The impact of expanded telehealth availability on primary care utilization
Ram Dixit, Raj M. Ratwani, Jasmine A. Bishop, Kevin A. Schulman, Christopher Sharp, Kerry Palakanis, Ethan Booker
Abstract
The expanded availability of telehealth due to the COVID-19 pandemic presents a concern that telehealth may result in an unnecessary increase in utilization. We analyzed 4,114,651 primary care encounters (939,134 unique patients) from three healthcare systems between 2019 and 2021 and found little change in utilization as telehealth became widely available. Results suggest telehealth availability is not resulting in additional primary care visits and federal policies should support telehealth use.
Topics & Concepts
TelehealthPrimary carePandemicCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)TelemedicineMedicineBusinessHealth careMedical emergencyNursingFamily medicinePolitical scienceInfectious disease (medical specialty)LawDiseasePathologyTelemedicine and Telehealth ImplementationCOVID-19 and healthcare impactsPatient Satisfaction in Healthcare