Fair Health examined how the COVID-19 pandemic affected healthcare utilization and revenue across the industry in general and seven specialties.
Fair Health examined private claims data for the first four months of 2019 and 2020 to document changes in utilization and estimated allowed amounts for clinicians. Both periods had data that was incomplete but was also statistically significant. Despite the limitations, Fair Health released the data because it was "worthwhile."
Here are four insights:
1. Comparing March 2019 to March 2020, utilization decreased 65 percent and professional revenue decreased 45 percent. Using the same comparison in April, utilization fell 68 percent and revenue fell 48 percent.
2. Oral surgery experienced the biggest decrease in March 2020 and gastroenterology had the second-largest decrease of the studied specialties.
3. Office or outpatient evaluation visits were more common relative to other procedures between January 2020 and April 2020.
4. Vaccination procedures dropped out of the top five codes by utilization between January 2020 and April 2020.