Telehealth and remote medical services offer critical relief to patients by eliminating exhausting road trips, missed income, and time separated from loved ones. Two prominent physician executives emphasize that these profound advantages deserve a much closer examination in modern healthcare.

For individuals battling chronic medical conditions, financial obligations and logistical hurdles materialize long before the official invoice arrives in the mail.

Patients frequently face spiking fuel expenses, mandatory time away from their jobs, and occasionally the added burden of childcare or overnight lodging. For those residing hours away from medical specialists, maintaining consistent treatment regimens demands constant lifestyle disruptions.

Dr. Dave Newman, an endocrinologist who serves as Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Virtual Care at Sanford Health, shared the story of a patient he refers to as “Doris.”

Dealing with Type 1 diabetes, Doris previously drove approximately 200 miles each way between Bismarck and Fargo three to four times annually to attend her consultations. Each visit required an exhausting 400-mile round trip, lost work hours, significant fuel expenditures, and missed moments with her grandchildren.

“It came topmod to the point where she said, ‘I love seeing you, Doctor, but I can’t do this anymore.’ So we flipped her to virtual appointments,” Dr. Newman explained.

While Doris occasionally logs on from her residence, she sometimes utilizes a nearby regional clinic for her telemedicine encounters. Through these remote channels, Dr. Newman evaluates data from her insulin pump and glucose monitor, updates prescriptions, and coordinates necessary laboratory diagnostics.

“She essentially has gotten 8 to 10 days a year of her life back by leveraging this,” he noted.

This single patient's experience highlights an overlooked aspect of healthcare affordability: the severe out-of-pocket toll patients endure simply to arrive at a clinic, distinct from the cost of the medical care itself.

The True Financial Burden of Traveling to See a Doctor

Soaring fuel costs make this financial strain glaringly obvious. According to AAA figures, the national average reached $4.17 per gallon on November 1, a sharp climb from $3.08 the previous year. Factoring in vast distances, unearned wages, and family care duties, the total burden multiplies exponentially.

Sanford Health calculates that each virtual consultation spares patients an average 176-mile round trip alongside roughly $273 in travel-associated costs and lost income. Overall, the health network documented an estimated $41 million in patient savings during 2025. Their published metrics account for fuel, meals, and missed work hours, with Dr. Newman confirming that Sanford’s program has cumulatively prevented over 68 million miles of patient driving.

Similarly, Dr. Rima Shah, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Ambulatory Care and Population Health at Corewell Health, detailed how her Michigan-based health system tackles the identical hurdle of delivering localized care to individuals far from major medical hubs.

Corewell’s strategy integrates video visits, regional telemedicine centers, and continuous remote monitoring between standard check-ups. Dr. Shah outlined an interconnected framework designed to streamline ongoing medical management while minimizing travel and disruption for patients.

An internal evaluation conducted by Corewell calculated that a patient traveling from Ludington to Grand Rapids for an in-person subspecialist consultation incurred roughly $200 in out-of-pocket expenses. Conversely, a video consultation or visit to a regional telemedicine site cost approximately $20, though Dr. Shah acknowledged that insurance coverage plays a variable role.

Ultimately, these figures spotlight a systemic barrier: the expense of physical transit can dictate whether an individual seeks medical attention at all.

“Patients shouldn’t have to choose between filling up their gas tank or seeing their doctor,” Dr. Newman emphasized.

Keeping Medical Care Accessible

Prenatal healthcare starkly illustrates this difficult dilemma.

Dr. Newman recounted how Sanford established a virtual prenatal care model across northern Minnesota to combat geographical isolation and a severe shortage of local obstetrical professionals. Designated patients receive essential equipment—including fetal Dopplers, blood pressure cuffs, and digital scales—to facilitate a hybrid model of virtual and in-person supervision.

Substituting appropriate follow-up visits digitally eliminates hours of transit time, complex childcare arrangements, and lost productivity at work.

Specialized medical fields provide additional success stories. Dr. Newman highlighted pediatric pulmonology appointments driven by digital stethoscopes, alongside a recently introduced virtual behavioral health initiative that met with extraordinary demand.

Such overwhelming uptake indicates that patients actively utilize virtual alternatives when they are accessible and user-friendly. However, establishing the underlying technological architecture requires sustained capital, while ongoing policy instability complicates strategic planning. Dr. Shah noted in an interview that potential legislative adjustments regarding Medicare reimbursements for virtual visits and remote tracking remain a primary concern for upcoming program rollouts.

Furthermore, technology and care delivery models must adapt to individual patient circumstances. While many connect directly from home, others utilize neighborhood clinics. Dr. Newman mentioned facilitating telephone consultations specifically for ranchers lacking reliable internet access or smartphones.

Dr. Shah conceptualized telehealth as a mechanism to place every medical interaction in the most suitable environment. “The goal is not to eliminate in-person care. It is to make every interaction more intentional, identify problems sooner, deliver more care where patients are, and reserve hospitals, emergency departments, and clinics for the care that truly needs to happen there,” she stated.

The Value Generated Between Appointments

Avoiding a grueling commute represents only one advantage; maintaining continuous engagement between formal visits delivers another.

Corewell Health’s Connected Care initiative harnesses remote monitoring protocols and active clinical follow-ups to help medical teams detect physiological shifts and intervene earlier.

Dr. Shah cited a case where a patient's unexpected weight gain and fluid retention triggered a clinical review that exposed a misunderstanding regarding a diuretic medication. In another instance, a patient's persistently high heart rate prompted an immediate emergency evaluation and successful treatment for a severe cardiac arrhythmia.

This latter scenario underscores a vital point: appropriate clinical escalation serves as a positive outcome by addressing emergent threats before a patient's health severely deteriorates, thereby curbing overall healthcare utilization costs and shortening hospital admissions.

Furthermore, when Corewell surveys video-visit users about their alternatives, thousands report that they would have completely forgone seeking medical attention otherwise.

“Five years from now, I would define success across three dimensions: less cost, less time, and less disruption,” Dr. Shah remarked.

Integrating Healthcare Into Daily Life

The legislative window for these programs is tightening. Medicare’s final 2027 physician fee schedule, issued on November 4, operationalizes telehealth flexibilities that Congress previously extended through the end of 2027, maintaining coverage for the majority of home-based visits. Without further Congressional intervention, these provisions will lapse.

Crucially, much of the value documented by Dr. Newman and Dr. Shah—ranging from preserved wages and saved fuel to intercepted complications and prevented care abandonment—is excluded from how Medicare calculates visit reimbursements. This creates an urgent question for the near future: should these measurable benefits influence upcoming policy decisions governing the trajectory of virtual care?

For Dr. Newman, regulatory predictability is vital for maintaining dependable health services. “Our system’s firm belief is that we need a permanent, predictable path for virtual care,” he asserted. “It’s unfair to our patients and providers if they don’t know where they’re going to get their healthcare next.”

Corewell, which prepares to scale its Connected Care platform in 2027, remains optimistic that Washington authorities will preserve the clinical advancements achieved over the past six years.

Summarizing the ultimate objective from the patient's perspective, Dr. Shah offered a personal insight: “Ultimately, success is that healthcare begins to fit into a patient’s life rather than requiring the patient’s life to continually fit around healthcare.”

While fuel prices will inevitably fluctuate over the coming year, the physical distance separating rural patients from specialized physicians remains constant. The true, comprehensive value of virtual care becomes evident only when we tally the preserved workdays, spare families from exhaustive drives, and empower patients to attend appointments without sacrificing their livelihoods.