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As Medicare telehealth flexibilities rapidly approach their expiration date, researchers from Cornell examined 2022 Medicare fee-for-service claims to understand how physician characteristics impacted telehealth use. They focused on evaluation and management visits, because those lend themselves the most to telehealth compared to visits where there’s a procedure.
The researchers billboard the fact that overall, female physicians were “significantly more likely” than male physicians to to deliver telehealth visits. They note the reasons for this warrant more research, but also hazard a guess at an explanation: “It is possible that female physicians, who tend to have greater familial responsibilities, place a higher value on the potential of scheduling and location flexibilities afforded by telehealth.” A reach without evidence? Maybe! But to me it is a good reminder that when we talk about utilization numbers for telehealth, we ought to consider not only how technology enables more people to receive care — but also how it potentially eases the burden on physicians who deliver care.
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