access to care

Telehealth Not Improving Opioid Treatment

Telehealth is not improving access to help for patients with opioid use disorders, a new study has found. Instead, use of telehealth is comparable to visits to providers’ offices when it comes to access. According to the analysis, Results of this study revealed that clinical outcomes were similar among patients who were treated by clinicians with high and low telemedicine use during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that telemedicine is a comparable alternative to in-person OUD care. There was no evidence that telemedicine was associated with increased access to or improved quality of OUD treatment. Learn more from the JAMA Network [...]

iqtsupport2023-01-26T06:00:07-05:00January 26, 2023|Telehealth|

COVID Drugs Experiencing Arguably Inequitable Distribution

The distribution of COVID-19 drugs could be exhibit A in the argument that inadequate access to care is a major social determinant of health. At least that’s a conclusion that might be drawn based on a new CDC study. According to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis, the rate at which COVID-19 drug therapies are being distributed “…were lowest in high vulnerability zip codes, despite these zip codes having the largest number of dispensing sites.” The study observes that “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated long-standing inequities in the social determinants of health.” Despite this, federal [...]

iqtsupport2022-06-23T06:00:43-04:00June 23, 2022|COVID-19, social determinants of health|

More Insured Didn’t Affect Access

When the Affordable Care Act was debated and then passed, some observers questioned whether the health care system had enough providers to care for the millions of additional people who would be gaining coverage through the reform law. In particular, some worried that those who already had insurance would find their access to care reduced because of the new, increased demand for care among the newly insured. Those fears appear to have been groundless. In a new study published in the journal Health Affairs, researchers concluded that …we found no consistent evidence that increases in the proportion of adults with [...]

iqtsupport2017-05-10T11:50:08-04:00May 10, 2017|Affordable Care Act|