Mr. Orchard said his telehealth company has seen a 30% increase in calls during the fall and winter this year compared with last year. In March, when the COVID-19 pandemic took off, the call volume for MyTelemedicine jumped by 120% one day.
A different study published by the Harvard Business Review this month found that providers switched one-third or more of their in-person care to telephone and video encounters. The survey of 154 medical practices from January through August found that telemedicine visits peaked at an estimated 37% of all encounters in early May, fell to 22% in early July and then leveled out around 15% in mid-August, still far higher than the less than 1% baseline before the pandemic.