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When medical offices shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic and people were encouraged or required to avoid public spaces, there was a dramatic and rapid increase in the use of telemedicine. 

Telemedicine has the potential to open up access to care, particularly to people who are geographically isolated or have mobility limitations, but it can also exacerbate existing inequities given its relevance upon broadband internet access and other technologies.

Caitlin Hicks from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine joins A Health Podyssey to discuss whether telemedicine expands or narrows care inequities.

Hicks and colleagues published a paper in the May 2022 issue of Health Affairs examining the impact of Medicare's pandemic-era telemedicine coverage waiver on utilization by geographic area.

They found that Medicare's telemedicine access expansion increased utilization overall and that those beneficiaries in areas of greater depravation, as measured by the Area Depravation Index, had greater odds of utilization than those who live in areas with more resources.

Order the May 2022 issue of Health Affairs for research on telemedicine, disparities, pharmaceuticals, and more.

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