Grant: #73058
Grantee Institution: American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation
Principal Investigator: Meg Coffman, M.S.
Grant Period: October 1, 2015 – November 30, 2017
Budget: $300,055
Project aim: To better understand consumers’ opinions and concerns about telehealth in order to help inform the development, distribution and use of this evolving technology.
Project Description:
Telehealth offers the potential to facilitate the nation’s triple aim for health care improvement by shifting delivery of care to less expensive settings while improving patient access and experience, but to date has achieved little penetration in the primary care arena. The researchers surveyed a representative sample of telehealth users and non-users among Anthem consumers who have had access to telehealth services in two states (CA and OH) over a one year period. They explored consumers’ awareness, perception and value of telehealth in primary care. The researchers also analyzed claims data to explore the characteristics of consumers who elect to use or not use Anthem’s telehealth services. The goal of this project was to better understand consumers’ opinions and concerns about telehealth in order to help inform the development, distribution and use of this evolving technology.
This project was funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s solicitation “Optimizing Value in Health Care: Consumer-focused Trends from the Field,” which supported studies that addressed consumer perceptions of value in the new and emerging health care landscape.