Outcomes of In-Person and Telehealth Ambulatory Encounters During COVID-19 Within a Large Commercially Insured Cohort.

Importance: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, few studies have assessed the association of telehealth with outcomes of care, including patterns of health care use after the initial encounter. Objective: To assess the association of telehealth and in-person visits with outcomes of care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study assessed continuously enrolled members in private health plans of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association from July 1, 2019, to December 31, 2020. Main Outcomes and Measures: Main outcomes were ambulatory encounters per enrollee stratified by characteristics derived from enrollment files, practitioner claims, and community characteristics linked to the enrollee's zip code. Outcomes of care were assessed 14 days after the initial encounters and included follow-up encounters of any kind, emergency department encounters, and hospitalizations after initial telehealth or in-person encounters. Results: In this cohort study of 40 739 915 individuals (mean [SD] age, 35.37 [18.77] years; 20 480 768 [50.3%] female), ambulatory encounters decreased by 1.0% and the number of in-person encounters per enrollee decreased by 17.0% from 2019 to 2020; however, as a proportion of all ambulatory encounters, telehealth encounters increased substantially from 0.6% (n = 236 220) to 14.1% (n = 5 743 718). For members with an initial telehealth encounter for a new acute condition, the adjusted odds ratio was 1.44 (95% CI, 1.42-1.46) for all follow-ups combined and 1.11 (95% CI, 1.06-1.16) for an emergency department encounter. For members with an initial telehealth encounter for a new chronic condition, the adjusted odds ratios were 0.94 (95% CI, 0.92-0.95) for all follow-ups combined and 0.94 (95% CI, 0.90-0.99) for in-patient admissions. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort study of 40.7 million commercially insured adults, telehealth accounted for a large share of ambulatory encounters at the peak of the pandemic and remained prevalent after infection rates subsided. Telehealth encounters for chronic conditions had similar rates of follow-up to in-person encounters for these conditions, whereas telehealth encounters for acute conditions seemed to be more likely than in-person encounters to require follow-up. These findings suggest a direction for future work and are relevant to policy makers, payers, and practitioners as they manage the use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic and afterward.

In-Person and Telehealth Ambulatory Contacts and Costs in a Large US Insured Cohort Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Importance: This study assesses the role of telehealth in the delivery of care at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Objectives: To document patterns and costs of ambulatory care in the US before and during the initial stage of the pandemic and to assess how patient, practitioner, community, and COVID-19-related factors are associated with telehealth adoption. Design, Setting, and Participants: This is a cohort study of working-age persons continuously enrolled in private health plans from March 2019 through June 2020. The comparison periods were March to June in 2019 and 2020. Claims data files were provided by Blue Health Intelligence, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Data analysis was performed from June to October 2020. Main Outcomes and Measures: Ambulatory encounters (in-person and telehealth) and allowed charges, stratified by characteristics derived from enrollment files, practitioner claims, and community characteristics linked to the enrollee's zip code. Results: A total of 36 568 010 individuals (mean [SD] age, 35.71 [18.77] years; 18 466 557 female individuals [50.5%]) were included in the analysis. In-person contacts decreased by 37% (from 1.63 to 1.02 contacts per enrollee) from 2019 to 2020. During 2020, telehealth visits (0.32 visit per person) accounted for 23.6% of all interactions compared with 0.3% of contacts in 2019. When these virtual contacts were added, the overall COVID-19 era patient and practitioner visit rate was 18% lower than that in 2019 (1.34 vs 1.64 visits per person). Behavioral health encounters were far more likely than medical contacts to take place virtually (46.1% vs 22.1%). COVID-19 prevalence in an area was associated with higher use of telehealth; patients from areas within the top quintile of COVID-19 prevalence during the week of their encounter were 1.34 times more likely to have a telehealth visit compared with those in the lowest quintile (the reference category). Persons living in areas with limited social resources were less likely to use telehealth (most vs least socially advantaged neighborhoods, 27.4% vs 19.9% usage rates). Per enrollee medical care costs decreased by 15% between 2019 and 2020 (from $358.32 to $306.04 per person per month). During 2020, those with 1 or more COVID-19-related service (1 470 721 members) had more than 3 times the medical costs ($1701 vs $544 per member per month) than those without COVID-19-related services. Persons with 1 or more telehealth visits in 2020 had considerably higher costs than persons having only in-person ambulatory contacts ($2214.10 vs $1337.78 for the COVID-19-related subgroup and $735.87 vs $456.41 for the non-COVID-19 subgroup). Conclusions and Relevance: This study of a large cohort of patients enrolled in US health plans documented patterns of care at the onset of COVID-19. The findings are relevant to policy makers, payers, and practitioners as they manage the use of telehealth during the pandemic and afterward.

Implementation and evaluation of an algorithm-based order set for the outpatient treatment of urinary tract infections in the spinal cord injury population in a VA Medical Center.

