Statewide Survey of Low Income Patients Experience with Telehealth

The California Health Care foundation partnered with NORC, a national research organization, to conduct a statewide survey of the health care experiences of California residents between 18 to 64 years old who received health care since March 2019. The survey included an oversampling of residents with low incomes.

NORC asked respondents about their health care concerns, experiences, and access before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as about their experiences with racial discrimination and the pandemic’s impact on employment and insurance coverage. Among the key findings:

62% of people who needed care since the start of the pandemic had visited their provider via telehealth.

Residents with low incomes and people of color were most likely to have used telehealth.

Among survey respondents who needed care during the pandemic, 65% of those earning below 200% of the federal poverty level (about $25,000 a year for one person) reported using telehealth, as did three out of four people of color.

66% of people needing care since March told NORC that their telehealth visit was better than they expected. In fact, almost three-quarters of those respondents who had a doctor’s visit by phone and 65% of those who had a video visit reported being more satisfied or just as satisfied with telehealth as they were with in-person appointments.

(From https://www.chcf.org/blog/californians-low-incomes-report-high-satisfaction-telehealth/ accessed 12-9-20)