
According to FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, telehealth has increased usage in the U.S. healthcare market. The tracker is based on the most recent monthly data and four U.S. census regions: West, South, Northeast, and the Midwest. The data provided is identified as the top five diagnoses; top five diagnoses via asynchronous telehealth; audio-only telehealth usage, urban vs rural; percent of medical claim lines; and telehealth cost corner. Based on recent data from the privately insured population including Medicare Advantage, the largest increase in telehealth claim line volume occurred in the West, while the Midwest had the lowest increase.
Although mental health conditions remain at the top of the leading diagnoses, there was a noticeable decrease in mental health telehealth claim lines in all four regions. Following mental health conditions, acute respiratory diseases and infections diagnoses remained second. Its share of claim lines accelerated in all regions. A surplus number of COVID-19 cases re-entered the rankings in the Midwest and Northeast. The southern region showed an influx of diabetes mellitus and hypertension diagnoses.
On a nationwide level, the top five diagnoses via asynchronous telehealth are hypertension, mental health conditions, diabetes mellitus, urinary tract infections, and acute respiratory diseases and infections. Hypertension trends first in all regions but the South, where it ranked second. Most of these asynchronous telehealth claim lines showed a decline, while acute respiratory diseases and infections rose during the fall season.
There is an evident generational gap when it comes to appointment scheduling and navigating telehealth services. Millennials tend to be more satisfied while baby boomers have experienced lower levels of satisfaction utilizing virtual care.
Telehealth has increased on a national level in every region, except the Southern region, which showed a higher usage of telemedicine in rural areas. However, research has shown that telemedicine services are being billed at a lower level of service than in-person office visits performing the same encounter, while offering the ease of performing the virtual visit anywhere. This, despite providers’ ability to be reimbursed at a higher facility rate.
