Medicare could benefit with improved care and savings if seniors could access healthcare services online, according to a study that found that increasingly more tech savvy older consumers are interested in using digital health tools in their home.
In a survey of Americans 65 years and older by the consultant and IT company Accenture, more than half said they think it's important to have the option of emailing their doctors and providers, and almost 70 percent think it's important to be able to book appointments and request prescription drug refills online.
Yet among the seniors surveyed, access to those kinds of digital choices are still limited among hospitals and physician practices.
While 46 percent can refill their Rx scripts on the web, only 15 percent can email their doctors and just about one-third said they have full access to the data in their providers' electronic health record software systems.
"Just as seniors are turning to the Internet for banking, shopping, entertainment and communications, they also expect to handle certain aspects of their healthcare services online," Jill Dailey, managing director of payers at Accenture Health, said in a media release.
As the baby boom retirement wave continues, both providers and health plans "need to expand their digital options if they want to attract older patients and help them track and manage care outside their doctor's office," Dailey added.
The survey included 200 American seniors receiving Medicare, as part of a digital health options research survey of 9,000 adults in the U.S. and nine other large countries.
As a new generation ages into Medicare, and as seniors in other wealthy countries age, some with complex chronic conditions and many expected to live into their 80s and 90s, digital health communication and monitoring are offering caregivers and providers tools for adapting to the new old age.