Since Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Spectrum Health launched a telehealth program in 2014, it has delivered almost 50,000 virtual visits that avoided more than 11,000 trips to the emergency room and saved insurers nearly $4.1 million, according to Digital Commerce 360.
Spectrum operates its own consumer telehealth program it developed about three years ago called MedNow. So far in 2018 — the program's fourth year — MedNow has conducted 88 percent of the total 29,989 telehealth episodes it must perform for the full year, saving health insurers nearly $1.5 million and patients 476,279 miles in unnecessary driving.
According to a review of claims submitted to the system's healthcare plan, Priority Health, a typical telehealth visit costs $42, compared with a $917 ER trip, a $150 urgent care visit and a $111 office appointment.
"The impact of telehealth is improved access to care and decreasing cost of care," Spectrum Senior Director Joe Brennan told Digital Commerce 360.
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