BACKGROUND: Treatment of urinary tract infections (UTI) in the spinal cord injury (SCI) population is often difficult due to the lack of symptoms, increased resistance, and increased morbidity and mortality associated with UTIs. OBJECTIVE: To develop an algorithm-based order set for the treatment of UTIs for patients with SCI based on SCI-specific antibiogram data in order to assess and improve current antimicrobial prescribing practices at the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center (ZVAMC). METHODS: This study is a retrospective, pre- and post-implementation analysis of an order set based on SCI antibiogram data. Descriptive statistics were used to compare baseline data and characteristics and chi squared tests were used to evaluate the primary outcome and all secondary outcomes. To achieve a power of 80% with an effect size of 0.3, the goal was to assess 45 antimicrobial treatment courses in the pre-implementation group and 45 antimicrobial treatment courses in the post-implementation group. RESULTS: The percentage of appropriate antimicrobial treatment courses increased from 47.9% in the pre-intervention group (n = 73) to 71.8% in the post-intervention group (n = 39), which was statistically significant (P = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with SCI treated for UTIs within the ZVAMC had a significantly higher percentage of appropriate treatment courses following the implementation of a unit-specific antibiogram, electronic order set, and educational in-service for providers. An order set and unit-specific antibiogram with related education may be beneficial in improving antimicrobial therapy from a stewardship perspective.

Perception of Employment by the Veterans Participating in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games: A Survey Study.

BACKGROUND: Employment in those with disability is an important rehabilitation goal, along with achieving some measure of functional independence and is at the same time one of the most difficult goals to achieve. The number of people with disabilities participating in adaptive sports has been increasing steadily over the years. A few studies have looked at the relationship between physical fitness and employment status in those with disability, but there have been no studies that focused on the results of organized adaptive sports events affecting employment outcome. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether participation in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games (NVWG) has a positive impact on employment in those with disability. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective, cross-sectional survey. SETTING: 2015 NVWG in Dallas, Texas (nonclinic setting). PARTICIPANTS: A total of 338 survey participants; 36 surveys were excluded due to incompletion. METHODS: Veterans who participated at the 2015 NVWG were given the opportunity to complete a 2-page survey. Survey participants received $5.00 gift card as compensation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: Percentage of those who perceived NVWG made a difference in attaining employment, risk ratio analyses. RESULTS: A total of 50% of the participants stated that the NVWG made a difference in attaining employment. Those currently working were 1.5 times more likely to say that the NVWG had a positive effect on employment than those not currently working (P < .01). Those who felt that the NVWG had a positive effect on employment attended 3-4 more wheelchair games on average than those reporting that the NVWG did not have an impact on employment (P < .001). Positive responses were obtained from the Likert scale distribution. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that participating in the NVWG provides psychosocial support to the veterans and may have a positive influence in employment outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.

Calcium Pyrophosphate Deposition Disease and Associated Medical Comorbidities: A National Cross-Sectional Study of US Veterans.

OBJECTIVE: Calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease (CPDD) is a common cause of acute and chronic arthritis, yet there are few large epidemiologic studies of CPDD. We sought to characterize CPDD in the national Veterans Affairs (VA) population. METHODS: Using data from the Department of VA Corporate Data Warehouse, patients with International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, codes for CPDD seen at any VA medical center from 2010 through 2014 were matched by age and sex with control patients without CPDD. We used multivariate analysis to compare the prevalence and odds ratios (ORs) of various comorbidities, substance use, medication exposures, and arthroplasties among patients with and without CPDD. RESULTS: We identified 25,157 patients with CPDD, yielding a point prevalence of 5.2 per 1,000. The mean ± SD age was 68.1 ± 12.3 years, and 95% were male. The strongest positive associations with CPDD were hyperparathyroidism (OR 3.35 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 2.96-3.79]), gout (OR 2.82 [95% CI 2.69-2.95]), osteoarthritis (OR 2.26 [95% CI 2.15-2.37]), rheumatoid arthritis (OR 1.88 [95% CI 1.74-2.03]), and hemochromatosis (OR 1.87 [95% CI 1.57-2.24]). Positive associations were also seen with higher odds for osteoporosis (OR 1.26 [95% CI 1.16-1.36]), hypomagnesemia (OR 1.23 [95% CI 1.16-1.30]), chronic kidney disease (OR 1.12 [95% CI 1.07-1.18]), and calcium supplementation (OR 1.15 [95% CI 1.06-1.24). Negative associations were seen with proton-pump inhibitors (OR 0.58 [95% CI 0.55-0.60]) and loop diuretics (OR 0.80 [95% CI 0.76-0.84]). CONCLUSION: Using a large national data set, we confirmed known associations with CPDD, provided support for positive associations with rheumatoid arthritis, hypomagnesemia, and osteoporosis, and suggested potential novel negative associations with commonly used medications.