Will Telehealth Save Patients Money or Drive Up Costs?

If you’ve ever taken a doctor’s appointment from your couch in sweatpants, you already know one truth about telehealth: it’s convenient. But the big question for 2024 and beyond is tougher than “Can my doctor hear me on mute?” It’s this: will telehealth actually save patients money, or will it quietly drive overall healthcare costs higher?

As virtual care has moved from pandemic backup plan to everyday option, researchers, insurers, and policy makers have been busy crunching the numbers. The short answer is: telehealth often saves individual patients money per visit and in indirect expensesbut its impact on total healthcare spending is more complicated. Sometimes it substitutes for more expensive care, and sometimes it simply leads to more care.

What Counts as Telehealth (And Why It Matters for Your Wallet)

“Telehealth” is a broad umbrella, and the type of virtual care you use changes how it affects costs. It can include:

• Video visits with your primary care provider or specialist
• Phone-only visits (important for people without strong internet)
• Asynchronous care, like secure messages, e-visits, or app-based check-ins
• Remote monitoring, such as connected blood pressure cuffs or glucose meters sending data to your care team

Different models come with different price tags. Direct-to-consumer platforms may charge flat per-visit fees or subscriptions, while health systems and clinics typically bill telehealth in a way similar to office visits, just with different reimbursement rules behind the scenes.

How Telehealth Can Save Patients Money

1. Lower Visit Costs (At Least on Paper)

On average, a basic telehealth visit in the U.S. tends to be cheaper than an in-person office visit. Several analyses based on commercial claims and health system data have found that a typical telemedicine visit often costs in the ballpark of $70–$120, compared with roughly $140–$160 for a comparable in-person visit.

For patients with high-deductible plans or those paying cash, that difference is very real. Many direct-to-consumer telehealth services also advertise transparent pricingthink: “$79 per visit” or a clearly listed membership feemaking it easier to comparison shop than the usual mystery-priced office visit.

2. Crushing Indirect Costs: Travel, Parking, and Time Off

Healthcare isn’t just expensive at the front desk; it’s expensive in your schedule and your gas tank. Telehealth slashes those hidden costs:

• Travel and parking: No gas, tolls, bus fare, rideshare, or parking garage fees.
• Time away from work: You might need 30 minutes instead of half a day.
• Childcare or caregiving costs: Less need to arrange supervision for kids or dependent adults.

Studies of oncology, surgical follow-up, and specialty visits have estimated that telehealth can save patients hundreds of dollars per year in travel and “opportunity costs” (like unpaid time off work), along with thousands of hours of travel time collectively.

For people in rural or underserved communitieswhere a specialist might be hours awaytelehealth can turn an all-day road trip into a one-hour virtual check-in. That’s not just convenient; it’s a serious financial and quality-of-life upgrade.

3. Avoiding the Most Expensive Settings of Care

When telehealth is used well, it often serves as an earlier, cheaper touchpoint that helps patients stay out of the emergency department (ED) or urgent care for issues that can be managed in outpatient settings.

Research has found that, for certain conditions and populations, telehealth can help maintain or improve care quality while reducing ED use and hospital visitsor at least prevent them from getting worseeven as outpatient telehealth use grows.

One line of research even shows that after a telehealth visit, patients sometimes have fewer follow-up outpatient visits and lower costs over the following month, suggesting that virtual visits can substitute for additional in-person care rather than simply add to it.

Where Telehealth Can Drive Costs Up

1. When Convenience Turns into “More Care Overall”

Here’s the flip side: when something becomes easier and cheaper to use, people use more of it. That’s great if the extra care is necessary and improves healthbut it can also drive up total spending.

Some large-scale analyses have found that higher telehealth adoption is linked to:

• More outpatient visits overall (both virtual and in-person)
• Better medication adherence and chronic disease follow-up
• Only modest changesor small increasesin total spending rather than big savings

In other words, telehealth may help patients keep up with care, but policymakers are seeing that it doesn’t always reduce total dollars spent. In some systems, outpatient costs went up slightly even as ED visits went down and quality improved.

2. $0 Copays and “Why Not?” Appointments

During the early pandemic years, many insurersincluding Medicarereduced or eliminated cost-sharing for telehealth. That policy clearly improved access, but one study of commercial plans found that dropping telehealth copays to zero noticeably increased use.

From a patient’s perspective, that can be fantastic: people get care they might otherwise skip. From the system’s perspective, though, some of those extra visits might be low-value, and the cumulative cost adds up.

3. Subscription Models and Digital “Extras”

Some direct-to-consumer telehealth brands combine visit fees with membershipsmonthly or yearly subscription charges that cover messaging, on-demand care, or access to specific clinicians.

