Telehealth Industry is Moving to A "Digital Front Door"

Parks Associates Quantified Consumer Study, Telehealth & Remote Patient Monitoring: User Experience , provides trending data on consumer familiarity, use, and demand for telehealth services and connected health devices. The research study includes an online survey of 10,000 internet households in the US. It evaluates user experience with telehealth services and investigates consumer appetite for virtual care as a standard offering, outside of crisis conditions. Below is a summary of the research, with the full study addressing the questions

1. How has consumer familiarity and use of telehealth evolved?
2. What channels are consumers using for telehealth visits?
3. What is the current state of the remote patient monitoring market?
4. How have barriers to telehealth use changed among US internet households?
5. How will consumer demand and interest in remote care change once the pandemic pressures have disappeared?

The telehealth industry is moving towards a digital front door, with widespread launches of virtual primary care services. The advent of virtual primary care and virtual-first integrated care models likewise stand to revolutionize the ways in which patients receive care. These emerging models of care delivery make use of the efficiencies of telehealth and health device data collection, reducing burdens on both patients and care providers, and producing improved care outcomes relative to traditional in-person care delivery.

Top insurers including UnitedHealthGroup, Humana, Aetna, and others are launching these new telehealth-first plans to their member bases. Top telehealth companies including Doctor On Demand, Teladoc, AmWell, PlushCare, and others are entering this market. Amazon has launched its Amazon Care service, acquiring One Medical in a $4B deal to boost its primary care and subscription capabilities.

Companies are increasingly offering not just primary care, but integrative care with the virtual experience at its core. This includes chronic condition management, mental health, dermatology, and specialist referrals and visits. Connected health devices play a key role in this transformation, offering clinicians insights into patients’ health status that they cannot discover by questionnaires or conversations alone.

With increased burnout among care providers and an ongoing shortage of care professionals, solutions to fill the gap and reduce workload are highly valuable to the care system.

Telehealth adoption has stabilized at majority adoption.

Drivers and barriers to telehealth usage have changed, with fewer patients reporting that their care providers would only see them virtually or that they wished to avoid disease exposure. Convenience is once again the primary driver for virtual care.

• 55% of US internet households report using telehealth in the past 12 months, down from 64% in 2021.
• The primary barriers to telehealth adoption are a preference for in-person diagnosis and treatment; consumers no longer cite lack of need, the leading barrier pre-2021.

Two-thirds of consumers are familiar with telehealth and what it offers. Continuing to refine experiences, improve capabilities, and ease of use will be key to retaining users and expanding programs.

This study provides trending data on consumer familiarity, use, and demand for telehealth services and connected health devices. It evaluates user experience with telehealth services and investigates consumer appetite for virtual care as a standard offering, outside of crisis conditions.

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