Whether you are currently using telehealth or thinking of implementing the technology in your clinic it is important to understand how to evaluate Telehealth ROI.
Is telehealth worth the investment?
Yes, as long as you implement correctly and maximize your earnings. Interestingly, the ROI of telehealth initiatives can significantly vary based on the size, nature, clinical capacity, and payment model of your medical practice. Hence, ROI can also take many forms since telemedicine is a flexible domain. The correct telemedicine solution then is the one that brings you a competitive advantage and efficiently meets your personal needs.
How to Evaluate Telehealth ROI for your Clinic?
More than 50% of the organizations saw annual savings of 10% or more on their telehealth platforms. 29% of the organizations that track ROI saw annual savings of 20% or more. (Kjellberg, 2018).
It’s clear that telehealth has cost savings and drives revenue but it differs case by case. This is a simple framework that you can use to estimate the potential ROI telehealth can offer to your clinic.
“Each clinical use case or telehealth program is going to have a unique value proposition that needs to be evaluated. Remote patient monitoring will have a different value proposition compared to a direct-to-consumer urgent care telehealth model, for example” (Miliard, 2019).
Case Study
Intermountain Healthcare tracked the ROI around their 23 hospitals and 185 clinics for lab use, imaging and antibiotics.
“In the overall total costs, this is where the striking differences are and where we believe that our care we’re giving for those indicated conditions is appropriate. There’s a substantial opportunity for cost savings [in the virtual care setting],” says Dr. Joe Dalto, PhD, telehealth team senior data manager at Intermountain Healthcare (Amwell, 2020).
Going forward, providers should assess a potential telehealth program’s impact on value by evaluating the program’s impact on improving revenue, health outcomes and patient experience relative to cost. Furthermore, implementation of telehealth programs goes beyond the numbers. It is crucial that telehealth programs generate value through increasing access to care, improving quality of care, reducing barriers to access and improving provider and patient satisfaction.
To maximize your ROI on telehealth, you need to be evaluative and flexible. You need to invest ample time and effort to realize the true potential of your telemedicine system and transform the conventional face-to-face care model into a technological one. To learn more about how Porton Health’s applications work, contact us to find a solution that meets your needs.
Amwell. (2020, March 16). Intermountain Healthcare Demonstrates Telehealth ROI. https://business.amwell.com/intermountain-demonstrates-telehealth-roi/
Kjellberg, C. (2018, August 8). Telehealth’s Impressive ROI. InTouch Health. https://intouchhealth.com/telehealths-impressive-roi/?gdprorigin=true#:%7E:text=According%20to%20a%20recent%20survey,their%20telehealth%20return%20on%20investment.&text=More%20than%2050%25%20of%20the,savings%20of%2020%25%20or%20more.
manatt. (2019, September). A Framework for Evaluating the Return on Investment of Telehealth. Manatt Health Strategies. http://www.manatt.com/Manatt/media/Documents/Articles/TelehealthROIWhitePaper.pdf
Miliard, M. (2019, September 13). How should your organization assess telehealth ROI? Healthcare IT News. https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-should-your-organization-assess-telehealth-roi