A new FAIR Health white paper containing the fifth annual edition of FH Healthcare Indicators and FH Medical Price Index was released, showing a dramatic increase in telehealth utilization from 2019 to 2020.
Telehealth utilization grew nationally 7060% from 2019 to 2020 (Figure 1), an increase driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the limits imposed on certain in-office services, coupled with the greater risk of infection from in-person encounters. This is among the findings in a new FAIR Health white paper containing the fifth annual edition of FH Healthcare Indicators and FH Medical Price Index. Like the previous editions, this year’s edition of FH Healthcare Indicators and FH Medical Price Index is intended to provide clarity to all health care stakeholders in a rapidly changing healthcare environment.
FH Healthcare Indicators
FH Healthcare Indicators reveal trends and patterns in the places where patients receive health care. Focusing on alternative places of service—retail clinics, urgent care centers, telehealth, and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs)—as well as emergency rooms (ERs), FH Healthcare Indicators evaluate changes in utilization, geographic and demographic factors, diagnoses, procedures, and costs.
Among the other key findings:
FH Medical Price Index
FH Medical Price Index reports shifts in costs and facilitates useful comparisons among medical prices in six procedure categories from May 2012 to November 2021:
The reports reflect professional fees and related costs; they do not reflect facility fees.
For the period November 2020 to November 2021:
This year’s edition of FH Healthcare Indicators and FH Medical Price Index opens a window on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation’s healthcare system. We hope that this new edition, like those in previous years, continues to inform decision making throughout the healthcare sector by payors, providers, government officials, policy makers, academic researchers, and others.
For the new white paper, FH Healthcare Indicators and FH Medical Price Index 2022: An Annual View of Place of Service Trends and Medical Pricing, click here.
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