The new face of healthcare lies in the virtual visit — here’s how providers are adapting

Since last year’s open enrollment season, the COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the face of healthcare. Perhaps the most palpable aspect of this unexpected revolution has been an enormous surge in virtual doctor visits, which are conducted via the same online video interfaces that are popular for work meetings and social hangouts.

Convenient, quick and safe, it looks like the “virtual visit” is here to stay. How might this new telehealth landscape impact your choice of Medicare Advantage plans as we head into 2021?

In March, the Trump administration urged patients and providers alike to embrace telehealth as a weapon against the spread of the coronavirus. That same month, telehealth visits surged by 50%, according to consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. By April, some analysts were predicting that U.S. virtual healthcare interactions would top 1 billion in 2020.

This massive uptick in demand for virtual doctor visits has resulted in what will likely be one of the lingering silver linings of the COVID-19 crisis: more convenient and ultimately more affordable healthcare as a result of increasingly comprehensive and flexible telehealth services.

“One thing that we’ve learned through this COVID-19 crisis is that the scope of things that can be effectively and safely and comprehensively treated via telehealth is much broader than we initially thought,” said David Kim, M.D., Chief Executive for Anaheim’s St. Joseph Heritage Healthcare, part of the Providence Health system in Southern California.

Telehealth is no longer limited to just verbal interactions with physicians. Hypertension patients can enter their blood pressure readings online and then discuss these with a doctor remotely. A 2018 study conducted by the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital suggested that follow-up visits conducted virtually are equally effective inmaintaining blood pressure control as those conducted in person.

Thanks to high-resolution camera technology in our laptops and phones, physicians can also accurately and appropriately diagnose minor skin conditions like rashes and blisters online. And, as remote monitoring technology like blood oxygen monitoring or ECG tests become more common, the scope of diagnoses that doctors can offer will only expand.

Telehealth also allows physicians to effectively triage patients remotely, which reduces unnecessary emergency room and doctor visits. This will not only save patients the cost, inconvenience and risk of traveling for face-to-face interactions but should also, over time, reduce both the costs of delivering healthcare and insurance premiums.

“So now if I hire 20 doctors, but I can do telehealth, I don’t necessarily need all of them in a building with three exam rooms each,” Kim explained. “Now I can have people work from home, if they have secure offices. Now the staffing and the resourcing…is more flexible and probably more value-oriented.”

California Medicare beneficiaries will find no cost differential between virtual visits and in-person provider interactions. Even before the pandemic, Governor Newsom signed into law AB 744, which requires telehealth services to be reimbursed by insurers at the same level as in-person visits.

And California law already prohibited payers from requiring face-to-face contact between a provider and patient before reimbursing for telehealth.

“The insurance plans are seeing the value of it as much, if not more so, than the doctors and the patients,” said Kim.

Far from making the healthcare experience more impersonal, virtual visits can in fact make it easier for patients to maintain a regular relationship with a particular physician with whom they feel comfortable.

“That’s a huge value prop in this type of technology,” said Kim. “That you now have access to the physician in a way that makes it much easier for the physician and for you to maintain and continue and strengthen that relationship.”

All signs indicate that telehealth will continue to significantly augment in-person healthcare, even after the pandemic. Kim predicted that “at least on the primary care side, you’re going to see anywhere from 20 to 30% of visits continue to be telehealth.”

So during open enrollment it’s important to consider which networks offer robust telehealth services. Because as of January this year, only 24% of U.S. healthcare organizations had an existing virtual care program, according to Forrester. Is a particular physician or facility supported by a network that is sufficiently resourced and sophisticated to deliver a seamless virtual visit experience?

“On the primary care side, you’re going to see anywhere from 20 to 30% of visits continue to be telehealth.”

— David Kim, M.D.

For example, St. Joseph Heritage Healthcare — part of the long-established, multi-state Providence system — had the capability to scale up from just 10 to 20 televisits per day at its Southern California locations in early March, to a staggering 12,000 per day by early May, according to Kim.

And even though the virtual world is able to connect anyone, anywhere, most patients find sticking close to their own doctor and their coverage provider comforting.

“It’s not just about the doctor that you pick,” Kim said. “It’s about the system that they are a part of.”

– Paul Rogers
Custom Publishing Writer