If you use the service frequently, that subscription can be a bargain. If you forget you’re paying for ithello, “unused gym membership” effecttelehealth becomes another line item quietly nibbling your budget.

What the Latest Research Says About Total Healthcare Spending

Zooming out from individual patients, the picture is nuanced. Recent research on telehealth’s economics in the U.S. lands in three broad buckets:

1. Net savings in targeted programs. Telehealth can meaningfully reduce costs in specific use casessuch as hospital-at-home models, some post-operative follow-up programs, and chronic disease managementby avoiding unnecessary in-person care and travel.
2. Neutral spending with better access and quality. In mental health and some outpatient chronic care, telehealth often increases visit volume but improves adherence and keeps hospitalizations and ED visits stable or slightly lower. Total spending may stay similar but yields better outcomes.
3. Modest increases in spending as telehealth remains additive. In some systems, telehealth has not fully replaced office visits; instead, it stacked on top of them, leading to more total encounters and somewhat higher outpatient spending.

So telehealth isn’t a one-size-fits-all cost saver. It’s more like a powerful tool: used strategically, it can bend costs downward; used without guardrails, it can increase utilization and spending while still improving convenience and access.

Who’s Most Likely to Save Money with Telehealth?

1. Patients in Rural or Underserved Areas

For patients who live hours away from a major medical center, telehealth is almost always a financial win. Studies show that virtual visits can significantly reduce both direct costs (like gas and lodging) and indirect costs (like taking multiple days off work) in rural populations.

When a cardiology or oncology appointment becomes a 45-minute video call instead of a 6-hour drive, the cost savings are immediate and substantial.

2. People with High-Deductible or Catastrophic Plans

If you’re paying out of pocket until you hit a high deductible, the difference between an $80 telehealth visit and a $150 in-person visit is very real. Telehealth also helps you avoid “facility fees” that sometimes appear on hospital-based clinic bills.

3. Patients with Stable Chronic Conditions

For conditions like hypertension, diabetes, depression, or asthma, where frequent but brief touchpoints matter more than hands-on procedures, telehealth can make adherence affordable and practical. Frequent low-cost virtual visits may prevent high-cost crises later, such as ED visits or hospitalizations.

4. Seniors on MedicareWith a Big Asterisk

Medicare beneficiaries have benefited enormously from expanded telehealth coverage since 2020. Millions of seniors used telehealth during and after the pandemic, especially those with mobility issues or multiple chronic conditions.

But there’s a catch: much of this expanded coverage depends on temporary policy waivers. Government funding fights and shutdowns have created real uncertainty, with some periods when Medicare telehealth coverage was at risk or temporarily disruptedleaving vulnerable patients scrambling.

Ultimately, whether telehealth saves a given Medicare patient money depends not just on medical needs but on what Congress decides to do next with telehealth reimbursement.

Five Situations Where Telehealth Is Likely to Save You Money

1. Quick follow-up visits.

   Think: going over lab results, tweaking a blood pressure medication, or checking on wound healing when you can show it over video. These visits rarely require a full exam table and stethoscope experience.

2. Mental health care.

   Teletherapy has become mainstream and, for many, easier to fit into work and family life. That alone can reduce missed appointments, which is a subtle but real cost.

3. Minor acute issues.

   Rashes, sinus infections, uncomplicated urinary symptoms, mild GI bugstelehealth can address many of these safely with a good history and video, saving both an office copay and travel time.

4. Chronic disease check-ins with remote monitoring.

   Pairing telehealth with connected devices (like cuffs, scales, or glucometers) can reduce the need for in-person checkups without sacrificing quality.

5. Second opinions and specialty consults.

   Instead of traveling to a big, out-of-town center for every consult, patients can often get opinions virtually, saving on travel and lodging.

When an In-Person Visit Is Worth the Extra Cost

Telehealth is powerful, but not magic. You still want in-person care when:

• You have chest pain, severe shortness of breath, or stroke symptoms
• You need imaging, labs, or a procedure right away
• A new physical exam finding (like a lump or severe joint issue) needs to be felt, not just described
• Your virtual visit keeps ending with “We really should see you in person”

In those cases, the extra cost of going in can actually prevent more seriousand more expensiveproblems later on.

How to Make Telehealth Work for Your Wallet

You can’t control every pricing decision in the healthcare system, but you can tilt the math in your favor with a few smart moves:

• Check your coverage first. Look up whether your plan covers telehealth, what the copay is, and whether it’s cheaper than in-person care.
• Compare prices for cash-pay services. If you’re uninsured or out-of-network, compare prices between direct-to-consumer platforms and local clinics offering telehealth.
• Use telehealth for what it does best. Save it for follow-ups, minor issues, and check-ins rather than complex, exam-heavy problems.
• Watch out for overlapping services. If every telehealth visit leads to a second in-person visit for the same issue, that’s double spending. Talk with your provider about when telehealth is appropriate.
• Keep your receipts and explanation of benefits (EOBs). Tracking telehealth vs in-person costs for yourself over a few months can show you where the real savings are.

