Use telehealth as needed: telehealth substitutes in-person primary care and associates with the changes in unplanned events and follow-up visits.

BACKGROUND: Telehealth rapidly expanded since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to understand how telehealth can substitute in-person services by 1) estimating the changes in non-COVID emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and care costs among US Medicare beneficiaries by visit modality (telehealth vs. in-person) during the COVID-19 pandemic relative to the previous year; 2) comparing the follow-up time and patterns between telehealth and in-person care. METHODS: A retrospective and longitudinal study design using US Medicare patients 65 years or older from an Accountable Care Organization (ACO). The study period was April-December 2020, and the baseline period was March 2019 - February 2020. The sample included 16,222 patients, 338,872 patient-month records and 134,375 outpatient encounters. Patients were categorized as non-users, telehealth only, in-person care only and users of both types. Outcomes included the number of unplanned events and costs per month at the patient level; number of days until the next visit and whether the next visit happened within 3-, 7-, 14- and 30-days at the encounter level. All analyses were adjusted for patient characteristics and seasonal trends. RESULTS: Beneficiaries who used only telehealth or in-person care had comparable baseline health conditions but were healthier than those who used both types of services. During the study period, the telehealth only group had significantly fewer ED visits/hospitalizations and lower Medicare payments than the baseline (ED 13.2, 95% CI [11.6, 14.7] vs. 24.6 per 1,000 patients per month and hospitalization 8.1 [6.7, 9.4] vs. 12.7); the in-person only group had significantly fewer ED visits (21.9 [20.3, 23.5] vs. 26.1) and lower Medicare payments, but not hospitalizations; the both-types group had significantly more hospitalizations (23.0 [21.4, 24.6] vs. 17.8). Telehealth was not significantly different from in-person encounters in number of days until the next visit (33.4 vs. 31.2 days) or the probabilities of 3- and 7-day follow-up visits (9.2 vs. 9.3% and 21.8 vs.23.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Patients and providers treated telehealth and in-person visits as substitutes and used either depending on medical needs and availability. Telehealth did not lead to sooner or more follow-up visits than in-person services.

Catastrophic health expenditure, incidence, trend and socioeconomic risk factors in China: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: To evaluate the incidence and trend of catastrophic health expenditures (CHE) in China over the past 20 years and explore the socioeconomic factors affecting China's CHE rate. Methods: The systematic review was conducted according to the Cochrane Handbook and reported according to PRISMA. We searched English and Chinese literature databases, including PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan Fang, China Science and Technology Journal Database (CQVIP), and CBM (Sino Med), for empirical studies on the CHE rate in China and its associated socioeconomic factors from January 2000 to June 2020. Two reviewers conducted the study selection, data extraction, and quality appraisal. The secular trend of the CHE rate was examined, and factors associated with CHE were explored using subgroup analysis and meta-regression. Results: A total of 118 eligible studies with 1,771,726 participants were included. From 2000 to 2020, the overall CHE rate was 25.2% (95% CI: 23.4%-26.9%) in China. The CHE rate continued to rise from 13.0% in 2000 to 32.2% in 2020 in the general population. The CHE rate was higher in urban areas than in rural areas, higher in the western than the northeast, eastern, and central region, in the elderly than non-elderly, in low-income groups than non-low-income groups, in people with cancer, chronic infectious disease, and cardio-cerebrovascular diseases (CCVD) than those with non-chronic disease group, and in people with NCMS than those with URBMI and UEBMI. Multiple meta-regression analyses found that low-income, cancer, CCVD, unspecified medical insurance type, definition 1 and definition 2 were correlated with the CHE rate, while other factors were all non-significantly correlated. Conclusion: In the past two decades, the CHE rate in China has been rising. The continuous rise of health expenditures may be an important reason for the increasing CHE rate. Age, income level, and health status affect the CHE rate. Therefore, it is necessary to find ways to meet the medical needs of residents and, at the same time, control the unreasonable rapid increase in health expenditures in China.

Disparities in the Use of In-Person and Telehealth Primary Care Among High- and Low-Risk Medicare Beneficiaries During COVID-19.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study using a difference-in-differences design to estimate differences in primary care outpatient clinic visit utilization among high- and low-risk Medicare aging beneficiaries from an Accountable Care Organization during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to a control cohort from the previous year. High-risk was defined as having a Hierarchical Condition Category score of 2 or higher. A total of 582 101 patient-month records were analyzed. After adjusting for patient characteristics, those in the high-risk group had 339 (95% CI [333, 345]) monthly outpatient encounters (in-person and telehealth) per 1000 patients compared to 186 (95% CI [182, 190]) in the low-risk group. This represented a 22.8% and 26.5% decline from the previous year in each group, respectively. Within each group, there was lower utilization among those who were older, male, or dually eligible for Medicaid in the high-risk group and among those who were younger, male, or non-white in the low-risk group. Telehealth use was less common among patients who were older, dually eligible for Medicaid or living in rural/suburban areas compared to urban areas. All results were significant at the 95% level. We found significant disparities based on age, gender, insurance status, and non-white race in primary care utilization during the pandemic among Medicare beneficiaries. With the exception of gender, these disparities differed between high- and low-risk groups. Interventions targeting these vulnerable groups may improve health equity in the setting of public health emergencies.

AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting (ARM): A Selection of Abstracts Accepted for Oral Presentation, 2021.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: To investigate the extent to which telehealth visits mitigated COVID-19 pandemic-related impacts on in-person outpatient visits among Medicare beneficiaries, including those who are high-cost high-need. High-cost high-need patients were defined as those 65 years or older and with 2 or higher Hierarchical Condition Categories (HCC) scores. STUDY DESIGN: A difference-in-difference design was used to estimate the change in outpatient in-person and telehealth utilization for the COVID-19 pandemic cohort compared to the control cohort in the prior year. POPULATION STUDIED: Medicare patients from an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) were used as the study sample. The pandemic cohort was defined as those enrolled in the ACO in 2019-2020 (N = 21,361). The control cohort was defined as those enrolled in the ACO in 2018-2019 (N = 20,028). The study period was defined as April-September 2020 for the pandemic cohort and the same months in 2019 for the control cohort, with the preceding 12 months used as the baseline periods, respectively. Over 740,000 patient-month records were analyzed using logistic and negative binomial regressions. The models were adjusted for patient-level characteristics, including HCC scores, which reflect the complexity of patient health conditions and risk for future healthcare costs. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The total number of outpatient encounters (in-person and telehealth) in both primary and specialty care decreased by 41.5% in April 2020 compared to the pre-pandemic period. Telehealth comprised 78% of all outpatient encounters in April 2020 but declined to 22% by the end of September 2020. Only about 40% of all patients had at least one telehealth encounter between April-September 2020. Compared to the control cohort, the pandemic cohort experienced a monthly average of 113 fewer primary care encounters per 1000 patients (OR: 0.75, 95% CI: [0.73, 0.77]) and 49 fewer specialty care encounters (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: [0.80, 0.85]) over the six-month study period. This represented a decline of 25.6% and 17.3% in primary care and specialty encounters, respectively, among high-cost high-need patients. High-cost high-need patients or those with disabilities were more likely to use telehealth and experienced a lesser reduction in outpatient care utilization than other Medicare beneficiaries (OR: 1.20 and 1.06). Medicare beneficiaries with dual Medicaid coverage, those of non-white race/ethnic groups, and those living in rural/suburban areas were less likely to use telehealth and experienced a greater reduction in total outpatient care (OR: 0.86, 0.96 and 0.90). CONCLUSIONS: While there was a substantial significant increase in telehealth use in April 2020, utilization declined significantly during the six-month study period, and did not fully mitigate the decline in in-person outpatient visits resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. While high-cost high-need Medicare patients and those with disabilities were more likely to use telehealth, disparities in telehealth usage and reductions in outpatient care remain among low-income, non-white, and rural Medicare beneficiaries. IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY OR PRACTICE: Older patients insured by Medicare, including those with high-cost high-need or disabilities were able to make use of telehealth services for outpatient visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health policies and interventions should target improving telehealth access and delivery for advancing sustainability and equity among Medicare beneficiaries. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Accessibility of automatic external defibrillators and survival rate of people with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A systematic review of real-world studies.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between the accessibility of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) and the survival rate of patients who have out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). METHODS: The systematic review was conducted according to the Cochrane Handbook of Systematic Reviews. We searched the Chinese and English literature databases from 2009 to 2019. Study selection and data collection were conducted by three reviewers. One-month survival rates of OHCA with different AEDs accessibility were estimated using meta-analysis. RESULTS: Overall 16 studies with 55,537 participants were included. The overall one-month survival rate for OHCA was 27.4%. The one-month survival rate was 35.2% for people receiving AEDs within 5 min, 36.6% between 5 min to 10 min, and 28.4% for longer than 10 min. By distance between the location of the AEDs and the location of the cardiac arrest, the one-month survival rate was 37.1% for those ≤100 m, 22.0% for 100 m-200 m, and 12.8% for >200 m, respectively. The one-month survival rate was 39.3% in schools, sports venues and airports compared with 23.5% in other sites. The number of AEDs allocation was positively correlated, while the time and distance were negatively correlated with the one-month survival rate adjusted for other factors, but they were all non-significant correlations. CONCLUSION: The improvement of accessibility of AEDs may increase the survival rate of OHCA and the survival rate may be higher in playgrounds, airports, and schools equipped with AEDs. However, the strength of evidence was limited by the considerably heterogeneity of included studies. Verification of these findings in further studies is warranted.

