Patient visits for IUD prescriptions and insertions were up 21% between October 2016 and January 2017, compared with those in the same period a year earlier, according to athenahealth, a provider of EHR systems and point-of-care mobile applications.
The rise in IUD-related visits since the presidential election – the first time in 5 years that the volume of visits for IUD procedures and follow-ups has increased in both November and December – suggests a “Trump effect.” As the replacement of the Affordable Care Act is debated, “uncertainly swirls over whether any new law would mandate free insurance coverage without copays for birth control and contraception devices,” athenahealth said.
Looking at the year-by-year increases for each month, IUD prescriptions and insertions were down 1% in October 2016 but up by 14% in November and 18% in December, compared with 2015. In January 2017, they were up by 30%, compared with 2016, the company reported.
The athenahealth data include more than 1 million visits for IUD management to more than 2,500 practices using the company’s EHRs.
