Travel, Wait Times Cost $89 Billion Annually for Health Care Service

According to survey data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Wait Time Use Survey, spanning 2006 through 2017, travel and wait times were highest for health care services, ranked above legal services, personal care, vehicular repairs, and government activities. These higher travel and wait times resulted in $89 billion lost.

A research brief titled, “Travel and Wait Times Are Longest for Health Care Services and Result in an Annual Opportunity Cost of $89 Billion” was recently published by Altarum, a non-profit devoted to analyzing and solving problems to improve health care.

The analysis, conducted by senior analyst, Corwin Rhyan of Altaraum, shows that patients spend an average 34 minutes travelling to health care service appointments and an additional average of 11 minutes waiting. “When quantified by applying an individual’s hourly wage as an approximate measure of the economic cost of time spent, travel and waiting costs averaged $89 billion annually from 2006 through 2017,” he stated in the report.

“The time spent traveling and waiting for health care services on a day when an individual got care was over 50% of the time spent actually receiving care—45 combined minutes traveling and waiting vs. 76 minutes receiving care,” stated the report.

“For those who are currently employed in the labor force, a day that includes time spent traveling or waiting for health care services is associated with 90 fewer minutes spent working and 37 fewer minutes spent engaging in leisure,” Mr Rhyan stated. “For those who are unemployed or not in the labor force, traveling or waiting for health care services results in 74 fewer minutes engaging in leisure. These results are robust when controlling for the respondent’s health status, sex, and age.”

According to the research brief, “Receiving professional health care nearly always required travel to access that care and frequently required time spent waiting. The average time required was not impacted by an individual’s income or location.”

Mr Rhyan explained that time spent travel and waiting for care is an unappreciated burden of the US health care system where patients stand to lose the most.

“Among all time spent on health care related activities (self-care, assisting others, receiving professional care, waiting and travel), travel, and waiting for care accounted for 19.7% of the total time spent, on average over two minutes a day or an hour per month,” stated Mr Rhyan.

While much is being done to address access to health care and insurance coverage, there is still development needed in providing timely and efficient care. The analyst suggests that the introduction of telehealth and in-home services could help reduce the burden.

Mr Rhyan concluded, “Given the lack of progress made in decreasing wait and travel times, despite significant system investments in access and efficiency, this report emphasizes the need for further focus on decreasing a patient’s time burden in receiving care.” —Edan Stanley