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State Officials Consider Patient Preferences when Evaluating Telehealth Evidence

When exploring new evidence about the effectiveness of telehealth, state policymakers want to know which interventions consumers prefer and are scalable for a range of populations. In addition to working to ensure that new telehealth tools are evidence-based and effective, officials want to make sure both patients and providers are interested in utilizing them.

The National Academy for State Health Policy’s (NASHP) Telehealth Affinity Group recently convened to discuss two studies funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI):

  • One ongoing study in rural Alaska is testing how well a new school-based screening and referral process – combined with a telemedicine consultation – can expedite the diagnosis of hearing loss in children. In the 15 participating communities, children are screened for hearing loss at school. Under the usual model, parents of children identified as needing a follow-up consultation are sent a letter with a request to take their child to a clinic. Under the intervention, the school and clinic work together to schedule a telemedicine appointment, during which a community health aide who is on-site at the local clinic works with specialists at a remote location to do follow-up testing. While the study does not yet have full results, the region saved $18 million in 2016 and 91 percent of patient travel to specialists was avoided. Data will be collected until February 2020.
  • Another study investigated the use of patient portals – secure websites where patients can view health records and electronically communicate with doctors – among adults with chronic diseases in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California health system. Researchers wanted to understand how portal use impacted patients’ utilization of health care services. Among the eligible participants, 68 percent of patients created a patient portal. Portal use was associated with more office visits, fewer emergency department visits, and fewer preventable hospitalizations. Although portal use was connected to better outcomes, the results were somewhat limited as the study focused on a closed health care system. It is also difficult to discern if patients’ portal engagement impacted their behavior. For instance, it is unclear if these patients may have been proactive participants in their care even without the portal.

In response to these telehealth studies, affinity group members expressed their interest in understanding:

  • How can an intervention be scaled to diverse populations? Would the rural, school-based intervention also work in urban areas? Could a similar telehealth invention be successful for adults who need follow-up care?
  • How do patient preferences impact the adoption of telehealth? To what extent does the evidence support the success of a specific intervention itself, versus a specific population’s interest in utilizing it?
  • What is the appropriate role of state officials in promoting evidence-based telehealth?

Scaling Interventions to Broad Populations

As affinity group members explore new evidence about telehealth, they expressed the desire to better understand how an intervention can be scaled to meet the needs of the populations they serve. The Alaska hearing loss study is of particular interest to officials because it offers a promising approach that could be adapted to connect a range of rural or underserved communities to specialists. The affinity group was very interested in the projected savings and how the community-focused design could be applied to their own states.

Members expressed skepticism about the applicability of the patient portal tool for the populations they serve. State officials questioned how this intervention might be scaled beyond a closed, integrated health system like Kaiser Permanente. For example, would an investment into an online portal for a state’s Medicaid population – some of whom may not have the same access to the internet as other higher-income populations – yield the same improved health outcomes?

Patient Preferences Impact Telehealth Adoption

 A prominent theme from the discussions of both of the studies was the importance of patient preferences for care. Officials noted that evidence-based interventions that improve outcomes or lower costs must still be supported by patients and providers in order to warrant investment. As more telehealth evidence emerges, particularly relating to patient-focused tools, policymakers want to understand how likely members of their targeted populations are to use telehealth.

The Role of State Officials in Promoting Telehealth

Beyond adaptability, state officials want to know how they can invest or most effectively promote the adoption of telehealth through their roles as payers and/or regulators. Officials wonder if there could be opportunities to use existing funding to pay for or incentivize use of patient-directed telehealth tools, like an online portal, to work toward improved health outcomes for targeted populations. There is also interest among the affinity group in considering how state agencies could promote or encourage community-level collaboration, similar to the Alaska example, to implement a successful telehealth intervention.

While the two studies prompted more questions, state officials value the research investment in telehealth. While the affinity group discussions often raise issues outside the scope of testing specific interventions, researchers may benefit from understanding the broader context state officials work within when making or changing policy. It is critical for state officials to understand scalability, how to engage diverse, dynamic populations or to have tools to decide whether or not their states can make the investments needed to implement new interventions.

NASHP’s Telehealth Affinity Group will continue to meet and discuss emerging PCORI research on telehealth in the coming months. To learn about the group’s first meeting, read the NASHP blog, States Explore Emerging Evidence to Learn New, Innovative Uses of Telehealth.

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