Psychiatric News (7/14) reports, “Telehealth visits accounted for nearly two-thirds of all mental health visits by patients enrolled in private insurance plans in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic,” investigators concluded after analyzing data from “roughly 25 million separate mental health claims submitted between January and June 2020 in a national data set of commercial enrollees from FAIR Health, a nonprofit organization managing a database of more than 33 billion privately billed health insurance claims.” The study also revealed, however, that “telehealth use for mental health services from April to June 2020 was lower in rural areas compared with urban areas, and lower among those over 65 years of age compared with those 24 to 35 years of age.” The findings were published online July 13 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.
Related Links:
— “Telehealth Services Increased During Pandemic, but Age and Regional Disparities Exist, Psychiatric News, July 14, 2021