The analysis examines data from Cosmos, Epic’s HIPAA-defined limited data set of more than 126 million patients from hospitals and clinics across the country. Other findings include:
- Adults ages 65 and older relied on telehealth for a smaller share (5%) of outpatient visits between March and August 2021 than younger adults (8%) and children (11%).
- Patients in rural and urban areas used telehealth at similar rates during the six-month period (10% and 8%, respectively).
The report also looks at telehealth use by chronic condition and by gender and summarizes potential implications for expanded telehealth use for access, costs and quality of care, as well as the regulatory environment likely to affect telehealth in the future.
The report is available through the KFF-Peterson Health System Tracker, an online information hub that monitors and assesses the performance of the U.S. health system.