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…Read More
