Telemedicine use up 1,400% since 2014

A White Paper published by FAIR Health reports on how telehealth is affecting the health landscape – and what an impact it has had! The adoption and use of telehealth has skyrocketed by 1400% in just four years.

The measurement

This radical increase is from insurance claims for non-hospital-based provider-to-patient telehealth, according to a white paper published this month by FAIR Health. The data is a count of telehealth visits – primarily, patients consult with doctors via video chat allowing for last minute concerns without going to the hospital, follow-up visits, and consults between clinicians.

Digging deeper

• Urban areas reigned – telehealth claim lines increased 1,227% from 0.01% to 0.13% of all urban medical claim lines; rural areas’ usage increased by 897% (from 0.01% to 0.05%) of all rural medical claim lines
• Females represented 65% of all telehealth claims and 53% of claim lines were submitted for females for telehealth visits associated with a hospital discharge
• Heart failure was the.telehealth diagnosis with the highest rate of patients who had an in-person visit within 15 days of a non-hospital-based provider-to-patient telehealth visit for the same or a very similar diagnosis
• Acute upper respiratory infections were the #1 reason individuals sought telehealth treatment from a provider (non-hospital)
• 31-40 year olds accounted for 21% of the distribution of all telehealth claim lines
• 23-30 year olds were 23% of patients (largest share!) who had an in-person visit for the same or a very similar diagnosis within 15 days of a non-hospital-based provider-to-patient telehealth visit for alcohol-related disorders

Read more

Learn more about the fascinating increase in telehealth use in the U.S. – click here.