Audio-only telehealth utilization has declined among Medicare beneficiaries, but underserved groups remain frequent users of this method of delivering telehealth services. Compared with 72.5% of Medicare beneficiaries who received only in-person care in 2022, those who received at least one audio-only visit were more likely to be dual eligible for Medicaid, have medically complex conditions, be Black or Hispanic, and live in non-rural areas.
Additional details about differences between people using audio telehealth, audiovisual telehealth, and in-person visits are as follows:
- Dual eligibles represented 21.5% of those using audio-only visits, 19.3% of those using audiovisual telehealth, and 13.5% of those who had only in-person visits.
- Hierarchical Condition Category Coding (HCC) scores averaged 1.7 for those who had audio-only visits, 1.5 for those using audiovisual telehealth, and 1.2 for those making only in-person visits.
- Women were more likely than men to use audio-only telehealth services, at 59.5% of those using audio telehealth visits, 59% of those using audiovisual telehealth, and 55.0% of those making in-person visits.
- Racial and ethnic minorities were more likely than non-Hispanic whites to use audio-only visits. African-American beneficiaries represented 7.6% of audio-only visits, 7.3% of audiovisual telehealth visits, and 7.0% of in-person only visits. Hispanic beneficiaries represented 6.1% of audio-only visits and audiovisual telehealth visits, and 4.7% of in-person only visits.
In 2022, most Medicare beneficiaries (72.5%) received only in-person care; and 17.5% of beneficiaries had at least one video-based telehealth visit. From 2020 to 2022, telehealth visits as a proportion of all Medicare evaluation and management visits decreased from 16.1% to 7.8%. During the same period, audio-only visits as a proportion of all telehealth visits decreased from 31.0% to 25.4%.
These findings were presented in “Audio-Only Telehealth Use Among Traditional Medicare Beneficiaries,” by Jiani Yu, Ph.D.; Yasin Civelek, Ph.D., MA, MS; Lawrence P. Casalino, M.D., Ph.D.; Hye-Young Jung, Ph.D.; and colleagues. The researchers conducted a cross-sectional study using 100% Medicare fee-for-service carrier file claims from 2020 to 2022. They also obtained data on patient characteristics, including age, sex, race and ethnicity, rurality, and dual eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid, from the Medicare Beneficiary Summary File. The goal was to evaluate telehealth visits as a proportion of all evaluation and management visits and audio-only visits as a proportion of all telehealth visits.
For more information, contact: Jiani Yu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Population Health Sciences, Division of Health Policy and Economics, Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, 402 East 67th Street, New York, New York 10065; Email: jiy4002@med.cornell.edu; Website: https://directory.weill.cornell.edu/person/profile/jiy4002