Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Outpatient Providers in the Us

27 Pages Posted: 18 May 2020 Last revised: 31 Mar 2024

See all articles by Pinka Chatterji

Pinka Chatterji

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); State University of New York (SUNY) - Department of Economics

Yue Li

SUNY University at Albany

Date Written: May 2020

Abstract

There is growing concern that the COVID-19 pandemic may have severe, adverse effects on the health care sector, a sector of the economy that historically has been somewhat shielded from the business cycle. In this paper, we study one aspect of this issue by estimating the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic on use of outpatient health services. We use 2010-2020 data from the Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet). Our findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with about a 67 percent decline in the total number of outpatient visits per provider by the week of April 12-18th, 2020 relative to the same week in prior years. Effects become apparent earlier in the pandemic for outpatient visits for non-flu symptoms, but we find negative effects on outpatient visits for flu symptoms as well.

Suggested Citation

Chatterji, Pinka and Li, Yue, Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Outpatient Providers in the Us (May 2020). NBER Working Paper No. w27173, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3603803

Pinka Chatterji (Contact Author)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

State University of New York (SUNY) - Department of Economics ( email )

Yue Li

SUNY University at Albany ( email )

1400 Washington Avenue
Hudson 241
Albany, NY 12222
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/yueliecon/home

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