Medicare and telehealth: The impact of COVID-19 pandemic

Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice: Medicare and telehealth: The impact of COVID-19 pandemic

A new study shows Medicare beneficiaries living in metropolitan areas were more likely to report that they used telehealth services. Researchers assessed the responses of 9,686 beneficiaries to the CMS Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey Fall 2020 COVID-19 Supplement. More than half (58.3 percent) of beneficiaries reported that their primary care physicians have offered telehealth appointments since July 2020. The study also revealed differences in telehealth access and usage among Medicare beneficiaries based on age, sex, location and internet access. For example, compared to people who were older 75 years, younger Medicare beneficiaries were more likely to have a telehealth appointment with their primary care physician, to report higher rates of specialist telehealth visits and to use video or voice calls with their physicians. In addition, beneficiaries who lived in non-metro areas were less likely to report that their primary care provider offered telehealth appointments and use video or voice calls as compared to their metro-based counterparts.