Association Between Telehealth Use and Downstream 30-Day Medicare Spending

medRxiv: Association Between Telehealth Use and Downstream 30-Day Medicare Spending

The objective of this study was to investigate whether healthcare visits initiated by telehealth had higher or lower 30-day spending compared to in-person-initiated visits. The study compared the overall spending, rates of return visits, laboratory tests, and imaging procedures within 30 days for Medicare fee-for-service patients who underwent in-person and telehealth evaluations between July 1, 2020 and December 31, 2022.

Telehealth-initiated episodes of care were associated with lower 30-day Medicare spending and reduced utilization of labs and imaging. These findings suggest that telehealth, when used as a substitute for office visits, may reduce overall Medicare spending.