Associate professor of health care policy Ateev Mehrotra, MD, MPH, participated in a panel discussion on COVID-19’s impact on primary care hosted by Health Evolution. Mehrotra was joined on the panel by other health care experts.

The discussion was the second portion of a two-part series. The first panel discussed the strain that COVID has put on both physicians and independent practices. This panel focused on finding solutions to this issue.

“The number one thing I can emphasize right now, particularly to health plans, is the provider community is unsure of what the payment environment will look like post pandemic,” Mehrotra said, explaining that practices that have recently initiated telehealth appointments may not know if they should continue this practice after the pandemic. As the country begins to reopen it is unclear if telehealth will continue to be covered, and practices may be hesitant to invest in continuing this technology, even though it may be useful. 

Mehrotra suggested that the most viable way to help sustain primary care during the COVID pandemic is prepayment. Insurers that prepay primary care practices either through lump sums or conditional payments can offer these practices more financial support throughout the pandemic.