A recent study by Northwestern Medicine found that patients with opioid use disorder on Medicaid experienced significant barriers to telehealth access after the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to those with private insurance. Despite initial increases in telehealth services, Medicaid enrollees were 43.7% less likely to receive any opioid treatment post-pandemic. This highlights rising disparities as telehealth, intended to improve access, may inadvertently disadvantage low-income individuals. Challenges such as technology access and digital literacy particularly affect this demographic, suggesting the need for targeted interventions to ensure equitable care.
Patients with opioid use disorder enrolled in Medicaid were less likely to receive telehealth care after the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to patients with private insurance.
Telehealth has been shown to address critical barriers to accessing opioid use disorder treatment such as child and family care obligations, travel times and costs, and stigma from the general public and healthcare professionals.
Collection
[
|
...
]