More on Health Care Utilization, Spending and Prices

This report from Fair Health examines trends in health care use at alternative sites, like telehealth, retail clinics, urgent care centers and ERs,  in the five-year period ending in 2021.  The data source is private health plan coverage.  Early in the epidemic, virtual care using phones and computers soared, as people were terrorized or outright banned from getting in-person care. But for 2021 compared to 2020, use of telehealth dropped by over 75%.  In recent years retail clinic use has grown by over 50%, with most of the increase coming among working age adults.  These clinics are found in drug stores and some large retailers, such as WalMart.  Urgent care use also rose by 14%, but ER use declined by 15%.  These trends suggest that convenience is important to many consumers, and they find it easier and faster to go to an alternative site as opposed to a regular primary care doctor, where you can’t just walk-in.  But such visits disrupt continuity of care, and while retail clinics have tended to be cheaper than a traditional doctor visit, urgent care is more expensive.  Some of the cost differences appear to be disappearing over the last couple of years. The average cost of an office visit in one of these sites over the last ten years has risen from $139 to $207, but one suspects that in the last year inflation has pushed the cost much higher.  It is always interesting to watch trends in where Americans are actually receiving their health care.  (Fair Health Report)