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. 2021 Jan 1;181(1):118-120.
doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.5333.

Implications of Early Health Care Spending Reductions for Expected Spending as the COVID-19 Pandemic Evolves

J Michael McWilliams  1   2   3 , Ali Russo  4 , Ateev Mehrotra  1   5
Affiliations

Implications of Early Health Care Spending Reductions for Expected Spending as the COVID-19 Pandemic Evolves

J Michael McWilliams et al. JAMA Intern Med. .

Erratum in

  • Error in Author Order of the Byline.
    [No authors listed] [No authors listed] JAMA Intern Med. 2021 Jan 1;181(1):144. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.7772. JAMA Intern Med. 2021. PMID: 33284313 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Abstract

This cohort study examines how early spending changes vary by incidence of coronavirus disease 2019 and how implementation of policies to limit transmission affect health care spending as the pandemic evolves.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr McWilliams reports serving as a paid member of the Academic Advisory Board for FAIR Health. No other conflicts were reported.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Weekly Total Medical Spending and Spending Changes Through the First Week of April 2020 by COVID-19 Activity, Timing of Social Distancing Policies, and Location
A, Total medical spending in dollars and (B) relative to week 9. High-activity refers to high cumulative incidence of confirmed COVID-19 cases by April 7, 2020. Early vs late social distancing refers to state order to stay at home, shelter in place, or close nonessential businesses before vs after April 1, 2020. Lower spending during the week of January 1, 2020, is consistent with overlap with a national holiday (utilization was consistently lower in 2019 during holiday weeks). COVID-19 indicates coronavirus disease 2019.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Weekly Aggregate Medical Spending Through the First Week of April 2020, by Type of Care
A, Aggregate medical spending in dollars and (B) spending relative to week 9. Weekly aggregate spending is displayed by type of care: acute inpatient, emergency department, ambulatory surgery center (ASC), outpatient care in hospital-owned facilities, outpatient care in office setting, telehealth, urgent care centers, and retail clinics. Post-acute spending is not displayed because it constituted a small proportion of spending for the predominantly non-elderly, commercially insured population. Enrollees aged 65 years or older accounted for approximately 16% of spending, as expected from the smaller share of the total Medicare population covered by FAIR Health data relative to the share of the commercially insured. The week of January 1, 2020, was lower for some spending categories owing to overlap with the holiday period. Telemedicine is not shown in panel B because the level of growth from week 9 exceeded 1000%.
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References

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