News Report | November 23, 2020
First Two Months Of COVID-19 Emergency Resulted In Reductions In Use Of Preventive & Elective Services
During the first two months of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in March and April 2020, consumers reduced their use of preventive and elective health care services by more than 40%. Their overall health care use declined by 23% in March 2020, relative to the previous year, and in April 2020 declined by 52% relative to the previous year. Although telemedicine encounters increased by 4000%, the volume of telemedicine encounters was not enough to compensate for an overall 25% drop in ambulatory visits. Racial/ethnic and income disparities were seen in the rate of changes in the use of in . . .