Telemedicine and Primary Care Access: A Cross-sectional Observational Study of Patients Using Only Telemedicine

Future telemedicine reimbursement is uncertain. Knowing which patients may be most reliant on telemedicine can help assess its value.

To identify the patient characteristics associated with using only telemedicine for primary care.

Cross-sectional observational study of individuals who had multiple primary care visits in 2022.

A total of 1,151,984 adult patients with two or more primary care visits seeking care at a large integrated health system in Northern California in 2022.

Primary care visit modality (only telemedicine, or any in-person); associations (in adjusted percentages) between characteristics and the likelihood of accessing primary care via telemedicine only.

Most patients (n = 812,581, 70.5%) used telemedicine in 2022, with 55.1% (n = 635,208) having both telemedicine and in-person visits, and 15.4% (n = 117,373) having only telemedicine visits. As adjusted percentages, 23.5% of patients 18-44 years old (95% CI, 23.3-23.6%) used only telemedicine primary care visits, a significantly higher proportion than younger (< 18-4.7%; 95% CI 4.6-4.8%) or older age groups (45-64-17.6%; 95% CI 17.5-17.8%; 65-74-13.4%; 95% CI 13.2-13.5%; 75 + -14.5%, 95% CI 14.3-14.7%). Patients who were female (16.6%, CI 16.5-16.7% vs. male 13.8%, 95% CI 13.8-13.9%), Black (17.0%, 95% CI 16.9-17.3% vs. White 15.5%, 95% CI 15.4-15.6%), living in low-SES neighborhoods (15.8%, 95% CI 15.6-15.9% vs. higher 15.4%, 95% CI 15.3-15.4%), with longer drive times to clinic (11-20 min-15.4%, 95% CI 15.3-15.5%; 20 + min-17.7%, 95% CI 17.5-17.8%) or with a clinic parking fee (16.7%, 95% CI 16.5-17.0% vs. free 15.3%, 95% CI 15.2-15.4%) were more likely to only use telemedicine to access primary care.

Telemedicine may have facilitated access to primary care for patients that have barriers to in-person care.