Telehealth Research, Reports and Surveys
Healthcare IT News: Broadband access, outdated laws among hurdles to equitable telehealth, says NCQA (5/12) The National Committee for Quality Assurance this week released a white paper exploring the root causes of disparities in virtual care access. The report, which grew out of an NCQA roundtable discussion on the future of telehealth, outlines existing barriers to equity and recommendations for improving care delivery.
Yale School of Medicine: Telehealth Improves Access to Cochlear Implants—a Boon for Those with Severe Hearing Loss (5/10) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved remote programming for cochlear implants in 2017, but there were various governmental restrictions and regulations that made it difficult to implement. In response to COVID-19, however, the federal government rapidly removed such barriers. Patients now have the option to receive their routine cochlear implant reprogramming remotely.
AARP: Interest in Telehealth Holds Steady Two Years Into Pandemic (5/10) – According to a recent AARP report, nearly one in three adults (32 percent) age 50 or older are either extremely or very interested in telehealth services, for themselves or a loved one. The survey found greater interest in telehealth services among nonwhite populations, including 45 percent of Black, non-Hispanic respondents that were extremely or very interested, compared to 35 percent of Hispanic respondents and just 29 percent of white, non-Hispanic older adults. The report highlighted that telehealth is likely to continue to remain an important tool in the health care delivery tool kit.
Medical Economics: How primary care used telehealth to keep treating patients during the pandemic (5/10) – According to a Primary Care Collaborative (PCC) report, primary care physicians quickly pivoted to telehealth at the beginning of the pandemic. In April 2020, the number of clinicians reporting that their patients were unable to access telehealth services due to lack of equipment or broadband issues fell from 72 percent to 65 percent, meaning more patients were gaining access to telehealth. By the end of May, this number dropped to 29 percent. In March 2020, 60 percent of clinicians said they didn’t use telehealth, but by mid-April, that number had fallen to only 14 percent. The data shows that primary care was able to quickly move to virtual visits but had scarce resources to maintain it at the time.
Penn Medicine News: Racial Gap in Completed Doctor Visits Disappeared in 2020 as Telemedicine Adopted (5/9) – A Penn Medicine study found that as COVID-19 necessitated the wider adoption of telemedicine, the rate of completed primary care visits for Black patients rose to the same level of non-Black patients. The study showed that completed primary care visits rose from approximately 60 percent among Black patients before the arrival of COVID-19 to over 80 percent in 2020. To compare, non-Black patients visit completion rate was in the 70 percent range prior to COVID-19, then was also over 80 percent in 2020. The equity gap of at least 10 percent disappeared at Penn Medicine practices after the pandemic arrived, when telemedicine was widely adopted. Telemedicine allowed patients to seek non-urgent primary care despite hesitancy for in-person visits pre-vaccine.
Health Affairs: Medicare and Telehealth – Delivering on Innovation’s Promise for Equity, Quality, Access and Sustainability (May 2022) - The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly changed health care. Policy makers and health care leaders must evaluate the lessons learned from the pandemic and leverage telehealth innovations with an eye toward how such changes can advance health equity; drive high-quality, high-value, person-centered care; and promote affordability and sustainability. This report explores these topics in more detail.
Managed Healthcare Executive: Pandemic Surge in Telehealth Did Not Worsen Healthcare Disparity: Johns Hopkins researchers (5/13) Findings reported in this month’s Health Affairs show high use of telehealth in disadvantaged neighborhoods among beneficiaries after Medicare restrictions on telehealth were waived. Sanuja Bose and other researchers at Johns Hopkins found that after CMS waived telehealth restrictions in March 2020 because of the pandemic, people living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods had highest odds of using telehealth services relative to those living in the least disadvantaged neighborhoods.
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