Black Americans disproportionately face barriers to addressing healthcare. As the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated, telehealth can provide access to critical healthcare services while keeping vulnerable patients out of clinics and hospitals. The pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of healthcare, but we must take steps to ensure equitable access for Black Americans. While longstanding health inequities—particularly for the Black community—have worsened due to COVID-19, this moment presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvent American healthcare as equitable healthcare.

Building permanence and equity into the temporary federal telehealth expansion policies established during COVID can improve Black communities’ access to healthcare and combat existing disparities. CEOARE is assessing federal telehealth legislation, regulation, and product and service design through a health equity lens and advocating for policy solutions that expand access to Black communities.

• In 2012, a landmark study demonstrated that 25% of Black Americans lived in zip codes with few or no primary care physicians
• 23% of Black Medicare beneficiaries with a usual source of care said their usual provider did not offer telehealth appointments in Fall 2020 as compared to 13% of all Medicare beneficiaries