A Telementoring Program and Hepatitis C Virus Care in Rural Patients

Area of Science:

• Hepatology
• Public Health
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Rural populations face barriers to accessing hepatitis C virus (HCV) care.
• Telementoring and task-shifting models are being implemented to address these disparities.
• Evidence is needed to confirm the effectiveness of these models for rural HCV patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a telementoring program on HCV care indicators in rural versus urban populations.
• To compare HCV care access in New Mexico (with telementoring) and Pennsylvania (without telementoring).

Main Methods:

• A comparative study of Medicare patients with chronic HCV infection from 2014-2016.
• Patients were categorized by urban-rural status based on ZIP code.
• Multivariable log-binomial regressions were used to analyze HCV care indicators.

Main Results:

• Rural patients constituted 41.3% of HCV cases in New Mexico and 13.2% in Pennsylvania.
• Rural New Mexico patients showed high rates of pre-treatment HCV RNA or genotype testing (76.1%) and post-treatment HCV RNA testing (83.0%).
• After adjustments, rural New Mexico patients had the highest probability of receiving pre-treatment HCV RNA or genotype testing.

Conclusions:

• The telementoring, task-shifting model appears to enhance HCV care access for rural patients.
• This intervention shows promise in mitigating disparities in HCV treatment and monitoring.
• Further research should explore the scalability and long-term impact of telementoring in rural HCV management.