Effects of State COVID-19 Closure Policy on NON-COVID-19 Health Care Utilization

Abstract

for research assistance. The data, technology, and services used in the generation of these research findings were generously supplied pro bono by the COVID-19 Research Database partners, who are acknowledged at https://covid19researchdatabase.org/. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Policy Response on Health Care Utilization: Evidence from County-level Medical Claims and Cellphone data

“…These effects were much larger than the decline in care due to SIP policies. Our estimates of decline in healthcare utilization during the early stages of the pandemic are in line with existing studies by Chatterji and Li (2020), Mehrotra and colleagues (2020) and Ziedan et al (2020). It is important to note that our findings are during the initial stage of the pandemic, and that the length of the pandemic and mitigation strategies will define the aggregate cost on both consumers and providers (Cutler 2020).…”

“…However, evidence on the impacts of social distancing and SIP policies on healthcare utilization remains limited (Ziedan, Simon, and Wing 2020). In previous work, we examined changes in use of preventive healthcare services, both in-person and telemedicine visits, after the declaration of nationwide emergency in March 2020 (Whaley et al 2020).…”

Measuring Voluntary Responses in Healthcare Utilization During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Taiwan

“…Particularly, the healthcare system is one of the most affected sectors during this pandemic, since COVID-19 is essentially a public health crisis. Recent studies have shown that there have been large declines in healthcare utilization for non-COVID-19 diseases (Ziedan et al, 2020; Birkmeyer et al, 2020; Chatterji and Li, 2020; Mehrotra et al, 2020; Hartnett, 2020). However, it is not clear that this observed decline is due to voluntary responses to the pandemic or to other inevitable issues, such as government restrictions on mobility (Chatterji and Li, 2020; Sands et al, 2020; Ziedan et al, 2020), the availability of health resources (Søreide et al, 2020; Hamel et al, 2020) or loss of healthcare coverage and unaffordable medical care costs (Stephenson, 2020; Hamel et al, 2020; Karpman et al, 2020).…”

“…Firstly, we contribute to the fast-growing body of literature analyzing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare systems. Several recent studies (Ziedan et al, 2020; Birkmeyer et al, 2020; Chatterji and Li, 2020; Mehrotra et al, 2020; Hartnett, 2020) indicate that there was a large decline in healthcare utilization during the pandemic period in the US. For example, Ziedan et al (2020) analyzes how state closure policy affects non-COVID-19 health utilization.…”

“…Several recent studies (Ziedan et al, 2020; Birkmeyer et al, 2020; Chatterji and Li, 2020; Mehrotra et al, 2020; Hartnett, 2020) indicate that there was a large decline in healthcare utilization during the pandemic period in the US. For example, Ziedan et al (2020) analyzes how state closure policy affects non-COVID-19 health utilization. The result suggests that through March and early April, outpatient visits in the US declined by around 40%, and one-third of this reduction (i.e.…”