Scholars looked at Predictors of Telehealth Use After MN Telehealth Act. They looked at who was using it and how that impacted in-person appointment and the impact of the in-person appointment versus online to patients. The Act extended coverage to telehealth but will be expiring in the next year…

We extend the analysis described in the preliminary report to the Minnesota Legislature for the Minnesota Telehealth Study. We used data from the Minnesota All Payer Claims Database (MN APCD) to examine predictors of telehealth use in 2022 – when health care use returned to pre-pandemic levels – among commercially insured and Medicare Advantage (MA) patients. By focusing on telehealth users or what predicted telehealth use in a period following the implementation of the Minnesota Telehealth Act and after the worst phase of the pandemic, we sought to provide policymakers with critical information on patient subgroups more likely to be affected by future telehealth policies. Also, for patient subgroups predicted to have a higher likelihood of telehealth use, we examined ambulatory care use to better understand telehealth use patterns, for instance, whether the proportion of telehealth visits differed based on potential underlying factors.

Here’s what they found…

In the absence of policies supporting greater audiovisual telehealth use or promoting access to in-person care, limiting access to audio-only telehealth could adversely affect high-need patients more than others. Further research is needed to understand how telehealth use affects outcomes among high-need patients and whether expanded access to telehealth comes at the expense of or enhances patient satisfaction and care quality.

Here’s a factor that speaker to the need for better ubiquitous broadband…

Convenience and widespread access to broadband internet are as important as higher health care need in driving use of telehealth services. If ease of access drives some telehealth use and telehealth is not a perfect substitute for in-person visits, the total number of ambulatory visits is likely to increase with expanded access to telehealth.