Economic status and catastrophic health expenditures in China in the last decade of health reform: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: In order to solve the problem of "expensive medical treatment and difficult medical treatment" for patients and improve the equity of medical services, China started the health-care reform in 2009, and proposed ambitious goals of providing fair and high-quality basic medical and health services to all citizens and reducing economic burden of diseases. This study was to systematically explore the association between population economic status and incidence of catastrophic health expenditures (CHE) in mainland China in the last decade since 2009 health reform. METHODS: This systematic review was reported according to the standard of preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA). We systematically searched Chinese Electronic literature Database of China Journal Full Text Database, Chinese Biomedical Journal Database, Wan fang Data Resource System, VIP Database, and English literature databases of PubMed, SCI, EMbase and Cochrane Library from January 2000 to June 2020, and references of included studies. Two reviewers independently selected all reports from 2000 to 2020 for empirical studies of CHE in mainland China, extracted data and evaluated the quality of the study. We conducted meta-analysis of the incidence of CHE and subgroup analysis according to the time of the study and the economic characteristics of residents. RESULTS: Four thousand eight hundred seventy-four records were retrieved and eventually 47 studies with 151,911 participants were included. The quality scores of most of studies were beyond 4 points (91.49%). The pooled incidence of CHE of Chinese residents in the last two decades was 23.3% (95% CI: 21.1 to 25.6%). The CHE incidence increased from 2000 to 2017, then decreased over time from 2017 to 2020. From 2000 to 2020, the CHE incidence in rural areas was 25.0% (95% CI: 20.9 to 29.1%) compared to urban 20.9% (95% CI: 18.3 to 23.4%); the CHE incidence in eastern, central and western China was 25.0% (95% CI: 19.2 to 30.8%), 25.4% (95% CI: 18.4 to 32.3%), and 23.1% (95% CI: 17.9 to 28.2%), respectively; the CHE incidence was 30.9% (95% CI: 22.4 to 39.5%), 20.3% (95% CI: 17.0 to 23.6%), 19.9% (95% CI: 15.6 to 24.1%), and 23.7% (95% CI: 18.0 to 29.3%) in poverty group, low-income group, middle-income group, and high-income group, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In the past two decade, the incidence of CHE in rural areas is higher than that of urban residents; higher in central areas than in eastern, western and other regions; in poverty households than in low-income, middle-income and high-income regions. Further measures should be taken to reduce the incidence of CHE in susceptible people.

Do health insurances reduce catastrophic health expenditure in China? A systematic evidence synthesis.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of health insurances on catastrophic health expenditure (CHE), and compares that among different health insurances in the last two decades in China. METHODS: The systematic review was conducted according to the Cochrane Handbook and reported according to PRISMA. We searched English and Chinese literature databases including PubMed, EM base, web of science, CNKI, Wan fang, VIP and CBM (Sino Med) for empirical studies on the association between health insurance and CHE from January 2000 to June 2020. Study selection, data extraction and quality appraisal were conducted by two reviewers. The secular trend of CHE rate and comparisons between population with different health insurances were conducted using meta-analysis, subgroup analysis and meta-regression. RESULTS: A total of 4874 citations were obtained, and finally 30 eligible studies with 633917 participants were included. The overall CHE rate was 13.6% (95% CI: 13.1% - 14.0%) from Jan 2000 to June 2020, 12.8% (95% CI: 12.2% - 13.3%) for people with health insurance compared with 16.2% (95% CI:15.4% - 16.9%) for people without health insurance. For types of insurance, the CHE rate was 13.0% (95% CI: 12.4% - 13.6%) for people with new rural cooperative medical scheme (NCMS), 11.9% (95% CI: 9.3% - 14.5%) for urban employees health insurance (UEBMI), 12.0% (95% CI: 8.3% - 15.6%) for urban residents health insurance (URBMI), and 18.0% (95% CI: - 4.5% - 31.5%) for commercial insurance. However, the CHE rate in China has increased in the past 20 years, even adjusted for other factors. The CHE rate of people with NCMS has increased significantly more than people with UEBMI and URBMI. CONCLUSION: In the past 20 years, the basic health insurance plan has reduce the rate of CHE to a certain extent, but due to the rapid increase in medical costs and the release of health needs in recent years, it masks the role of health insurance. More efforts are needed to control unreasonable medical demand and rising costs.