Rapid expansion of telehealth services for mental health conditions at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic helped improve access to care and improved provider ability to meet patient demand, according to a study published in JAMA Health Forum.
The report claimed many mental health treatments can effectively be administered remotely — in contrast to physical health services, which may require examinations and fixed-in-place medical equipment, Healthcare Finance reports.
To determine more precisely how mental telehealth services were used, researchers from RAND conducted a study to assess utilization and spending rates among commercially insured adults in the U.S. between 2019 and 2022, utilizing data from approximately 7 million commercially insured adults.
Three distinct periods were examined: before the public health emergency (PHE) declaration (January 1, 2019, to March 12, 2020), during the acute phase prior to vaccine availability (March 13, 2020, to December 17, 2020), and the post-acute phase (December 18, 2020, to August 31, 2022).
During the acute phase of the pandemic, in-person visits for mental health services dropped by 39.5%, while telehealth visits surged remarkably by 1019.3% compared to the previous year. Read more.
