School of Economics, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Department of Economics, Stanford University, United States of America; NBER, United States of America.
J Health Econ. 2023 Jul;90:102780. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2023.102780. Epub 2023 Jun 16.
We estimate the effect of adopting a digital device for performing medical exams at home during telehealth visits. We match visits of adopters and non-adopters who used the same virtual care clinic but without the device and compare healthcare utilization after the matched visits. We find that device adoption, partially offset by decreased use of other primary care modalities, results in a 12% higher utilization rate of primary care and increased use of antibiotics. But - particularly among adults - adoption lowers the use of urgent care, the emergency room, and hospital care, resulting in no increase in total cost.
我们评估了在远程医疗就诊期间使用数字设备在家中进行医学检查对医疗服务利用的影响。我们将使用相同虚拟护理诊所但没有该设备的使用者中采用该设备和未采用该设备的就诊者进行匹配,并在匹配就诊后比较医疗服务的利用情况。我们发现,采用数字设备(部分被其他初级保健模式使用减少所抵消)导致初级保健的利用率提高了 12%,并增加了抗生素的使用。但是——尤其是在成年人中——采用数字设备会降低对紧急护理、急诊室和医院护理的使用,因此总费用没有增加。