HealthDay (3/6, Neff) reported a study suggests that telemedicine has not led to a significant rise in new mental health patients from rural or underserved communities. The researchers “analyzed Medicare billing records for more than 17,000 mental health specialists between 2018 and 2023 in all regions of the United States. They looked at the share of their visits to patients living in rural, low-access-to-care or distant communities.” They found that “specialists who used telemedicine the most saw only a tiny increase – less than one percentage point – in patients from rural regions compared to specialists who rarely used video calls. Interestingly, most of these long-distance visits weren’t with new rural residents; instead, they were existing patients originally from the city who had moved away and kept their old doctors via the screen.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.
Related Links:
— “Telemedicine Not Closing the Mental Health Gap in Rural Areas,”Deanna Neff, HealthDay, March 6, 2026