Since the onset of the pandemic there has been speculation by news media, providers, payors, government leaders, and others about the impact of COVID-19 on health care utilization. The WHIO set out to answer this question – using the WHIO health care claims data – so that Wisconsin has facts to guide future decisions.
The attached communication, InfoByte: COVID-19 Impact on Health Care Utilization, is based on the sum of all billed charges for nearly all services provided to insured persons in the WHIO information system. This high-level information can be used to understand the relative size of the decrease in health care services utilization that occurred when the COVID-19 pandemic began in Wisconsin. And to begin to track when, and to what extent, the use of health care services has come back over time.