The financial implications of telemedicine practice patterns across pediatric surgical specialties.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Telemedicine has played an increasingly important role in surgical care during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, yet little is known about its usage and correlation to cost both within and across surgical specialties during the pandemic.

Study design

We collected data on telehealth encounters from April 2020 to June 2021 for all surgical specialties at a pediatric academic institution. The percent of total encounters that were telemedicine vs. in-person were analyzed over time. Data on charge and reimbursement were averaged for each encounter type, and the percent difference in average charge and reimbursement was calculated and compared between surgical specialties.

Results

Of the 147,007 surgical clinical visits identified, 6,566 encounter

SUBMITTER: Chwa ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9077903 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature