Overall and Telehealth Addiction Treatment Utilization by Age, Race, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Status in California After COVID-19 Policy Changes

JAMA Health Forum: Overall and Telehealth Addiction Treatment Utilization by Age, Race, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Status in California After COVID-19 Policy Changes

This cohort study found that disparities in addiction treatment utilization were not exacerbated following expansion of telehealth during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers examined whether there were differences in overall and telehealth addiction treatment utilization after telehealth policy changes during the COVID-19 pandemic by age, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Additionally, the findings show that the odds of initiating addiction treatment via telehealth rose by 38.5 percentage points between 2019 and 2020.