Association of primary care telehealth with preventable healthcare utilization and care continuity among patients with chronic conditions.

We used a difference-in-differences design (2019-2021) to compare outcomes for patients attributed to practices with high versus low telehealth uptake before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic across three clinical research networks.

Among 383,570 Medicare fee-for-service patient-quarters with chronic conditions, telehealth use was not associated with changes in preventable emergency department visits or hospitalizations.