Research Conducted at University of Arizona Has Provided New Information about Telemedicine (Impact of Expanding Telephonic Codes In a State Medicaid Program During Covid-19): Telemedicine

2022 AUG 04 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Telemedicine is the subject of a report. According to news reporting from Phoenix, Arizona, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “The recent pandemic caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) resulted in declaration of a national emergency (NE) in March 2020. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services quickly responded with temporary expansion of telehealth coverage policies.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University of Arizona, “To determine the impact of implementing a temporary telephonic code set in a state Medicaid population by comparing the utilization patterns of telehealth claims before and after a NE announcement. This was a retrospective cohort study conducted with the Arizona Medicaid program, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS). Data include telehealth claims submitted to AHCCCS between January and May 2020 by contracted managed care organizations. Approximately 2.3 million telehealth claims were analyzed in this study. Utilization of the audio-visual (A/V) modality increased 1,610% and telephonic visits increased 408% compared with pre-NE. Compared with pre-NE, three provider type groups increased their utilization of telephonic visits from 1.8% to 50.8% as a result of the temporary telephonic set post-NE. Rural counties had higher rates of telephonic modality adoption, whereas urban counties adopted the A/V modality more readily. Ten telephonic codes constituted 87% of all telehealth claims, with the majority of those codes used for behavioral health and established office visit types. The telephonic modality was adopted more frequently in rural areas and the A/V modality in urban areas.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “There were several new provider types utilizing telehealth as a result of the temporary telephonic code set implementation.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Impact of Expanding Telephonic Codes In a State Medicaid Program During Covid-19. Telemedicine and e-Health, 2022. Telemedicine and e-Health can be contacted at: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc, 140 Huguenot Street, 3RD Fl, New Rochelle, NY 10801, USA. (Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. - www.liebertpub.com; Telemedicine and e-Health - http://www.liebertpub.com/overview/telemedicine-and-e-health/54/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Pamela Garcia-Filion, University of Arizona, College of Medicine-Phoenix, Dept. of Biomedical Informatics, Phoenix, AZ 85721, United States. Additional authors for this research include James Wang, Vikeen Patel, Sara Salek, Hamed Abbaszadegan and Shakaib Rehman.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2021.0580. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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