Primary care telehealth in a dynamic healthcare environment from digital divide to healthcare outcomes

Yunxi Zhang; Lincy S Lal; Saurabh Chandra; John Michael Swint

doi:10.1038/s41746-025-01599-x

Primary care telehealth in a dynamic healthcare environment from digital divide to healthcare outcomes

NPJ Digit Med. 2025 Apr 17;8(1):211. doi: 10.1038/s41746-025-01599-x.

Authors

Yunxi Zhang^{1

2}, Lincy S Lal³, Saurabh Chandra^{4

5}, John Michael Swint^{3

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Data Science, John D. Bower School of Population Health, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA. yzhang4@umc.edu.
² Center for Telehealth, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA. yzhang4@umc.edu.
³ Department of Management, Policy and Community Health, The University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX, USA.
⁴ Center for Telehealth, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA.
⁵ Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA.
⁶ Institute for Clinical Research and Learning Healthcare, John P and Katherine G McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.

Abstract

With expanded telehealth availability in primary care, its impact on quality of care and associated costs remains debated. Analyzing 199,829 Medicare beneficiaries in Mississippi (2019-2021), we found telehealth utilization associated with significant sociodemographic disparities, reduced inpatient admissions, and lower 30-day readmissions. By accounting for primary care utilization, our findings suggest that the higher absolute costs observed among telehealth users may reflect underlying healthcare needs rather than telehealth utilization.

Publication types

Review

Abstract

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