Willingness to pay for telemedicine assessed by the double-bounded dichotomous choice method.

We investigated the willingness of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) to pay for access to medical care via telemedicine, as an alternative to visits to a physician's office. Willingness to pay was estimated using a double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method. One hundred and twenty-six patients were surveyed after their discharge from a CHF-related hospital stay. As expected, willingness to pay was negatively related to price. When people are presented with a survey question about value, particularly when the good being valued is not traded in the market, the question itself can affect the person's perception of value. However, the survey results showed no evidence of such a 'framing' effect. We found that 55% of the patients would be willing to pay $20 to access telemedicine instead of travelling to the physician's office, for at least some of their care. When the price was raised to $40, the proportion willing to pay fell to 19%. This suggests that telemedicine may be close to being commercially feasible in the USA.