Before 2024 ends, Congress will decide whether to keep or change rules about telehealth, or let them expire. And even though the decision will focus on Medicare's payment for virtual patient care, it will likely impact telehealth access for people with other kinds of health insurance too.
Now, a new University of Michigan study suggests that policymakers can rest easier about one of the top worries about telehealth: that virtual care will drive up the use of tests and scans that patients don't need, wasting money and resources.
In fact, the study shows that low-value care didn't rise faster at primary care practices that used telehealth the most , compared with those that used it the least.
And in some cases, the high-telehealth-use practices saw a faster drop in low-value care.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, focuses on eight low-value tests, scans and procedures that experts agree aren't needed in certain groups of patients. This included blood tests to screen for prostate cancer risk in men over age 75, CT scans for people with uncomplicated sinus infections or back pain, Pap smears to look for early signs of cervical cancer in women over age 65, and colon cancer screening in people over age 85.
While some have worried that such low-value care might rise when physicians and other providers see more patients virtually and can't conduct physical exams, the study showed this did not happen.
"Our findings are reassuring in the context of current telehealth policy decisions, because there has been concern that telehealth might be increasing access to care to a degree that leads to unnecessary visits and wasteful screening or diagnostic testing ,' said lead author Terrence Liu, M.D., M.S. , a primary care physician in the Division of General Medicine at U-M Health and National Clinician Scholar at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation .
