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Ideas and Opinions |15 May 2018

The Effect of Telehealth on Spending: Thinking Through the Numbers

Adam M. Licurse, MD, MHS; Ateev Mehrotra, MD

Article, Author, and Disclosure Information
Author, Article, and Disclosure Information
This article was published at Annals.org on 10 April 2018.
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (A.M.L.)
    Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (A.M.)

    Disclosures: Authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest. Forms can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M17-3070.

    Requests for Single Reprints: Adam M. Licurse, MD, MHS, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115; e-mail, alicurse@bwh.harvard.edu.

    Current Author Addresses: Dr. Licurse: Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115.

    Dr. Mehrotra: Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, 180 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115.

    Author Contributions: Conception and design: A.M. Licurse, A. Mehrotra.

    Drafting of the article: A.M. Licurse.

    Critical revision for important intellectual content: A.M. Licurse, A. Mehrotra.

    Final approval of the article: A.M. Licurse, A. Mehrotra.

    Administrative, technical, or logistic support: A.M. Licurse, A. Mehrotra.

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FULL TEXT
Interest is growing in how telehealth, the provision of care through virtual and remote technologies, can improve access to care. Many pieces of legislation have been proposed to expand coverage for telehealth: In 2017 alone, more than 200 bills were pending in 40 state legislatures and Congress. A central question in the debate over these expansions is what effect telehealth will have on health care spending.
Media coverage and providers commonly tout reduced spending as one of telehealth's primary benefits (1). Because telehealth may be less expensive than equivalent in-person care, the argument is that substituting it for in-person care will decrease spending. However, the Congressional Budget Office and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission have expressed concern that expanded coverage for telehealth may actually increase spending by adding to the overall use of care (2, 3).
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Licurse AM, Mehrotra A. The Effect of Telehealth on Spending: Thinking Through the Numbers. Ann Intern Med. 2018;168:737–738. doi: 10.7326/M17-3070

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Published: Ann Intern Med. 2018;168(10):737-738.

DOI: 10.7326/M17-3070

Published at www.annals.org on 11 April 2018

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2018 American College of Physicians
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