Patient Perceptions of Video Visits in a Fee-for-Service Model

Abstract

Introduction: We studied perceptions of patients who receive telemedicine services in the fee-for-service setting of an academic medical center’s family medicine department. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate patient sentiments on both experiential and financial aspects of telemedicine primary care with copayment collection. Methods: A 53-question cross-sectional digital survey was delivered to patients’ e-mail addresses after their telemedicine visit. We tabulated summary statistics and performed 2-sample t-tests to compare survey responses across groups. Results: Of 3,414 potential respondents, 903 responded, corresponding to a 26.7% effective response rate; 797 completed surveys were analyzed. Of these, 91% described their video visit experience as more convenient than office-based care, 74% reported shorter wait times, 87% felt confident about protection of privacy, 29% perceived copayments to be unreasonable, and 91% are willing to use telemedicine again. Discussion: Our findings suggest that telemedicine is a viable alternative to in-person visits and that most patients find a copayment reasonable. The findings suggest that telemedicine offers convenience and consistency with continuity and corroborate previous studies investigating telemedicine viewpoints. Payors should consider copayment in detail when designing telehealth benefits to ensure they do not become a barrier in seeking care.