Hospitals didn't see a sharp increase in healthcare utilization because of pent-up demand for deferred care in the last year, according to an Aug. 17 analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation and Epic Health Research Network.
The analysis examined both healthcare spending and hospital utilization trends in early 2021.
The study found that hospital admissions remained lower than expected levels through April 9. In particular, for the week of April 3, hospital admissions were 85.5 percent lower than what would have been expected based on historical data. Additionally, removing patient admissions that were a result of a COVID-19 diagnosis, hospital admissions were 80.8 percent lower the week of April 3, the study found.
"The persistence of lower-than-expected utilization suggests some of the care that did not occur early in the COVID-19 pandemic was foregone rather than simply delayed," according to the study.
The analysis also found that hospital spending was 4.1 percent below expected levels through June of this year and that overall spending on health services is 7.1 percent below the expected levels through June 2021.
For the utilization study, researchers explored data from 250 hospitals across 47 states through April 9. For the healthcare spending portion, the organizations used Bureau of Economic Analysis data through June 2021.