Access to Telemedicine Is Hardest for Those Who Need It Most

When it comes to telemedicine in 2020—and thanks to coronavirus, 2020 turns out to be the year for telemedicine—the digital divide isn’t equally distributed. In the early days of the pandemic, the federal government says, 44 percent of Medicare-funded primary care visits were conducted virtually; that figure was 0.1 percent in Feb. (Private insurers report a huge increase in telehealth claims this year, to 16 million in June, from about 500,000 in June 2019.) Older Americans are among the most likely to need health care—about a quarter of all doctors’ office visits are for people over age 65—and yet they are least likely to be able to access the virtual doctors’ appointments that have skyrocketed in the past six months. 

Nationwide, 41 percent of people covered by Medicare don’t have an internet-capable computer or smartphone at home. “The digital divide is not unique to older populations, but it’s particularly pronounced in those populations because they have less access to technology,” says Eric Roberts, who teaches health policy at the University of Pittsburgh. He worries that vulnerable Medicare recipients, very old people, and communities of color would have trouble having a video visit with a health care provider. “We already know that those populations have difficulty accessing care—that concern preceded Covid—and now the migration to a digital format could widen those disparities.”