The study backed up what other research has found: mental health services have been a big part of the increased utilization of telehealth in the U.S. (Credit: Tadamichi/Adobe Stock)
Telehealth usage grew more than 7,000% during the first year of the pandemic, a new report from Fair Health has found. The annual report, which looks at health care indicators and prices, looked at trends and patterns in health care utilization across the U.S. The latest data, combined with earlier studies, allowed researchers to track changes from 2015 through 2020.
The report's authors noted that with the data including the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, some big changes were seen. The Fair Health report found utilization of traditional health care services dropping, while use of new models such as telehealth increased sharply.
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"Telehealth grew in 2020 on a scale unseen in previous years," the report said. "Telehealth utilization increased nationally 41,919% from 2015 to 2020; from 2019 to 2020, national growth was 7,060%. In all other places of service studied for change in utilization, utilization decreased from 2019 to 2020, probably because of temporary COVID-related restrictions on elective services and because the risk of contracting COVID-19 discouraged people from seeking in-person care."
Mental health dominates utilization
The study backed up what other research has found: mental health services have been a big part of the increased utilization of telehealth in the U.S. Mental health conditions made up 44% of all claims; the "all others" category came in second at 30%, perhaps indicating use of systems that did not clearly identify the type of diagnoses.
The data showed a relatively big increase in joint/soft tissues disease and issue diagnoses, which was the next most common diagnosis at 4%. Other more-reported conditions included developmental disorders (3%), acute respiratory diseases and infections (3%), and hypertension (3%). Other conditions all registered 2% or less of claims.
Other findings
The Fair Health study noted other findings, across a range of health care delivery models, including:
- In 2020 as in previous years, more claim lines were submitted for females than males in most age groups in the places of service in which FAIR Health studied gender-related patterns—retail clinics, urgent care centers, telehealth, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), and emergency rooms (ERs).
- However, in some places of service, such as retail clinics, urgent care centers, ASCs and ERs, the gap between males and females narrowed. For example, in ERs, in the age group 61-70, the male and female shares were approximately equal (50%) in 2020, a change from 2019, when the female share had been 52% and the male share 48%. The researchers said that this trend bears monitoring in the future.
- In 2020, the five states in which retail clinic claim lines constituted the greatest percentage of medical claim lines were (from greatest to least) Arkansas, Missouri, Rhode Island, Maine, and Minnesota. In 2018, Minnesota had ranked first in this list; in 2019, it ranked third, and in 2020 it fell to fifth.
- Connecticut, which had been fourth from the bottom in its use of telehealth as a percentage of all medical claim lines by state in 2019, rose to fifth from the top in 2020. In 2020, exposure to communicable diseases joined the list of most common diagnostic categories in retail clinics, urgent care centers, and telehealth. This category largely was associated with testing and/or treatment for COVID-19 when a patient was exposed to the condition.
The study concluded by saying the new data gives health care stakeholders more insight into how the pandemic has changed health care delivery in the U.S.
"This year's edition of FH Health Care Indicators and FH Medical Price Index opens a window on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation's health care system," said FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd. "We hope that this new edition, like those in previous years, continues to inform decision-making throughout the health care sector by payors, providers, government officials, policymakers, academic researchers and others."
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