Though outpatient visits conducted through telehealth have declined since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth visits have remained elevated even as more patients return to in-person care, according to an analysis by Epic Research and the Kaiser Family Foundation, Mobi Health News reports.
The brief, which analyzed visits from March 2019 to August 2021, found in-person outpatient visits during the first six months of the pandemic declined to 72% of visits a year earlier. Telehealth care helped boost total visits, but there was still a gap compared with 2019.
However, by March 2021 to August 2021, utilization was back to pre-pandemic levels. In-person outpatient visits were higher than the same period two years earlier, and another telehealth bump meant total outpatient visits were 19% higher than in 2019. Read more.
