• J Scott Ashwood, Ateev Mehrotra, David Cowling, and Lori Uscher-Pines.
• J. Scott Ashwood (ashwood@rand.org) is an associate policy researcher at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California.
• Health Aff (Millwood). 2017 Mar 1; 36 (3): 485-491.

AbstractThe use of direct-to-consumer telehealth, in which a patient has access to a physician via telephone or videoconferencing, is growing rapidly. A key attraction of this type of telehealth for health plans and employers is the potential savings involved in replacing physician office and emergency department visits with less expensive virtual visits. However, increased convenience may tap into unmet demand for health care, and new utilization may increase overall health care spending. We used commercial claims data on over 300,000 patients from three years (2011-13) to explore patterns of utilization and spending for acute respiratory illnesses. We estimated that 12 percent of direct-to-consumer telehealth visits replaced visits to other providers, and 88 percent represented new utilization. Net annual spending on acute respiratory illness increased $45 per telehealth user. Direct-to-consumer telehealth may increase access by making care more convenient for certain patients, but it may also increase utilization and health care spending.Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

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