Dr Parisa Emami-Naeni Reviews Remote Retinal Imaging During the Pandemic

At the beginning of the pandemic, remote retinal imaging declined sharply due to a recommendation to stop nonessential eye care services in the first months of 2020, said Parisa Emami-Naeni, MD, MPH, assistant professor of ophthalmology at University of California, Davis, and vitreoretinal surgeon and uveitis specialist at UC Davis Eye Center.

Transcript

Use of remote retinal imaging initially declined sharply during the first months of the pandemic in 2020. What do you attribute this initial decline to when adoption of virtual or video visits increased overall in the early months of the pandemic?

So, in our study, we looked at the administrative claims data on individuals with private insurance or Medicare Advantage plans between early 2020—January 2020—until the end of 2020. And, as you mentioned, we found that the use of remote eye imaging declined sharply at the beginning of the pandemic—in the months of March and April 2020—with about a 60% decline in the number of the insurance claims for teleophthalmology.

However, in the latter half of 2020, the incidence of the claims increased back to the prepandemic levels. We think that the initial decline is most likely related to the initial period of the COVID-19 lockdowns and the American Academy of Ophthalmology recommendations to stop nonessential eye care services at that time. Also, the uncertainty of the situation at the beginning of the pandemic was likely contributing to this.

Changes that were made to reimbursements of televisits and teleophthalmology by [CMS] later on encouraged the use of these services later in the year. So, the numbers went back up.