Share of high-need New Yorkers using a doctor’s office or health center as their regular place of care Figure 1
Source: Poverty Tracker longitudinal survey data, cohorts three and four. High-need refers to New Yorkers with high healthcare needs, such as multiple chronic health conditions, serious psychological distress, or a work-limiting health condition.
While primary care providers can provide a consistent form of healthcare, access to them is no guarantee. “A lot of primary care doctors I didn’t feel really helped me with my needs,” one Poverty Tracker respondent said. “I’d rather go to urgent care for a cold or anything else, for the most part, because of the insurance.”
When the pandemic strained access to doctors’ offices and health centers, the use of telehealth and urgent care centers grew significantly as alternative settings for non-emergency care. Emergency rooms also con- tinued to fill the healthcare void for those without insurance or ability to pay. Figure 2, below, compares rates of telehealth, urgent care, and emergency room use among high-need New Yorkers in the six months prior to being surveyed during the pandemic. Consistent with national trends, telehealth use declined in 2022, regardless of economic disadvantage. While roughly 40% of high-need New Yorkers consulted a physician using telehealth in 2021, less than a third (28% of economically disadvantaged and 30% of more advantaged) did so in 2022, as practices pivot- ed back to more in-person care. 10 In 2022, economically disadvantaged New Yorkers were persistently more likely to visit an urgent care cen- ter than more-advantaged New Yorkers (51% vs 44%, respectively), even though more-advantaged New
10 Shaver, “The state of telehealth before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.”; Lee et al., “Updated national survey trends in telehealth utilization and modality (2021-2022).”
PLACES OF HEALTHCARE RECEIPT AMONG NEW YORKERS WITH HIGH HEALTHCARE NEED 6
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