A Study of Privately Insured Patients Finds Short-Term Telehealth Follow-Up Comparable to Most In-Person Care During First Year of COVID-19 Pandemic
New research published in JAMA-Open this week by the Johns Hopkins Center for Population Health IT (CPHIT). The article can be found here.
In this study, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the authors found that, on average, patients participating in an initial telehealth consult for a new health condition did not require more unplanned hospitalizations or follow-up emergency department visits within 14 days of their initial consult compared with patients making an initial in-person visit.
With a grant from the American Telemedicine Association, the researchers undertook a national study based on a cohort of 41 M BCBS working-age enrollees. They compared episodes of care for “ambulatory care sensitive conditions” that were treated via telehealth to those that were treated in-person. The main analysis period was during the July-December 2020 COVID era.
The focus was on unanticipated ED and hospital follow-ups. This study also assessed many factors linked to higher or lower use rates of telehealth including impact neighborhood ADI, provider characteristics and internet access).
A JHSPH press release about this article is at: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/study-of-privately-insured-patients-finds-short-term-telehealth-follow-up-comparable-to-most-in-person-care-during-first-year-of-covid-19-pandemic