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Health Policy

Community Factors Associated With Telemedicine Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Educational Objective
To identify the key insights or developments described in this article

1 Credit CME

JAMA Network Open

Published Online: May 18, 2021

Research Letter

Article Information and Disclosures

Sadiq Y. Patel, PhD, MS, MSW¹;

Sherri Rose, PhD²;

Michael L. Barnett, MD, MS^3,4;

Haiden A. Huskamp, PhD¹;

Lori Uscher-Pines, PhD⁵;

Ateev Mehrotra, MD, MPH^1,6,7

Author Affiliations

¹Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
²Center for Health Policy, Stanford University, Stanford, California
³Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
⁴Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
⁵RAND Corporation, Arlington, Virginia
⁶Division of General Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
⁷OptumLabs Visiting Fellow, Eden Prairie, Minnesota

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Article Information

Accepted for Publication: March 24, 2021.

Published: May 18, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.10330

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License. © 2021 Patel SY et al. JAMA Network Open.

Corresponding Author: Ateev Mehrotra, MD, MPH, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, 180A Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115 (mehrotra@hcp.med.harvard.edu).

Author Contributions: Dr Patel had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Concept and design: Patel, Rose, Barnett, Mehrotra.

Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: Patel, Rose, Huskamp, Uscher-Pines, Mehrotra.

Drafting of the manuscript: Patel.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: All authors.

Statistical analysis: Patel, Rose, Barnett.

Obtained funding: Uscher-Pines, Mehrotra.

Administrative, technical, or material support: Patel, Barnett, Huskamp, Mehrotra.

Supervision: Patel, Rose, Huskamp, Uscher-Pines.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

Funding/Support: This project was supported by the Commonwealth Fund, National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (K23 AG058806-01) and the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH112829-01, T32MH019733).

Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Additional Contributions: We thank Rebecca Shyu, University of Missouri, for contributing to data cleaning, data analysis, and manuscript preparation efforts. She was not compensated.

References

Patel SY , Mehrotra A , Huskamp HA , Uscher-Pines L , Ganguli I , Barnett ML . Trends in outpatient care delivery and telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. JAMA Intern Med. 2021;181(3):388-391. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.5928 PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

Patel SY , Mehrotra A , Huskamp HA , Uscher-Pines L , Ganguli I , Barnett ML . Variation in telemedicine use and outpatient care during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Health Aff (Millwood). 2021;40(2):349-358. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01786 PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. List of telehealth services. Updated April 30, 2020. Accessed July 15, 2020. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-General-Information/Telehealth/Telehealth-Codes

Bureau of Health Workforce and HRSA. Area Health Resources Files. Updated July 31, 2020. Accessed November 1, 2020. https://data.hrsa.gov/topics/health-workforce/ahrf

van der Laan MJ , Rose S . Targeted Learning: Causal Inference for Observational and Experimental Data. Springer-Verlag; 2011. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-9782-1

Morton H . Broadband 2020 legislation. National Conference of State Legislatures. Updated October 8, 2020. Accessed November 15, 2020. https://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/broadband-2020-legislation.aspx

AMA CME Accreditation Information

Credit Designation Statement: The American Medical Association designates this Journal-based CME activity activity for a maximum of 1.00  AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to:

1.00 Medical Knowledge MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine's (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program;;
1.00 Self-Assessment points in the American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery’s (ABOHNS) Continuing Certification program;
1.00 MOC points in the American Board of Pediatrics’ (ABP) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program;
1.00 Lifelong Learning points in the American Board of Pathology’s (ABPath) Continuing Certification program; and
1.00 CME points in the American Board of Surgery’s (ABS) Continuing Certification program

It is the CME activity provider's responsibility to submit participant completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting MOC credit.