Virtual care replaces, not adds, Medicare visits for health systems, analysis shows

Telehealth replaces 74% of office visits, according to the operational analysis of telehealth utilization from 2019 to 2023, across nine health systems. This includes 7.2 million patients, 1.67 million of whom were Medicare beneficiaries.

The report includes 10 Medicare payment models, representing 30 states, plus Washington, D.C. The study was conducted by the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) Center of Digital Excellence (CODE).

The health systems analyzed were:

• Advocate Health
• Ballad Health
• Intermountain Healthcare
• Johns Hopkins Medicine
• MedStar Health
• OSF OnCall/OSF Healthcare
• Sanford Health
• UPMC
• WVU Medicine

“What makes this analysis meaningful is that it reflects how telehealth is actually embedded in day-to-day care—real workflows and patient encounters, not theoretical models,” Ethan Booker, M.D., FACEP, Chief Medical Officer for Telehealth at MedStar Health and Chair of the ATA Clinician Council’s Clinical Frameworks & Evidence subcommittee, said in a news release. “Even with millions more virtual visits and the increased access to care, billed encounters per patient have stayed essentially flat.”

The findings are especially relevant because they show that telehealth continues to be beneficial after the pandemic, the report authors note.

“This multi-system operational analysis is presented for technical discussion with federal analysts as an educational resource to inform federal policy discussions and budget modeling considerations. The participating health systems are not advocating for specific policy positions but rather sharing operational evidence to enhance the factual foundation for evidence-based telehealth policy development.”