America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) released the results of a survey of health insurance providers serving consumers in commercial, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid Managed Care programs regarding availability and landscape of virtual care programs, also called telehealth and telemedicine.
AHIP noted a growing number of insurance providers are offering virtual care services for patients and providers to assist in providing care delivery services to complex chronic care patients, rural patients, and patients with mobility issues. It’s also a medium that providers can use to oversee broader population health management.
The feedback AHIP received from respondents indicates that virtual care is here to stay. “The results were clear – virtual care is widely and readily available to most patients through their health plans,” AHIP said. However, although the option is there, most plans said it’s been difficult getting members on board to take advantage of the programs. Privacy issues are another concern.
“For certain conditions, virtual care is as effective as in-person visits with potential for cost savings, real benefits to provider efficiency, and better management of chronic conditions Health insurance providers recognize the value of virtual care for patients, including augmenting access, driving down costs and making care more convenient,” said the authors of the report. “Addressing challenges, such as patient engagement and the regulatory landscape, will be critical to maximizing the potential for virtual care as it is increasingly integrated into care delivery.”
Key takeaways from the survey:
· Health insurance providers are rapidly adopting virtual care.
· For nearly 100 percent of all plans surveyed, the importance of virtual care is increasing.
· The vast majority of commercial (94 percent) and Medicare Advantage plans (92 percent) are currently offering virtual care services and most Medicaid managed care plans (93 percent) are currently either offering or considering offering such services.
· Plans reported that these virtual care programs can be used for a variety of conditions and services, with acute care (non-emergency) and behavioral health care being among the most common types of care that respondents reported can be handled “virtually.”
· Improving patient outcomes and enhancing access to care are key reasons for virtual care adoption. Improving health outcomes, making care more convenient and overall increasing access to high quality care for patients are key drivers for the adoption of virtual care across commercial, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid managed care plans.
· Insurance providers noted that the ability to offer modern, innovative health benefits were high priorities when implementing virtual care options. However, some challenges to fully operationalizing virtual care still exist including patient engagement, technical execution, and regulation.
· Both commercial (87 percent) and Medicaid managed care plans (91 percent) reported that engaging patients to use virtual care was a key challenge toward full adoption and integration of these programs.
· Medicare Advantage plans identified key barriers to implementing the plans’ virtual care strategy (88 percent) and a regulatory landscape not conducive to offering virtual care services as a basic benefit (70 percent).
