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Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Differences in Primary Care No-Show Risk with Telemedicine During the COVID-19
Dania A Shah1, Rustan Sharer2,3,4, Dana Sall2,4
1HonorHealth Internal Medicine, Phoenix, AZ, USA. dania.aijaz.shah@gmail.com.
Background:
The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in rapid implementation of telemedicine. Little is known about the impact of telemedicine on both no-show rates and healthcare disparities on the general primary care population during the pandemic.
Objective:
To compare no-show rates between telemedicine and office visits in the primary care setting, while controlling for the burden of COVID-19 cases, with focus on underserved populations.
Design:
Retrospective cohort study.
Setting:
Multi-center urban network of primary care clinics between April 2021 and December 2021.
Participants:
A total of 311,517 completed primary care physician visits across 164,647 patients.
Main Measures:
The primary outcome was risk ratio of no-show incidences (i.e., no-show rates) between telemedicine and office visits across demographic sub-groups including age, ethnicity, race, and payor type.
Results:
Compared to in-office visits, the overall risk of no-showing favored telemedicine, adjusted risk ratio of 0.68 (95% CI 0.65 to 0.71), absolute risk reduction (ARR) 4.0%. This favorability was most profound in several cohorts with racial/ethnic and socioeconomic differences with risk ratios in Black/African American 0.47 (95% CI 0.41 to 0.53), ARR 9.0%; Hispanic/Latino 0.63 (95% CI 0.58 to 0.68), ARR 4.6%; Medicaid 0.58 (95% CI 0.54 to 0.62) ARR 7.3%; Self-Pay 0.64 (95% CI 0.58 to 0.70) ARR 11.3%.
Limitation:
The analysis was limited to physician-only visits in a single setting and did not examine the reasons for visits.
Conclusion:
As compared to office visits, patients using telemedicine have a lower risk of no-showing to primary care appointments. This is one step towards improved access to care.
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