The J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Telehealth Satisfaction Study released on Thursday shows a slight decrease, down 1% from last year, in patient satisfaction with direct-to-consumer telehealth providers and a substantial increase, up 18%, in satisfaction with payer-provided telehealth offerings.

The study, based on 4,070 healthcare consumers' responses within the past 12 months, measures patients' satisfaction with telehealth services based on seven factors: ease of receiving care, digital channels, whether a provider met their needs, level of trust, scheduling appointments, people, and saving time or money.

It finds that 65% of survey respondents said the top reason for using telehealth is convenience, with 46% saying they used it due to the ability to receive care quickly and 30% due to having a condition that's covered via a telehealth visit. 

The study noted a tie between difficulty with internet/cellular connectivity (25%) and limited services provided (25%) as being the top barriers to consumers receiving telehealth, and 15% said they had data security concerns with personal/medical information.

Consumers noted they prefer telehealth for medication review and chronic-care follow-up.

Almost one-third (74%) of consumers who had a positive experience with medication review said they would use the service again. In comparison, only 58% of those with a problematic experience said they would use telehealth again.   

Forty-four percent of telehealth patients with chronic conditions who had an easy experience said they would use the service again. In contrast, 28% of those who had a negative experience said they would use telehealth again. 

Patients covered by Medicaid, Gen Y and Gen Z individuals, and those living in urban environments had the highest overall satisfaction with virtual care providers.

Medicaid patients and those privately insured, along with baby boomers, older generations and those living in suburban environments, had the lowest satisfaction with telehealth providers. 

"The telehealth marketplace has grown rapidly, and although its usage has been normalized in recent years, we’re still in a growth phase where individuals can have vastly different experiences based on the providers they use, their medical conditions and even things like the quality of internet and phone connections where they live,” said Christopher Lis, managing director of global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a statement. 

“Most consumers agree that telehealth is tough to beat when it comes to convenience and accessing care quickly, but it is not the ideal channel for all healthcare encounters. The wide variation in patient experience is something telehealth providers, insurers and public health officials will want to monitor closely.”

THE LARGER TREND

Telehealth use surged during the pandemic. Now that the pandemic has slowed, telemedicine has remained a part of patients' experiences, especially compared to pre-pandemic times, though the use of the modality varies among providers.

Earlier this year, the CDC National Center for Health Statistics released data from the National Electronic Health Records Survey, citing that, in 2021, 27.4% more medical specialists used telemedicine for half of their patient visits, more than primary care physicians and surgical specialists.

Primary care physicians (76.7%) and medical specialists (73.1%) were able to provide patients with a similar quality of care as in-person visits, and both were more likely to be satisfied with the technology compared to surgical specialists, 49.7% of which said telemedicine was not appropriate for their specialty or patients.