Author Description

The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated the rapid growth of telehealth services. With the worsening of opioid overdose death and limited accessibility of opioid use disorder (OUD) treatments, the utilization of telehealth services for OUD treatments during the pandemic may be invaluable. We examined the patterns of such utilization and its relationship with the in-person treatment from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 in a large health plan in southeast Michigan. First, the patients' socio-demographic and comorbidity characteristics were examined by the Pearson's chi-squared test for categorical variables and t-test for continuous variables between telehealth users and non-users. Next, we investigated whether the telehealth services were associated with the utilization of different levels of OUD treatments/cares by logistic regressions, adjusted by patient characteristics. Finally, we used a hurdle model to explore the factors associated with telehealth service use and the frequency of using the telehealth services. We found that patients were statistically different in most of their socio-demographic and comorbidity characteristics between telehealth users and non-users. Adjusted by covariates, telehealth users were more likely to take outpatient treatment, domiciliary partial residential care, behavioral therapy, medication for OUD, and buprenorphine for OUD treatment/care, while inpatient detoxification, intensive outpatient treatment, partial hospitalization, methadone and naltrexone had no statistically significant relationship with telehealth service use. Older patients had fewer telehealth visits compared to younger users, and patients living in the largest metropolis or more disadvantaged areas were less likely to use telehealth services. Telehealth services will be unlikely to replace in-person services, but may be a valued complement to in-person treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic.