Access to care through telehealth among U.S. Medicare beneficiaries in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency has amplified the potential value of deploying telehealth solutions. Less is known about how trends in access to care through telehealth changed over time.

Objectives

To investigate trends in forgone care and telehealth coverage among Medicare beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

A cross-sectional study design was used to analyze the outcomes of 31,907 Medicare beneficiaries using data from three waves of survey data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey COVID-19 Supplement (Summer 2020, Fall 2020, and Winter 2021). We identified informative variables through a multivariate classification analysis utilizing Random Forest machine learning techniques.

Findings

The rat

SUBMITTER: Lu M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9485666 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature