Report: Telehealth declines, whereas business faces stress from retail entrants

Although telehealth utilization has declined from pandemic highs, the forces of consumerization and stress from new retail entrants may have a rising impression on the healthcare business, in line with a report by Trilliant Well being. 

The 2022 Traits Shaping the Well being Financial system evaluation discovered telehealth volumes peaked at 73.7 million visits within the second quarter of 2020, whereas visits through the first quarter this yr reached 46.4 million.

In the meantime, almost half of telehealth sufferers solely had one go to in 2021. About 80% of sufferers had between one and 4 visits final yr. Behavioral well being continues to be a major use case for telehealth, making up almost 60% of visits throughout Q1 2022. As compared, greater than 32% of telehealth visits have been for behavioral well being causes through the first quarter in 2019.

Prescribing through telehealth has additionally grown in contrast with the pre-pandemic period. In accordance with the report, about 35% of antidepressants and anti-anxiety medicines have been related to a telehealth go to in 2021 and 2020, in contrast with just one% in 2019.

Simply over 28% of thyroid agent prescriptions have been enabled by telehealth in 2021, in contrast with greater than 31% in 2020 and simply 0.5% in 2019. Greater than 1 / 4 of statins have been prescribed through telehealth final yr, in contrast with 0.4% in 2019.

Although telehealth use has declined from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report notes conventional suppliers are dealing with elevated competitors from newer entrants, like CVS Well being, Walgreens, Walmart and Amazon.

As sufferers with greater deductibles are on the hook for a bigger portion of their healthcare prices, these retail gamers may present extra engaging choices, significantly for low-acuity providers. For instance, the report discovered a lipid panel would price $37 at CVS, $35 at Walgreens, $10 at Walmart and $102 at an pressing care middle.

Walmart has an enormous bodily presence within the U.S., together with in underserved and rural areas. Although Amazon revealed its plans to close down its Amazon Care service this yr, the report famous many markets overlapped between the service and One Medical, which the tech and retail big has just lately signed an settlement to accumulate.

“For many years, commercially insured sufferers have been the lifeblood of the well being financial system, and the secular decline within the share of that group is detrimental for each well being financial system stakeholder. Moreover, People have been sluggish to return to major care and preventive screenings post-pandemic, and plenty of of those that have returned are selecting pressing care and retail clinics in lieu of conventional major care suppliers,” Trilliant Well being CEO Hal Andrews stated in an announcement. “As main retailers and payers start to commoditize low-acuity providers and the Congressional Finances Workplace analyzes the impact of worth caps on medical reimbursement, the enterprise mannequin of each well being financial system stakeholder is pressured.”