On the demand for telemedicine: Evidence from the COVID‐19 pandemic

Matias Busso, Maria P. Gonzalez and Carlos Scartascini

Health Economics, 2022, vol. 31, issue 7, 1491-1505

Abstract: Telemedicine can expand access to health care at relatively low cost. Historically, however, demand for telemedicine has remained low. Using administrative records and a difference‐in‐differences methodology, we estimate the change in demand for telemedicine experienced after the onset of the COVID‐19 epidemic and the imposition of mobility restrictions. We find that the number of telemedicine calls made during the pandemic increased by 230 percent compared to the pre‐pandemic period. The effects were mostly driven by older individuals with preexisting conditions who used the service for internal medicine consultations. The demand for telemedicine remained relatively high even after mobility restrictions were relaxed, which is consistent with telemedicine being an “experience good.” These results are a proof of concept for policy makers to use such relatively low‐cost medical consultations, made possible by new technologies, to provide needed expansion of access to health care.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4523

Related works:
Working Paper: On the Demand for Telemedicine: Evidence from the Covid-19 Pandemic (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:31:y:2022:i:7:p:1491-1505

Access Statistics for this article

Health Economics is currently edited by Alan Maynard, John Hutton and Andrew Jones

More articles in Health Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().