The disparities in the Changes in Health Care Usage During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Health disparities have long been reported in healthcare research. Whether it is health outcomes, comorbidity rates, or healthcare access, minority race and low income patients consistently have less access and worse health. This paper looks at if the trends in healthcare access have persisted during the COVID-19 pandemic by measuring the change in patient healthcare use between 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2020 (during the pandemic). Symphony Health data was used to study over two million patients nationwide from May to November of both years. Their interactions with healthcare were counted. Changes in patient visits across income, location and gender were studied. Women displayed a smaller change in visits compared to men in both cohorts. Also, the change in visits was seen to decrease as income increased in the COIVD population. The most notable trend that the data showed was that Black patients specifically, showed a dramatic difference between COVID and the general population cohorts. Two regressions were run, and Black patients showed a net decrease in visits if they were in the general population, but a large increase if they were in the COVID cohort relative to their equivalent white counterparts. This is consistent with the previously noted pattern of Black patients receiving lower quality and quantity of care until the patient is in dire need of extensive healthcare. Policy recommendations include increasing bias training in healthcare settings and increasing access to populations who were lacking it during the pandemic due to practices shutting down.Department of Policy Analysis & Managemen