IS in Healthcare

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Paper Number

1277

Paper Type

Completed

Description

Using hospital claims data, we study the effect of telehealth expansion on the disparities between care access in rural and urban areas during Covid-19. We use urban areas as the control group and compare the changes in patients' access to care before and after the telehealth expansion. We find that the rural-urban disparities in overall access to care (i.e., the total number of visits) remain unchanged after the policy. We further distinguish patients' visiting modalities and find enlarged disparities in patients' visiting modalities. In particular, urban patients substitute in-person visits with telehealth visits, yet rural patients have a much lower adoption rate of telehealth services and continued with the in-person visits. Finally, we perform visit-level analyses and identify patients' social determinants and physicians' characteristics associated with telehealth adoptions.

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Dec 12th, 12:00 AM

Does Telehealth Reduce Rural-Urban Care Access Disparities? Evidence from Covid-19 Telehealth Expansion

Using hospital claims data, we study the effect of telehealth expansion on the disparities between care access in rural and urban areas during Covid-19. We use urban areas as the control group and compare the changes in patients' access to care before and after the telehealth expansion. We find that the rural-urban disparities in overall access to care (i.e., the total number of visits) remain unchanged after the policy. We further distinguish patients' visiting modalities and find enlarged disparities in patients' visiting modalities. In particular, urban patients substitute in-person visits with telehealth visits, yet rural patients have a much lower adoption rate of telehealth services and continued with the in-person visits. Finally, we perform visit-level analyses and identify patients' social determinants and physicians' characteristics associated with telehealth adoptions.

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