By Anuja Vaidya
– The rate of asynchronous telehealth claim lines for mental health conditions rose nationally, with a particularly sharp rise in the Midwest, where it doubled between May and June, according to new telehealth utilization data.
Data from FAIR Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker represent the privately insured population, including Medicare Advantage and excluding Medicare Fee-for-Service and Medicaid. Launched in May 2020, the tracker uses data from FAIR Health to provide insight into monthly changes in telehealth claim line volume and audio-only telehealth use.
Nationally, telehealth was flat at 5.4 percent of claim lines in May and June. In three US regions, telehealth use did not change during this period, but use decreased by 2.4 percent in the Midwest.
Despite this overall decline, asynchronous telehealth claim lines for mental health conditions doubled in the Midwest. Mental health conditions replaced hypertension as the No. 1 asynchronous telehealth diagnosis in the region, increasing to 36 percent of asynchronous telehealth claim lines in June from 15.9 percent in May.
Nationally, mental health conditions also rose, moving from fifth to fourth on the list of the top five diagnoses via asynchronous telehealth. This followed a drop in the top list of asynchronous telehealth diagnoses in May, when mental health conditions fell from No. 3 to No. 5.
But, as in May, mental health conditions topped the national list of modern telehealth diagnoses in June. Mental health conditions were followed by acute respiratory diseases and infections, joint/soft tissue diseases and problems, developmental disorders, and endocrine and metabolic disorders.
Although this was the sixth straight month of declines nationally, acute respiratory illnesses and infections still ranked second, making up 1.9 percent of claim lines in June.
Regionally, joint/soft tissue disease and problem diagnoses via modern telehealth increased in the Northeast and West. This diagnosis category entered the list of top five diagnoses in the Northeast in fifth place, while in the West, it increased from 2.2 percent in May to 2.3 percent in June, but remained in second place.
Additionally, in the Northeast, Midwest and West, acute respiratory illnesses and infections did not make the top five modern telehealth diagnoses in June, despite ranking third in the Northeast and second in the Midwest in May.
In the South, acute respiratory illnesses and infections remained in second place, but fell from 5.2 percent of claims in May to 3.8 percent in June.
Voice-only telehealth use fell nationally and in three regions from May to June, according to data from the tracker. However, in the South, voice-only telehealth use increased from 5 percent to 5.1 percent in rural areas.
As of May, voice-only telehealth use was higher in rural areas of the Midwest, Northeast, and West compared to urban areas in those regions. Nationally and in the South, audio-only telehealth use was higher in urban than rural areas. This trend was particularly pronounced in the South, where audio-only telehealth in urban areas was nearly double that of rural areas — 9.1 percent versus 5.1 percent.
