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Dive Brief:

• Telehealth use declined across most sociodemographic groups from 2021 to 2022, according to a survey published Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics.
• Thirty-seven percent of adults reported using telemedicine in the past 12 months in 2021, compared with just over 30% in 2022.
• Researchers noted the decline across nearly all groups studied, including sex, family income, education and region. Women, adults with at least a college degree and people living in more urban areas were more likely to use telehealth in 2022. 

Dive Insight: 

Once a niche method of delivering healthcare, telehealth use spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, aided by relaxed regulations aiming to preserve access to care during the public health emergency. However, utilization has declined since, with patients returning to in-person care options as the pandemic eased.

Still, telehealth is more common than it was before COVID, and virtual care can be a useful tool for improving access and quality — particularly for mental healthcare and patients who live in rural communities far from nearby healthcare facilities.

The latest National Health Interview Survey, which is conducted continuously throughout the year by the agency, found telehealth use declined for nearly every characteristic and subgroup analyzed in the report.

Some groups saw larger declines than others. Nearly 31% of seniors ages 65 and older reported using telehealth in the past year in 2022, compared with more than 43% in 2021. For younger people between the ages of 18 and 29, just over 26% had recently used telemedicine in 2022, compared with more than 29% in 2021.

Telehealth use decreased significantly for Black, White and Hispanic adults in 2022. Hispanic respondents were the least likely to use telehealth care, with nearly 27% of Hispanic recently attending a telehealth visit in 2022, compared with nearly 33% in 2021.

People living in more urban areas were also more likely to have recently attended a telehealth visit. About 20% of adults living in noncore regions, or the most rural areas of the U.S., had used telehealth in the past 12 months in 2022, compared with more than 34% in large central areas, or counties in metropolitan areas with a population of one million or more.