E-visits for non-urgent care gain ground

Health Management Technology, April, 2004

Online communication among patients and their physicians can reduce the cost of care and help physicians use office time more efficiently. So says recent research by Stanford University and UC Berkley. Researchers evaluated Emeryville, Calif.-based RelayHealth's webVisit online communication service for satisfaction among physicians and patients.

The research involved claims data for 5,727 patients (2,345 in a treatment group and 3,382 in a control group). It found that medical office-based claims were lower by $1.92 per member per month, and that total healthcare claims were reduced by more than $3 per member per month for those with access to the RelayHealth service.

"The results, based on analysis of over 110,000 patient-months of claims data, demonstrated statistically significant reductions in healthcare spending. In our preliminary analysis we saw evidence of a reduction in spending, particularly spending in doctors' office settings," said Laurence Baker, Ph.D., the Stanford-based researcher who led the team analyzing the study data.

Physicians and patients surveyed reported high levels of satisfaction and expressed a shared preference for this mode of communication for non-urgent health matters. Most of the physicians surveyed found the methodology easy to use (72 percent) and easy to integrate into their practices (55 percent). A substantial majority of patients rated the service favorably compared to a phone call or office visit, both in terms of convenience and quality. More than two-thirds of these patients reported an improvement in access to their own physicians.

While an increasing number of consumers appear to prefer online communication for non-urgent matters, most physicians remain concerned over the lack of reimbursement for e-visits. As such, they are reluctant to adopt such measures unless they receive payment for their time, according to the survey. Three-quarters of responding physicians said reimbursement was an important motivator in deciding whether to communicate online with patients. Study participants Blue Shield of California and ConnectiCare have announced plans to expand reimbursement within their respective health plans, based on the strength of these results.