{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,26]],"date-time":"2026-05-26T07:02:17Z","timestamp":1779778937699,"version":"3.53.1"},"reference-count":9,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,26]],"date-time":"2026-05-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1779753600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100006545","name":"National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["1K23MD016943\u201302"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1K23MD016943\u201302"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100006545","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Little is known about access to care and telehealth trends in safety net settings during the Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We analyzed electronic health record data from patients assigned to a large, publicly funded, urban safety net system for primary care. We compared primary care visit types- in-person, telehealth (combined telephone and video visits), telephone, and video - between English-speaking patients and patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) across three study periods: pre-pandemic (March 2019\u2013February 2020), pandemic Year 1 (March 2020\u2013February 2021), and pandemic Year 2 (March 2021\u2013December 2022).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Prior to the pandemic, 19% (English-speaking) and 17% (LEP) of primary care patients had a telehealth visit. This increased to 94% (English-speaking) and 95% (LEP) in Year 1 and 83% (English-speaking) and 85% (LEP) in Year 2. Over 80% of these telehealth visits were telephone visits.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Telephone visits were critical in maintaining access to primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eliminating telephone visits as a billable visit could disproportionately affect underserved populations.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1808658","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,26]],"date-time":"2026-05-26T06:03:43Z","timestamp":1779775423000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Primary care visit trends in a public safety net health system during the COVID-19 pandemic"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Cristina","family":"Valdovinos","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yu-Chuang","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stefanie","family":"Vassar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Griselda","family":"Gutierrez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carmen","family":"Mendez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anshu","family":"Abhat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Arleen","family":"Brown","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alejandra","family":"Casillas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref2","year":"2020"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e212618","DOI":"10.1001\/jamanetworkopen.2021.2618","article-title":"In-person and telehealth ambulatory contacts and costs in a large US insured cohort before and during the COVID-19 pandemic","volume":"4","author":"Weiner","year":"2021","journal-title":"JAMA Netw Open"},{"key":"ref4","volume-title":"Updated National Survey Trends in Telehealth Utilization and Modality (2021-2022)","author":"Lee","year":"2023"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1138","DOI":"10.1007\/s11606-021-07172-y","article-title":"Predictors of audio-only versus video telehealth visits during the COVID-19 pandemic","volume":"37","author":"Chen","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Gen Intern Med"},{"key":"ref6","year":"2016"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"137","DOI":"10.1353\/hpu.2021.0013","article-title":"COVID-19: exploring the repercussions on federally qualified health center service delivery and quality","volume":"32","author":"Simon","year":"2021","journal-title":"J Health Care Poor Underserved"},{"key":"ref8","article-title":"Experiences of health centers in implementing telehealth visits for underserved patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: results from the connected care accelerator initiative","volume-title":"Rand Health Q","author":"Uscher-Pines","year":"2022"},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"944860","DOI":"10.3389\/fdgth.2022.944860","article-title":"Perspectives from leadership and frontline staff on telehealth transitions in the Los Angeles safety net during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond","volume":"4","author":"Casillas","year":"2022","journal-title":"Front Digit Health"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Public Health"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1808658\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,26]],"date-time":"2026-05-26T06:03:44Z","timestamp":1779775424000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1808658\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,26]]},"references-count":9,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1808658"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1808658","relation":{},"ISSN":["2296-2565"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2296-2565","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,26]]},"article-number":"1808658"}}