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Only 15% of family practitioners use telehealth
Family physicians’ use of telehealth is limited, and many of the barriers are amenable to policy modification, according to research recently published in The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
“While evidence does show that advances have been made in the use of telehealth in primary care settings, little is known about the penetration of the use of various telehealth methods, that is, store and forward vs. live interactive video; the characteristics of the users vs. the nonusers; or the factors associated with identified barriers to use,” Miranda A. Moore, PhD, department of family and preventive medicine, Emory University, and colleagues wrote.
To glean more data, Moore and colleagues examined responses from 1,557 surveys completed by family practitioners and found that 15% of the respondents used telehealth in 2014. Of those, 22% used it one or two times, and 26% used it three or four times. After controlling for the characteristics of the physicians and their practice, researchers found that family practitioners based in a rural setting, who worked in a practice owned by an integrated health system or other ownership structure, and who provided hospital/urgent/emergency care were more likely to use telehealth. In addition, 48.7% of telehealth usage involved real-time interactive video, 30.7% used store-and-forward image or text transmission, and 10.8% used shared computer screen images with audio.
“Family physicians have a long way to go to catch up with other subspecialties that are adopting telehealth services such as dermatology and ophthalmology,” Moore told Healio Family Medicine.
She addressed the obstacles cited by the survey’s respondents.
“Family physicians can work towards overcoming the barriers of payment and legal environment by joining advocacy efforts that are being led by professional groups such as the [AAFP],” she said in the interview. “Specifically, AAFP provides templates for letters to congressmen to request changes in how Medicare defines and reimburses telemedicine. In terms of training, family medicine residency programs need to increase the use of telehealth services by their residents and include instructional information on telehealth services in their resident curriculum.”
Moore had a message for those medical professionals who don’t see the advantages that telehealth provides.
“Telehealth services provide substantial benefits to patients in terms of savings from reduced travel costs, reduced waiting time, and reduced time away from their employment. Additionally, the majority of patients are satisfied with the telehealth services they have used,” she told Healio Family Medicine. “As patients demand more telehealth services, health care professionals who do not offer these services may be in danger of losing patients and being left behind more technologically advanced practices.”
The potential for providers to lose patients if they do not stay up-to-date with technology was also raised by Judd Hollander, MD, at this year’s ACP Internal Medicine Meeting.
A bill introduced in Congress earlier this year — CONNECT for Health Act of 2017 — seeks to expand telehealth services in Medicare, improve care outcomes, make it easier for patients to connect with their health care providers, and help cut costs for patients and providers, according to a release put out by one of the bill’s legislative sponsors.
The bill has the support of more than 50 organizations, including AMA, the American Heart Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Osteopathic Association and the American Society of Nephrology. The legislation is currently before the Senate Finance Committee. – by Janel Miller
References/Further reading:
S. 1016 - Connect for Health Act of 2017
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.