HVPCI reaches “pre-pandemic levels” with highest score to date

September 17, 2020 - Philadelphia, PA - HealthVerity announced the biweekly update to its HealthVerity Patient Confidence Index (HVPCI) and reported a national score of 95, a five-point increase from the previous period and the highest level to date, in arms reach of “pre-pandemic levels.” The score of 95 is reflected as “Stable”, displaying an increasingly positive pattern of patient engagement across the US healthcare system.

The HVPCI represents a measure of physician visits undertaken by non-COVID-19 patients across 20 key therapeutic areas, highlighting a significant decline in visits since the pandemic took hold in the US at the beginning of March. The HVPCI is crucial as an expression of the confidence in patients to seek care for acute and chronic illnesses balanced with the risk of exposure to the coronavirus in a public setting. As coronavirus cases peak and eventually subside, this indicator will ultimately serve as an overall measure of US patient engagement between patients and their physicians. 

This period’s national score of 95 marks the highest score to date since the onset of COVID-19 and the beginning of monitoring patient engagement in early March 2020. Out of the twenty specialties included in the Index, all but two recorded the highest visits thus far, with the majority of those surpassing rates from the same period in 2019. Those two specialties (radiology and oncology) were less than 3 points away from their highest point, proving positive engagement across the board. Most telling is that HVPCI scores continued to climb across all specialties - reaching the highest score in less than one day -  despite Labor Day office closures. 

Snapshot of specialties tracked by the HVPCI:

“At its derivation, the HVPCI set out to track and report on the confidence of non-COVID-19 patients in returning to their doctors and resuming normal healthcare visits in a very non-normal era,” said  Andrew Goldberg, chief operating officer at HealthVerity. “At some point, when we start seeing numbers across major therapeutic areas that are greatly surpassing rates of last year, especially in areas like infectious disease, we are no longer tracking the confidence in patients, but reporting on the temperature of a sickly population. We expect to see elevated levels in the fall tied to flu vaccinations, but will stay diligent to closely monitor how other specialties, and ultimately patients, react to colder weather and the inevitable beginning of cold season.”

Telehealth visits declined for the ninth straight period, with total share accounting for just under 9% of all physician visits in the data supporting the index. Although relatively flat across most specialties and age groups, an interesting trend is emerging within preventive medicine for patients between the ages of 51-64 years old. The season change may have an interesting impact on telehealth and a second spike, but time will tell. 

Learn more about HealthVerity’s efforts to educate and inform on COVID-19 here.