According to this recent article in Medpage Today, the use of telehealth in primary care declined somewhat but appears to have leveled off at a persistent and significant level by the beginning of June. It still accounted for 22.7% of Medicare beneficiaries’ primary care visits as of June 3rd. Overall, weekly primary care visit rates have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.
“Based on early experience with Medicare primary care telehealth at the start of the COVID-19 public health emergency, there is evidence that Medicare’s new telehealth flexibilities played a critical role in helping to maintain access to primary health care services — when many beneficiaries and providers were concerned with transmission of COVID-19,” the authors noted. “The stable and sustained use of telehealth after in-person primary care visits started to resume in mid-April suggests there may be continued demand for telehealth in Medicare, even after the pandemic ends.”
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