Adoption and Usage of Video Telehealth in a Large, Academic Department of Surgery

OBJECTIVES: To understand the impact that video telehealth has on outpatient visit volume and reimbursement as a method of maintaining care. BACKGROUND: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread across the United States starting in 2020, it caused numerous areas of medicine and healthcare to reexamine how we provide care to patients across all disciplines. One method clinicians used to rapidly adapt to these transformed settings was video telehealth, which was previously rarely used. METHODS: This retrospective review examined outpatient volume and reimbursement data of a large, academic department of surgery. The study reviewed data during 2 time periods: pre-COVID-19 (February 1, 2020, to March 15, 2020) and COVID-19 (March 16, 2020, to April 30, 2020). RESULTS: During the period of February 1 to April 30, 13,193 outpatient visits were analyzed. The pre-COVID-19 group contained 9041 (68.5%) visits, whereas the COVID-19 group contained 4152 (31.4%) visits. All divisions noted a drop in visit volume from pre-COVID-19 compared with COVID-19. There was rapid adoption of video telehealth during COVID-19, which made up most patient visits during that time (61.3%). We also found that video telehealth led to significant reimbursements while also allowing patients in numerous states to receive care. CONCLUSIONS: Previously, video telehealth was used by clinicians in a small portion of outpatient visits. However, safety concerns surrounding COVID-19 forced multiple changes to the way care is provided. Although outpatient volume at our center was less than that before the pandemic, video telehealth was rapidly adopted by providers and allowed for safe and effective outpatient care to patients in a high number of states while still being reimbursed at a high rate.