Key Points

Emergency waivers enacted during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States enabled kidney care providers to provide hemodialysis visits with telemedicine.Telemedicine was associated with a somewhat higher frequency of four or more hemodialysis visits per month but not with hospitalizations.Visit frequency increases were more pronounced when kidney care providers had to travel longer distances to see patients in person.

Background

In March 2020, responding to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, federal emergency waivers in the United States enabled kidney care providers (nephrologists and advanced practice providers) to substitute face-to-face in-center hemodialysis visits with telemedicine encounters. We examined whether the frequency of kidney care provider visits and hospitalizations were associated with telemedicine use in hemodialysis care.

Methods

We used Medicare claims to identify US patients receiving in-center hemodialysis during the first 16 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined the association between telemedicine use during in-center hemodialysis, the frequency with which kidney care providers visited patients at dialysis four or more times per month, and hospitalizations. We also examined whether the association between telemedicine use and visit frequency varied at facilities located in more remote areas. Multivariable regression models adjusted for patient, physician, geographic, and dialysis facility characteristics along with the frequency with which kidney care providers saw patients at each facility before the pandemic. We focused on kidney care providers who demonstrated knowledge of how to bill for telemedicine visits by using the telemedicine modifier on prior claims.

Results

We identified 1881 providers who saw patients between March 2020 and June 2021 and were definitively using telemedicine. In the adjusted model, a 35% absolute higher use of telemedicine at a facility (representing 1 SD difference) was associated with a 1.4% higher rate of four or more visits (incidence rate ratio, 1.014; 95% confidence interval, 1.007 to 1.022). The association between telemedicine use and visit frequency was stronger where travel distances to facilities were farther (interaction P = 0.01). There was no significant association between telemedicine use and hospitalizations.

Conclusions

The use of telemedicine to care for patients receiving in-center hemodialysis was associated with a slightly higher frequency of four or more visits per month but not with hospitalizations; the association with visit frequency was more pronounced in areas where providers had to travel longer distances to see patients in person.