Telehealth Parity Laws Prevent Heart Failure Hospitalizations

Telehealth parity laws notably reduce hospitalization in acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF), according to a study presented at ACC.25.

“Telehealth parity laws require insurers to cover telehealth similarly to in-person visits and have been adopted in many states. Little is known about the impact of these laws on patients with heart failure, who may benefit from simplified access to care. We assessed how adoption of parity laws impacted hospitalization rates for [ADHF].”

To conduct this analysis, researchers used data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases to identify ADHF hospitalizations across seven states from 2009 to 2019. The Callaway-Sant’Anna difference-in-differences approach was used to estimate policy impact by comparing changes in per-capita ADHF hospitalization rates in states that implemented telehealth parity laws to states that had not adopted them.

The study findings showed that before policy implementation, ADHF hospitalization rates were 64.4 annual hospitalizations per 100,000 people (95% CI, 59.8–69.0) in adopter states and 54.3 per 100,000 people (95% CI, 48.1–60.4) in non-adopter states. After policy change, the researchers observed a significant differential change of -20.3 annual hospitalizations per 100,000 people (95% CI, -36.3–-4.2) in adopter states compared to non-adoption states.

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that policies supporting increased telehealth access “may help avert heart failure decompensation.”

Sasankan P, et al. Heart failure hospitalizations decreased in states that implemented telehealth parity laws: a difference-in-differences analysis. American College of Cardiology 2025; March 29-31, Chicago, IL.