Khoong, a current fellow with the Health Affairs Health Equity Fellowship for Trainees, explains that although telemedicine use exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has not been sufficient attention to disparities in access.
Payer,
age, race and ethnicity, income, English language proficiency, and geography can all affect telemedicine use.
The process of designing permanent, postpandemic telehealth policies must center on equity, Khoong argues.
Although "equitable telemedicine access will be challenging in fee-for-service models," she cautions, "if marginalized patients and their needs are given priority in designing telemedicine policies, telemedicine can mitigate inequities instead of exacerbating them."
Today in Health Affairs
Forefront, Daniel Bird and Emilio Varanini discuss the very different results of two recent class-action antitrust lawsuits litigated by Sutter Health.
Katie Keith summarizes new reports on the uninsured rate and coverage under the Affordable Care Act; new data on Section 1332 waivers and pending waiver applications; and guidance on risk adjustment, medical loss ratio reporting, and transparency requirements.
Elevating Voices: Asian American and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month: In a recent article, Ushma Upadhyay and colleagues find that the median patient out-of-pocket charges increased for medication abortion and first trimester procedural abortion during 2017–20 by thirteen and twenty-one percent,
respectively.
Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewedjournalat the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal is available in print and online. Late-breaking
content is also found through healthaffairs.org, Health Affairs Today, and Health Affairs Sunday Update.
Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has published Health Affairs since 1981.
