Tan (Suparerk) Lekwijit and Hummy Song, Operations, Information and Decisions, The Wharton School
Abstract: Healthcare organizations have increasingly adopted video visits as an alternative care channel that offers higher convenience and holds promise for improving patients’ access to care. Despite the growing use, the impact of a new digital channel on care demand within existing physical channels has not been thoroughly investigated, especially in the primary care context of a traditional healthcare organization. We study a large healthcare system that made video visits available to a subset of its patients for primary care needs, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a difference-in-differences approach and visit data spanning over 9.5 million patient-months, we find that the introduction of video visits increases the demand for in-person primary care provider (PCP) visits by 20% and the demand for emergency department (ED) visits by 30%. We also find that patients who have poorer access to in-person care are more likely to initiate care via a video visit rather than an in-person visit, and that the increase in in-person demand arises primarily from patients who live farther from their place of care and who seek an appointment with a PCP who is busier than usual. Furthermore, compared to in-person visits, we find that video visits are less likely to provide care that can successfully conclude a care episode and also leads to a slight increase in the number of subsequent in-person visits in the episode. Our findings have important capacity and revenue implications for healthcare organizations that are considering offering video visits as an additional care channel for patients.