investigation Have show Most healthcare providers believe telehealth will remain at pandemic levels or even increase. But telehealth usage has since declined, and while still above pre-pandemic levels, it has fallen short of those expectations. Teladoc, along with other large telehealth providers, has faced challenges over the past few weeks after revenue results reflected those trends. Competition, market saturation, and increased consumer openness to seeing a doctor again in person were cited as factors.
Now, we’re seeing a lot of questions about the staying power of post-pandemic telehealth. We’re also looking more closely at the model most of the largest telehealth companies are using — companies that primarily facilitate concierge medical and acute care services. Is virtual care sustainable in the post-pandemic era?
These are the wrong questions if we’re trying to understand the future impact of telehealth. During the telehealth boom, we focused on urgent care virtual visits, primary care, and transitional care. As we have experienced during the pandemic, telehealth is about expanding care geographically and/or providing care that does not require diagnosis, labs, and physical contact. This approach primarily supports the types of care that can be provided intermittently or intermittently, such as fever, rash, flu, allergy, and other similar episodes, most of which are intermittent and lack high utilization. Chronic diseases, on the other hand, require continuous engagement and high utilization, but require multiple touchpoints and in-depth data.
In fact, 85% of our health care costs are attributable to chronic conditions, where continuous care delivery combined with deeper insights is necessary to improve outcomes. Those who make up 15% of these costs need a different type of telehealth—one that helps improve care coordination and continuity of care. Whereas telemedicine today focuses on two use cases, episodic or emergency. Increasing long-term care will not only increase telehealth, but increase utilization.
We know the continuum of care positive Influence Healthcare outcomes (readmissions) and activation/engagement, especially for chronically ill patients.If telehealth can act as a bridge that keeps patients connected to providers, it can help improve management And provide important health education. Combining with diagnostics, laboratory data and various touchpoints along the chronic patient journey will provide on-site and remote care teams with deeper insights that drive better outcomes and utilization. This will improve patient satisfaction and outcomes while improving medical conditions. Connecting patients with long-term providers or care teams ensures ongoing relationships, management, and ideally prevention. We need to move the needle far enough forward for disease prevention, not just better management.
What does this mean for telehealth strategies? Well, telehealth companies don’t really need a post-pandemic strategy. What these companies need is a better understanding of the best use cases for telehealth visits — complex chronic conditions and other healthcare issues that really benefit from continued provider access. Instead, telehealth companies are working on only one part of the patient journey to address healthcare challenges that arise at multiple different points. They are not built to provide services throughout the patient journey (diagnosis, treatment, management and maintenance).
Yes – the ability to view providers from your phone anytime, anywhere is incredible. But virtual concierge medicine is not going to change the healthcare outcomes/challenges we most need to address. And, as we’ve seen, there are no utilization or retention rates for services for individuals with chronic conditions who need continuous access to care the most. Many of the people who will benefit most from telehealth have not yet been able to test its potential.
Telemedicine will continue to grow if telemedicine is most useful for patients who need frequent checkups: people at risk for or diagnosed with chronic disease. Provided, of course, that telehealth service providers can integrate or support the entire patient journey spanning diagnosis, treatment, management and maintenance. Telehealth as part of digital health can help transform healthcare, but on its own it is only one part of the patient care journey.
Ultimately, the promise of telehealth is made without understanding how to address healthcare’s biggest challenges. If telehealth only solves 20% of problems, it won’t revolutionize healthcare. But when we start to address these issues and build solutions that can integrate whole-person care (digital health), it will start to decrease by 80%, and then we will start to see a real shift. Predicting telehealth use based on these two very different groups does not work. We haven’t really seen how telemedicine will be applied to the latter case, and it will be a game changer.
One thing is clear: We should not aim to return to pre-pandemic normalcy. Even as telehealth usage declines and most people ultimately prefer in-person care, conversations about the impact of telehealth on supporting individuals with chronic conditions, underserved communities, and others who struggle to access care will continue. Telehealth can help, but it’s not alone.
Photo: Nuthaut Somsuk, Getty Images
