Telehealth visits quietly slashed carbon emissions in 2023, UCLA study finds

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The major selling points for telehealth have long been access, convenience and continuity of care — this new study suggests it offers another, often overlooked benefit: cutting carbon emissions on a national scale.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Health Sciences and the University of Michigan found that routine use of telehealth services prevented as much carbon pollution as removing up to 130,000 gas-powered cars from U.S. roads each month of 2023. Their findings, published today in The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC), highlight telehealth’s potential role in reducing the health care sector’s sizable environmental footprint.

“As Congress debates whether to extend or modify pandemic-era telehealth flexibilities, our results provide important evidence for policymakers to consider, namely that telemedicine has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of U.S. health care delivery,” said John N. Mafi, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at UCLA and co-senior author of the study.

Health care is rarely brought up in the climate conversation, but it’s a sizable contributor. The U.S. health system is responsible for about 9% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, while transportation accounts for nearly one-third. By keeping patients out of their cars, telehealth offers a modest but measurable climate benefit — especially for frequent visits or rural patients traveling long distances for care.

Using a national claims database representing roughly 19% of insured U.S. adults, researchers analyzed more than 1.4 million telehealth visits between April and June 2023. They estimated that between 740,000 and 1.35 million of those encounters replaced in-person visits that would have required travel.

The resulting carbon savings totaled between 21.4 million and 47.6 million kilograms of CO₂ each month — roughly equivalent to the monthly emissions of 61,000 to 130,000 gas-powered cars or recycling up to 4 million trash bags.

“The health care sector contributes significantly to the global carbon footprint,” said A. Mark Fendrick, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design at the University of Michigan and the study’s co-senior author. “Our findings suggest that the environmental impact of medical care delivery can be reduced when lower-carbon options, such as telemedicine, are substituted for other services that produce more emissions."

The researchers found that rural patients stood to gain the most. Average driving distance to a provider in rural areas is more than double that of urban areas, further amplifying telehealth’s environmental impact in those communities.

Still, the study’s authors were cautious about overinterpreting the data. Their estimates are based on modeling and assumptions about driving habits, substitution rates and vehicle types. With telehealth use declining from its pandemic peak, the actual emissions reductions could be lower going forward.

Even so, the researchers argue that telehealth’s climate impact is worth considering as policymakers revisit regulations and reimbursement. Current discussions around virtual care often focus on access, fraud, or payment — but its potential role in mitigating climate change has rarely entered the debate.

“These are meaningful numbers,” the authors wrote. “Reducing emissions isn’t just a climate issue — it’s a public health issue.”