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Complete Story
Complete Story
12/09/2021
Economic Impact of COVID on Medicare Physician Spending
The AMA recently released updated information and resources regarding the impact of COVID on Medicare physician spending (state and specialty specific data is available) for all of 2020.
As we know, utilization of physician services in the U.S. fell sharply with the onset of COVID-19. there was a steep decline in MPFS spending in March of 2020. A strong recovery in May and June stalled in the second half of the year and spending never recovered to its pre-COVID trend. For the year, the estimated shortfall in MPFS spending associated with the pandemic was $13.9 billion (14 percent), with reductions for all states and every major specialty.
Telehealth spending increased dramatically in 2020, but use was concentrated in a handful of service categories—and not close to the level to offset the reductions in other areas.