McKnight's December 3, 2021
(HealthDay News) — Primary care visits conducted via telemedicine do not lead to higher health care utilization, according to a study published online Nov. 16 in JAMA Network Open.
Mary Reed, Dr.P.H., from Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, and colleagues assessed whether treatment differs between primary care telemedicine and in-person visits and how often patients require in-person follow-up. Analysis included over 1.1 million patients who scheduled nearly 2.2 million primary care appointments through the patient portal from January 2016 to May 2018.
The researchers found that 38.6% of video visits, 34.7% of telephone visits, and 51.9% of office visits had any medication prescribed. Laboratory tests or imaging were ordered for 29.2% of video visits, 27.3% of telephone visits,...
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