US: Spending on mental healthcare rose by more than half
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Oct 2023
Spending on mental healthcare services by private health insurance policyholders in the US has surged since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic according to a new study.
The new study Telehealth and In-Person Mental Health Service Utilisation and Spending, 2019 to 2022 published by the journal JAMA Health Forum in August 2023 said mental health services are continuing to rise even as the use of telehealth has plateaued. The study was conducted by RAND Corporation and Castlight Health.
It said that the spending on mental health services rose by 53% and the use of mental health services increased by 39% among people with employer-provided insurance from March 2020 to August 2022.
The researchers said it is uncertain if the trend will continue since some rules that expanded payment for telehealth services expired when the nation’s public health emergency ended in May.
For the study that examines trends in mental health services after the start of the pandemic, researchers analysed claims submitted by around 7m commercially insured adults from January 2019 through August 2022.
The conditions examined were anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder. The data was collated from around 200 employers from all the 50 states of the US.
The changes that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic have triggered a significant expansion in the use of mental health services among adults with employer-based health insurance. It, however, remains uncertain whether this trend will continue or return to levels similar to those seen before the pandemic. M