Approximately eight percent of individuals dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid under the age of 65 have an intellectual disability or related condition.1 People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) face disproportionate barriers when receiving whole-person centered healthcare;2 not only do access-related challenges exist, but it is often difficult to find an adequately trained provider who is knowledgeable in both medicine and intellectual or developmental disabilities.3 The COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) further exposed these inadequacies and care gaps in the system, and many organizations have responded by seeking to improve care delivery via telehealth.4 Health plans can utilize the information in this brief to further their understanding of how telehealth modalities can improve access to person centered care for people with I/DD.
1Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission. (2018). Data Book. Beneficiaries Dually Eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Retrieved from: https://www.macpac.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Data-Book-Beneficiaries-Dually-Eligible-for-Medicare-and-Medicaid-January-2018.pdf.
2CDC (2019). Addressing Gaps in Health Care for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/grand-rounds/pp/2019/20191015-intellectual-disabilities-H.pdf.
3Doherty, A. J., Atherton, H., Boland, P., Hastings, R., Hives, L., Hood, K., James-Jenkinson, L., Leavey, R., Randell, E., Reed, J., Taggart, L., Wilson, N., & Chauhan, U. (2020). Barriers and facilitators to primary health care for people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism: an integrative review. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen20X101030.
4Jercich, K. (2021). Telehealth as a tool to keep people with disabilities out of the hospital. Healthcare IT News. https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/telehealth-tool-keep-people-disabilities-out-hospital.