Financial Performance of Hospital Telehealth Adopters, Nonadopters, and Switchers: A Rural-Urban Comparison

The telehealth adoption status has unveiled noticeable patterns in hospital financial performance. In both rural and urban settings, hospitals persistently lacking telehealth capacity have the worst financial performance when compared to hospitals that persistently maintained telehealth services or hospitals that adopted telehealth over the study period. Overall, urban hospitals had better financial performance, which is likely associated with higher caseloads and payer mix compared to rural hospitals. Hospitals that adopted telehealth over the study period showed an increase in financial margins similar to hospitals with persistent telehealth adoption. Targeted policies that address the specific financial challenges of hospitals with a history of poor performance could effectively increase telehealth adoption in these settings. Future research should examine whether adoption among hospitals persistently lacking telehealth can influence the quality and accessibility of services, along with associated health outcomes to determine whether more aggressive policy action is warranted.