One-hour psychotherapy sessions became the most common telehealth service nationwide this January, according to a recent data analysis.
The data, collected monthly by FAIR Health -- a New York City-based nonprofit specializing in health insurance data collection -- showed that psychotherapy had been the second or third most common telehealth service throughout 2020, depending on the month. But in January of this year, for the first time since the pandemic began, it secured the top spot across the country.
Mental health conditions have consistently made up the largest number of telehealth diagnoses since 2019. But, according to FAIR Health's data analysis, the numbers jumped from 30% nationally in January 2020, to 51.3% in January 2021.
Among most regions of the U.S., with the exception of the West Coast, the most common diagnosis was generalized anxiety disorder, making up nearly 30% of mental health claims. For the West, major depressive disorder had the highest diagnosis rate.
These numbers don't come as a surprise to psychologist Kathryn Esquer, PsyD, who created an online network, called the Teletherapist Network, for therapists transitioning into telehealth during the pandemic.
"We've been seeing not only existing clientele increase frequency because their symptoms of anxiety or depression have been worsening over the past year, but we're also experiencing an unprecedented amount of new clients asking for help," Esquer told MedPage Today.
Esquer and her teletherapist colleagues have noticed that existing clients have been booking more sessions than usual, and have been staying in those sessions for longer periods of time than before telehealth appointments became ubiquitous. Now, many of the psychologists in her network have reached their maximum capacity of clients, struggling to find referrals to other counselors or clinicians with the bandwidth to take them on.
Despite her lack of shock -- from both her own experience in the past year and from her colleagues' feedback -- that 60-minute psychotherapy has become the most commonly practiced telehealth procedure, seeing that fact reflected in the numbers brought Esquer a sense of comfort.
"It was really validating as a therapist who has been working way more hours, seeing way more patients -- to see those numbers show up," Esquer said. "I'm not the only one who's experiencing this high level of demand."
The source of these data comes from FAIR Health's trove of private healthcare claims data. According to president Robin Gelburd, they have the nation's largest collection of this type of data, including over 33 billion claims records.
"FAIR Health data are submitted by over 60 national and regional payers and third-party administrators who insure or process claims for private insurance plans, covering individuals located in 493 regions across all 50 states; Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; and the U.S. Virgin Islands," Gelburd wrote in an email to MedPage Today.
Esquer and many members of her network plan to continue using telehealth, or a hybrid blend of in-person and online sessions, even as more and more people become vaccinated for COVID-19; FAIR Health will also continue tracking telehealth data to see how the trends change going forward.
"Policymakers, payers, providers, patients, and other healthcare stakeholders will be interested in whether telehealth maintains its growth without the pandemic to drive it," Gelburd wrote. "They will also want to know in what directions it evolves."
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/92029
