Telehealth Use and Access to Care for Underserved Populations Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

While several studies have documented the rapid growth in telehealth visits during the pandemic, none have examined its relationship with greater overall access to care among vulnerable populations. We use Association of American Medical Colleges' Consumer Survey data to examine the relationship between access to care and telehealth use before and during the pandemic. The proportion of survey respondents who were always able to get medical care when needed was slightly lower in 2020 compared with prior years while telehealth use rose dramatically. Disparities in telehealth use for Medicaid beneficiaries and rural respondents disappeared during the pandemic, but remained for lower-income populations. Before the pandemic, telehealth use was associated with greater access, but not during the pandemic—when it appears to have become a substitute for in-person. After the pandemic, telehealth could once again be an opportunity to supplement access to care, if telehealth policies enacted during the pandemic are made permanent.