Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners were most likely to have shifted their practice to telemedicine-only, with 18.7% of those offering majority in-person care in 2019 shifting to online-only by 2022. Psychiatrists were least likely to offer telemedicine-only, at 9%.
Women were more likely to offer telemedicine-only than men, and providers in counties with higher property values were more likely to offer online-only than those in counties with lower property values.
The study’s authors wrote that it is unclear how telemedicine-only providers will navigate the requirement that telemedicine patients receive in-person care once a year to receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, which takes effect in 2025.
The study was conducted by researchers at Boston-based Harvard Medical School, RAND Corporation and the Greater Los Angeles VA Medical Center.
Read the full study here.
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