So…Will Telehealth Save Patients Money or Drive Up Costs?

The honest answer is: for many individual patients, telehealth already saves moneyespecially when you factor in time, travel, and lost wages. For the healthcare system as a whole, though, telehealth is more of a mixed financial story. In some situations it clearly reduces costs; in others, it shifts where money is spent or nudges total spending slightly upward while improving access and convenience.

Over the next few years, the key question won’t just be “Is telehealth cheaper?” but “How do we design telehealth so it replaces avoidable, expensive care rather than piling on more low-value visits?” Smart benefits design, stable public policy, and clear clinical guidelines will make the difference between telehealth as a cost-saving hero and telehealth as a convenient but pricey habit.

For now, if you use it intentionally, ask about costs up front, and choose telehealth for the kinds of care it’s best at, virtual visits can absolutely be a win for both your health and your walletyes, even in sweatpants.

Real-World Experiences: What Telehealth Costs Look Like in Everyday Life

Numbers and policy debates are useful, but telehealth’s financial impact is easiest to understand when you zoom in on real-life scenarios. Consider a few composite examples based on common situations.

Maria, 46, with type 2 diabetes. Maria lives 45 miles from her endocrinologist. Before telehealth, every three-month follow-up meant taking a full morning off work, driving an hour each way, paying for parking, and sitting in the waiting room for 30 minutes. Even with good insurance, she estimates each visit cost her a tank of gas plus several hours of unpaid time.

Now, two out of every three appointments happen virtually. She checks her blood sugars at home, uploads them through a portal, then joins a 20-minute video visit during her lunch break. Her copay is the same for virtual and in-person visits, but she no longer loses half a day of income or spends money on transportation. Over a year, she estimates she saves several hundred dollars and about two full workdays’ worth of time.

James, 29, seeing a therapist weekly. James works full-time and has ADHD. Traditional in-person therapy was hard to fit in; he often missed sessions because of traffic, overtime at work, or just forgetting. When his therapist switched to virtual visits, his attendance shot up. His copay per session stayed the same, but he stopped canceling at the last minute and paying no-show fees. He also no longer needs to take extended breaks from work to commute.

On paper, his insurer probably pays more overall because he’s now completing a full course of therapy instead of sporadic sessions. But from James’s perspective, telehealth is cheaper: fewer missed appointments, fewer penalties, and better symptom control that helps him keep his job and avoid bigger crises.

Pat and Leo, retired couple on Medicare. Pat and Leo rely on telehealth for cardiology and neurology visits. During pandemic-era waivers, their virtual visits were easy to access and covered like in-person care. Then they started hearing that Medicare’s expanded telehealth coverage might expire unless Congress extended it. News reports about telehealth “cliffs” and shutdown threats made them nervous about whether their next virtual visit would be covered or suddenly become an out-of-pocket expense.

When a government funding standoff temporarily disrupted some telehealth payments, their local clinic briefly paused non-urgent virtual visits. The result wasn’t just uncertainty; it was financial stress. They worried they might have to pay cash or travel to larger hospitals for care, and they delayed some follow-ups. The experience showed them that telehealth’s ability to save money doesn’t just depend on technologyit depends heavily on policy stability and reimbursement rules.

Nadia, 35, using a subscription telehealth platform. Nadia signs up for an app that charges a monthly membership plus discounted virtual visits. During a rough year with recurring sinus infections, the platform is a bargain. She uses it frequently, accesses late-night urgent care without extra fees, and avoids several weekend urgent care visits that would have been much pricier.

The next year, her health is stable and she rarely uses the service, but she forgets to cancel. The subscription fee quietly renews on her credit card. In this phase of her life, telehealth doesn’t feel like a money saver; it feels like another subscription she’s not using. Her experience is a reminder that the economics of telehealth depend as much on your habits as on the platform’s price list.

Taken together, these experiences show a pattern: telehealth tends to be most financially beneficial when it replaces more expensive, harder-to-access care and when patients use it intentionally. It can feel like a cost saver or a cost driver depending on whether it’s eliminating unnecessary travel and high-cost visitsor quietly adding extra encounters you wouldn’t have scheduled otherwise.

The good news is that patients have more control than they might think. Asking upfront about telehealth copays, checking whether a virtual visit will truly substitute for an in-person appointment, and reviewing subscriptions once or twice a year can go a long way toward making telehealth a genuine financial ally instead of another mysterious line on the credit card bill.