Up to $250B of US healthcare spend could shift to virtual: report  

Jackie Drees -

The acceleration of telehealth adoption among consumers and providers has pushed virtual care beyond urgent care services and laid a framework for up to $250 billion of U.S. healthcare spending to be virtualized, according to a recent McKinsey report

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the shift to virtual care. About $250 billion, or 20 percent of all Medicare, Medicaid and commercial operating expenses, office and home health spend could potentially be virtualized.

Four report insights: 

1. Twenty percent of emergency department visits could potentially be avoided by offering virtual urgent care services. 

2. Twenty-four percent of healthcare office visits and outpatient encounters could be delivered virtually, and an additional 9 percent could be delivered "near-virtually" at a retail clinic or testing site. 

3. Thirty-five percent of home health services could be virtualized. 

4. Two percent of all outpatient office visits could be moved to the patients' home setting through tech-enabled medication administration services. 

Click here to view the full report. 

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