The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Policy Response on Health Care Utilization

Evidence from County-Level Medical Claims and Cellphone Data

Jonathan H. Cantor, Neeraj Sood, Dena M. Bravata, Megan F. Pera, Christopher M. Whaley

ResearchPosted on rand.org Mar 31, 2022Published in: Journal of Health Economics (2022). doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102581

Shelter-in-place policies during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with reductions in the use of preventive care, elective care, and the number of weekly visits to physician offices, hospitals and other health care-related industries. The results imply that while social distancing policies do lead to reductions in health care utilization, much of these reductions would have occurred even in the absence of these policies.

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Document Details

  • Publisher: Science Direct
  • Availability: Non-RAND
  • Year: 2022
  • Pages: 16
  • Document Number: EP-68902

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