Table 2:

Telehealth has no impact or a negative impact on hospital finances

Participant	Quote
CFO from Wisconsin	Economically, I would tell you that it’s more of an investment at this point than it is a steady revenue stream. I’m sure we spend more on the technology and having the technology available than what we’re billing, and collecting for that infrastructure that we’ve had to put in place.
CFO from Oregon	So, it’s between a net neutral and a disadvantage only because of those concerns that I brought up [reimbursement], and I don’t know what direction they’re going to go.
CFO from West Virginia	I think that program [outpatient tele-cardiology] will also just lend itself more to quality [than profit]. Obviously, cardiology services are probably one of the largest services provided in the area and our patients leave here for that service because we don’t provide that. And if those patients don’t have to travel three hours... That service, they normally travel three hours for. If they can stay here and get a lot of their follow up appointments, that certainly helps them. As of right now, I’m not sure we would even get a technical component out of that.
CFO from Illinois	I would say that we really haven’t changed our cost structure that much on the clinic side, meaning the staffing in the clinics is still pretty much about the same level as pre-COVID… so we still carrying that expense. And now we’ve layered on the expense of the technology. So today, not a profitable business line for us.
CFO from Iowa	All these telehealth models that we’re talking about are just new expenses brought on to the hospital without any kind of return on investment at all… Now, all those things are a little harder… to get your arms around the exact dollar amount. But [telehealth results in] major, major improvements in the quality of our care, the safety of our care.
CFO from Oregon	[Telehealth] is probably a little bit of a loss leader, but I think that we are a community healthcare provider that is really honestly more concerned about offering services.
CFO from Florida	I’ll call it a loss leader for us right now
CFO from California	We’re losing money on that. That’s the big problem. Some of these either licensed healthcare workers or psychologists or psychiatrists pay them $200 bucks an hour, but we’re not getting paid that on some of these patients, but it’s a service that we’re willing to provide, even if we’re not making money on it because it’s such an important part of what the community needs right now, mental health.
CFO from West Virginia	[Outpatient telehealth] is not going to be a primary service line that is going to be profitable for us. It’s going to be like a normal physician visit. And we don’t have high increase, expected growth or anything at this time.
CFO from Wisconsin	I would call it neutral. I don’t think that you make money off of that because the reimbursement is... It’s not bad for the professional piece of it. It’s not good, but it’s not bad.
CFO from California	We are responding to the community needs that we know we’re not going to make money on, but it’s just that careful balance being a rural hospital to keep the doors open and provide as many services as possible… It’s [telehealth] a great service but it’s not anything that we’re going to hang our hat on. We’re not going to rely on the telemedicine to bring in a lot of revenue… There are some positive aspects, but it’s never been something that without grants or something to support it, that it’s been a really a standalone service that would stand on its own
CFO from Oregon	In general, telemedicine, honestly, doesn’t pay over the long haul. It really doesn’t pay. It does help provide excellent patient care.
CFO from Wisconsin	From a financial standpoint, it wasn’t a huge loss [telehealth for urgent care], but we were probably talking in the tens of thousands of dollars a year that we were losing on the service at that time.
CFO from Maine	I don’t know of any examples of telehealth having a direct financial benefit… I don’t know that there’s been enough utilization to make a huge impact.