A new report released today by TytoCare, a virtual care company enabling accessible, high-quality primary care from home, revealed insights into how health plans and organizations can drive virtual care engagement.
While key elements that patients value in virtual care offerings include cost and time savings, and the ability to reduce Emergency Department (ED) or urgent care visits, people want to see doctors they trust and are more likely to adopt virtual care when recommended by their primary care physicians (PCPs).
More than 1,000 Medicaid and commercial health plan members were surveyed for the report.
“Patients expect virtual care that will save them hassle, time and money, but so far, adoption has been relatively low,” said Dedi Gilad, CEO and Co-Founder of TytoCare.
“Our survey found that we must go beyond the promises of time and cost savings to increase adoption of virtual care. At TytoCare, we’re driving high engagement rates in virtual care via our Tyto Engagement Labs, and to do this, it is critical for us to understand what motivates people to adopt and utilize their virtual care options,” Gilad added.
TytoCare’s Home Smart Clinic drives engagement rates by solving the Home Healthcare Delivery Gap™ that patients experience with traditional audio/video-only telehealth solutions. The solution combines TytoCare’s FDA-cleared handheld remote examination device, the AI-backed Tyto Insights™ smart diagnosis support, and the Tyto Engagement Labs™ to provide high-quality, accessible virtual care in the home and enable health plans and providers to deliver on expected ROI and drive improved health outcomes.
The TytoCare Virtual Care Engagement Survey asked consumers key questions about the frequency of their virtual care usage, what motivates them to adopt virtual care, and how cost and time savings would impact their adoption of virtual care. Key findings include:
- 78 percent say virtual care provisions are important when choosing a healthcare plan: While virtual care adoption has declined significantly since the peaks seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, 78 percent of respondents consider virtual healthcare offerings to be an important factor when selecting a healthcare plan, with 32 percent finding it very important and 46 percent finding it somewhat important.
- Time and cost savings are the top drivers for virtual healthcare adoption: Cost is a “significant concern” for 91 percent of people when selecting a healthcare plan, and 94 percent consider time savings to be “very or somewhat important.”
- A healthcare provider is more likely to influence the use of virtual care than a family member or an insurer: Recommendations from family members or friends are only highly effective in motivating 25 percent of people to adopt virtual care, but a recommendation from a healthcare provider or clinician has a much higher impact, with 59 percent of people reporting being “highly influenced” to adopt virtual care at their provider’s recommendation.
- Clinician involvement is critical for both Medicaid and private insurance carriers: There is little difference in the importance of clinician involvement between those with private insurance and those with Medicaid in adopting virtual care. Both groups say the highest impact for choosing virtual healthcare would come from their healthcare provider (53 percent and 52 percent respectively), and both say the impact of a recommendation from a family member or friend would be minimal (26 percent and 24 percent).
- 90 percent are willing to forfeit the wait for their PCP to get quicker access to care in a crisis: A high number of respondents felt it was important to be examined by their own PCP (31 percent reported this was “very important” to them, and 42 percent reported this was “quite important”). When a medical crisis occurs, however, more than half (51 percent) reported they were only willing to wait up to an hour to get a medical check, diagnosis and prescription for medication for a loved one such as a child or a parent. In this situation, just 10 percent say that they would wait as long as it takes in order to see their own primary care physician.
The survey also surfaced insights regarding the average usage of virtual care, including:
- 73 percent of respondents who utilized virtual care did so two or more times per year, with 46 percent of respondents using it three or more times.
- 81.4 percent of respondents reported that they would be interested in using virtual care programs if they had access to specific devices that offered features above and beyond video calls.
TytoCare’s Virtual Care Engagement Report was based on a survey of 1,000 consumers across the United States, including both those with Medicaid and those who hold private health insurance. All respondents interacted with a healthcare professional by phone, video, or another remote healthcare methodology over the past 12 months.
