Virtual care moves toward the frontline of provider-patient relationships

Patients seem to like the idea even if they haven’t tried it yet.

A recent Accenture report said about 70% of consumers are interested in virtual healthcare. Only 20% have actually received such care. “Virtual care offers what consumers really want: a variety of health and care service available to any location at any time, crossing the spectrum from health and wellness to episodic injury and illness to ongoing condition management,” the report said.

The shift may be sped up amid the shift from volume to value in payment models. Virtual care can become part of value-based care if there isn’t a worry for providers about not getting paid for a virtual visit, the case now in a fee-for-service payment system.

More than half of Kaiser Permanente’s patient visits are virtual care

Some health systems are already putting virtual care at the forefront. Kaiser has grown virtual care to slightly more than half of their more than 100 million patient encounters.

One benefit KP has over other health systems is that it’s integrated and offers physicians capitation. Providers are paid a monthly member fee to care for the whole patient. That helps Kaiser by avoiding potential payer/provider issues involving insurers paying physicians for volume. About 95% of its more than 12 million members are covered through a capitated payment system.

That makes engaging physicians less of a challenge than it might be for providers reimbursed by volume.

KP offers non-emergency consultations via video behind a VPN firewall, secure email, messaging and telephone. Patients can have virtual visits for non-emergency urgent care, and routine and follow-up care with primary care and specialists, including in the areas of dermatology, mental health and podiatry.

Pat Conolly, executive vice president of information technology and chief information officer at The Permanente Federation, told Healthcare Dive that the type of virtual care, whether video or phone, that is most popular varies by area.