The Association of the First Surge of the COVID-19 Pandemic with the High- and Low-Value Outpatient Care Delivered to Adults in the USA.
J Gen Intern Med
; 37(15): 3979-3988, 2022 Nov.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2000087
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic entirely altered healthcare delivery. Whether this also altered the receipt of high- and low-value care is unknown.OBJECTIVE:
To test the association between the April through June 2020 surge of COVID-19 and various high- and low-value care measures to determine how the delivery of care changed.DESIGN:
Difference in differences analysis, examining the difference in quality measures between the April through June 2020 surge quarter and the January through March 2020 quarter with the same 2 quarters' difference the year prior.PARTICIPANTS:
Adults in the MarketScan® Commercial Database and Medicare Supplemental Database. MAINMEASURES:
Fifteen low-value and 16 high-value quality measures aggregated into 8 clinical quality composites (4 of these low-value). KEYRESULTS:
We analyzed 9,352,569 adults. Mean age was 44 years (SD, 15.03), 52% were female, and 75% were employed. Receipt of nearly every type of low-value care decreased during the surge. For example, low-value cancer screening decreased 0.86% (95% CI, -1.03 to -0.69). Use of opioid medications for back and neck pain (DiD +0.94 [95% CI, +0.82 to +1.07]) and use of opioid medications for headache (DiD +0.38 [95% CI, 0.07 to 0.69]) were the only two measures to increase. Nearly all high-value care measures also decreased. For example, high-value diabetes care decreased 9.75% (95% CI, -10.79 to -8.71).CONCLUSIONS:
The first COVID-19 surge was associated with receipt of less low-value care and substantially less high-value care for most measures, with the notable exception of increases in low-value opioid use.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
J Gen Intern Med
Journal subject:
Internal Medicine
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S11606-022-07757-1
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