Report
Using CPT Charges as an Economic Proxy for Telehealth and Non-telehealth Emergency Department Utilization
RTRC Research & Policy Brief
Rural Telehealth Research Center
11/2021
DOI: 10.17077/rep.006745
Abstract
Economic analysis of health care utilization is a pressing priority. However, procuring economic data presents many challenges. One approach is to obtain charge and reimbursement data within a single health care organization, but this approach lacks external validity. Another approach is to obtain charge and reimbursement data across health care organizations by analyzing claims databases (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid claims). But this approach restricts the sample to covered beneficiaries (e.g., older, disabled), which restricts generalizability. We aimed to obtain economic data on emergency department (ED) visits from a number of unrelated rural hospitals and sought an approach for doing so. It appeared feasible to have rural hospitals report the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code (AMA, 2021) and associated charge for a sample of ED visits, since CPT codes would be generated for billing and insurance claims submission. The specific aim of this analysis is to explore the characteristics of the resulting dataset in terms of distribution and association with related variables.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Using CPT Charges as an Economic Proxy for Telehealth and Non-telehealth Emergency Department Utilization
- Creators
- Marcia M Ward - University of IowaKnute D Carter - University of IowaFred Ullrich - University of IowaKimberly A S Merchant - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Report
- Publication Details
- RTRC Research & Policy Brief
- DOI
- 10.17077/rep.006745
- Publisher
- Rural Telehealth Research Center; Iowa City, Iowa, USA
- Number of pages
- 5 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2021 the authors
- Grants
- Rural Telehealth Research Center (2015-20), UICRH29074, Health Resources and Services Administration (United States, Rockville) - HRSA
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/2021
- Academic Unit
- Rural Telehealth Research Center; Health Management and Policy; Biostatistics
- Record Identifier
- 9984398345302771
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