Telemedicine Offerings Vary Based on Physician Specialty and Age, Among Other Factors

Telemedicine Offerings Vary Based on Physician Specialty and Age, Among Other Factors

According to a recent study published in Health Affairs, telemedicine offerings vary widely based on unique circumstances and factors, such as the age of the physician providing the care and the practice area. According to the report, which was written based on Medicare fee-for-service data from 2022, telemedicine varied depending on the region of the country, with higher rates of telemedicine usage in the northeast and western parts of the country.

One finding of the report is that female physicians were “significantly more likely” to allow for telemedicine visits once adjustments were made for specialty and practice differences.  The study further found that female physicians over age 66 provided nearly twice the share of their visits by telehealth, when compared to younger male physicians between the ages of 20 to 39. The reason behind this is unknown, but it is theorized that the reason is related to the fact that female physicians may tend to have greater family responsibilities when compared to male physicians. Additionally, while older physicians tended to allow for telemedicine more often than younger counterparts, no appreciable difference existed once adjustments were made for specialty and practice area.

As alluded to above, telemedicine usage varied widely based on the service provided. Telemedicine claims made up 46.3% of psychiatrists total claims, compared to only 7.4% of primary care physician visits. In the research, psychiatrists led the telemedicine charge, with nearly one quarter of psychiatrists using telemedicine, followed by neurologists and infectious disease doctors. Dermatologists and ophthalmologists were the specialists that were least likely to use telemedicine in their practice.

Interestingly, the study also found that rural areas offered less telemedicine care. Physicians in nonrural/metropolitan areas held about 8.3% of their services through telemedicine, compared to only 5.3% of providers in rural areas. The authors of the study emphasized the importance of using telemedicine to reduce barriers to care for patients in those rural areas (and others) where there tends to be a shortage of physicians and health care providers.

When it comes to the medical complexity of the cases seen by telemedicine, primary care physicians who made greater use of telemedicine in their practice often saw more patients who were medically and socially complex via telemedicine while psychiatrists had the opposite results.

“Determining how physician and practice characteristics influence telehealth uptake is important for understanding how telehealth may affect health care access and patient outcomes,” the report concluded. “These trends require ongoing attention as policy makers consider the future of telehealth policy in the U.S.”

age influencefemale physiciansHealth Affairs studyhealthcare accessMedicare dataNEWpatient outcomespsychiatrists telemedicine usageregional variationsrural healthcarespecialty differencestelehealth policyTelemedicine
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