Telehealth Cuts Care Costs

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

A study conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs has found veterans enrolled in telehealth programs receive better care at a lower cost.

Higher quality care and lower costs are the results of veterans having access to telehealth services at home, according to a recent study by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The study’s author, Adam Darkins, is chief consultant for telehealth services at the VA. He found that, between 2009 and 2012, use of telehealth services decreased healthcare costs as much as 4 percent one year after the initial use of the service.

In just 2013, VA-specific telehealth applications delivered care to more than 600,000 veterans. Many of these vets (45 percent) lived in rural areas without access to VA hospitals. The number of veterans using VA telehealth services, according to iHealth Beat, is steadily increasing by 22 percent each year.

Although the study found that patients enrolled in telehealth had higher pharmacy costs, according to FCW, this can be attributed to better medication compliance. Home telehealth services reduced bed days of care by 59 percent and reduced hospital admissions by 35 percent. Also, clinical video telehealth services reduced bed days of care for mental health by 38 percent.

When Darkins presented his study June 17 at the HIMSS IT conference in Washington DC, he predicted that telehealth will soon increasingly be moving to other platforms. "What we've done with home telehealth devices is platform agnostic," Darkins said. "People will be able to connect from their smartphone, computer table, laptop, and looking into the future, from their TV."

At the Government Health IT Conference and Exhibition, Darkins explained that eventually, large telehealth networks will reach nationwide, enabling patients to “get access locally when needed, regionally if more important, and globally to access world experts,” when necessary.