• $20-$30 less than convenience clinics,
• $80-$142 less than office visits,
• $82-$124 less than urgent care visits; and
• $159-$469 less than emergency department visits.

The authors also studied whether the 24/7 availability of the virtuwell service led to an increase in demand for the service, which would then eat into the savings reported. Based on their findings, fully 90 percent of the virtuwell visits replaced office visits, while about 6 percent of the virtuwell cases replaced the “watch and wait” home care approach. In all, the researchers estimated this slight increase in utilization, given the costs associated with providing virtuwell service, only increase the cost difference between virtuwell and non-virtuwell care by 10 percent.

The hope is by demonstrating the results of a well-designed online care service, HealthPartners can help push for broader adoption, as well as a re-examination of government regulations that may provide a roadblock to establishing this method of care.

[See also: Telehealth extends care to veterans closer to home.]

“The possibility of extrapolating such savings to larger volumes of cases is compelling,” the report states. “We suggest a need for regulatory reform, particularly around state-level statutes that create barriers to the expansion of online care delivery, such as those that require clinicians to be located in the same state as the patient and those requiring clinicians to have had a previous face-to-face visit with a patient. Such reforms would encourage further innovation and lead to cost reduction and improvements in access and convenience for consumers throughout the health care system.”