# Telehealth as a Substitute for a Usual Source of Care for Prescription Medications

## TL;DR

Telehealth helps people without a regular doctor take prescription medications more often, according to a study of over 69,000 patients.

## Contribution

This study quantifies telehealth's role as a substitute for a usual source of care in accessing prescription medications.

## Key findings

- Telehealth users without a usual source of care had 75.4% prescription medication use, compared to 25.4% without telehealth.
- Telehealth was associated with a 7.39-fold increase in odds of taking prescription medications.
- Higher telehealth use was observed in patients with a usual source of care (37.3%) than without (15.8%).

## Abstract

This study investigates how effectively telehealth utilization (THU) can substitute for a usual source of care (USC) for taking prescription medication using data from the 2020–2022 National Health Interview Survey. We analyzed data for 69,581 patients. Of these, 5,994 patients (8.6%) lacked a USC. THU was 37.3% for patients with a USC and 15.8% for those without. For patients with no USC or THU, 25.4% had taken a prescription medication within 12 months, while patients with THU but no USC had a rate of 75.4%. In essentially all subgroups, telehealth was associated with substantially higher rates of taking prescription medications. Multivariate logistic regression showed that THU was associated with a 7.39-fold increase (95% CI: 6.19–8.84) in the odds of taking a prescription medication.