IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v91y2024i1p12-37.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does telemedicine save lives? Evidence on the effect of telemedicine parity laws on mortality rates

Author

Listed:
  • Jiajia Chen
  • Angela K. Dills

Abstract

Between 1995 and 2018, just over half of U.S. states enacted laws requiring private insurance plans cover medical care provided remotely. These telemedicine parity laws likely increase health care access, particularly in areas with few providers, by granting patients access to specialists or primary care providers located elsewhere. We estimate the effect of telemedicine parity laws on mortality rates of all causes and for causes of death due to conditions more frequently treated with telemedicine. Mortality rates decline postparity laws, driven by decreases in ischemic heart disease deaths. Ischemic heart disease mortality rates decline by about 6% in the difference‐in‐differences specification and 9% in the event study estimation. These effects are concentrated in counties located in the fringes of metropolitan areas. We also estimate declines in hospital admissions postparity law, consistent with improved health outcomes. Our results suggest that relaxing current telemedicine regulations would reduce mortality rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiajia Chen & Angela K. Dills, 2024. "Does telemedicine save lives? Evidence on the effect of telemedicine parity laws on mortality rates," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 91(1), pages 12-37, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:91:y:2024:i:1:p:12-37
    DOI: 10.1002/soej.12562
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12562
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/soej.12562?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:91:y:2024:i:1:p:12-37. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.