Hot off the presses - new data on telehealth use in 2020 in Medicare!

From no less authoritative a source than @SeemaCMS herself in @Health_Affairs blog.

There are a lot of interesting details in here, let's do a brief /thread

https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200715.454789/full/

First off - telehealth expansion, as predicted, was HUGE

From 13,000 beneficiaries a week pre-COVID (once upon a time that felt like a lot to me) to 1.7 MILLION a week by the end of April.

With 60 million people on Medicare that's nearly 3% with a telehealth visit every week!

In total 9 million Medicare beneficiaries - 15% of all the whole Medicare population has had a telehealth visit post-COVID (this includes audio only).

Why is this a big deal? I'd argue that a critical mass have had exposure to telemedicine now and they will want more of it.

If you focus in on just traditional Medicare beneficiaries, 22% of those in rural areas have used telemedicine post-COVID and 30% in urban areas. Definitely a critical mass in many ways.

Another big concern is the "digital divide" and whether telemedicine will leave disadvantaged groups behind.

Things look fairly equitable surprisingly enough.

Percentage with a telemedicine visit post-COVID:

>85yo - 28%
65-74yo - 25%

White - 28%
Black - 29%
Hispanic - 27%

These statistics need independent analysis before I would confidently say that disadvantaged groups had equitable access to telemedicine.

Other nuggets:
- 60% of all psychology visits were telehealth post COVID
- 26% of nursing home visits were telehealth

Also, Verma writes that 30% of telehealth visits were audio only (the implication being that 70% used video) - which I find very surprising and I think will be revised up when we have more information.

The blog post is definitely worth a read if you have any interest in telemedicine.

https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200715.454789/full/

/end thread