In April 2021, Telehealth Utilization Falls Nationally for Third Straight Month

Telehealth Claim Lines Fall 13 Percent as a Percentage of All Medical Claim Lines from March to April, according to FAIR Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker

Recent Decline Follows a Five Percent Decline from February to March

News provided by

FAIR Health

Jul 07, 2021, 10:03 ET

NEW YORK, July 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In April 2021, telehealth utilization fell nationally for the third straight month, according to FAIR Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker. Telehealth claim lines¹ declined 12.5 percent nationally as a percentage of medical claim lines, decreasing from 5.6 percent of claim lines in March 2021 to 4.9 percent in April. This was a greater decrease than the drop of 5.1 percent in March but not as great as the decrease of 15.7 percent in February. Telehealth usage also declined in April in all four US census regions, with the greatest decline in the South, where the decrease was 12.2 percent. The data represent the privately insured population, excluding Medicare and Medicaid.

The decline in telehealth utilization appears largely to be driven by the return of non-mental-health services from telehealth—where they had shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic—to in-person settings. The percentage of telehealth claim lines associated with mental health conditions, the number one telehealth diagnosis, continued to rise nationally and in every region. Nationally, for example, mental health conditions increased from 57 percent of telehealth claim lines in March 2021 to 58.6 percent in April. Likewise in April, psychotherapeutic/psychiatric codes increased nationally as a percentage of telehealth procedure codes, whereas evaluation and management (E&M) codes decreased.² Within the category of mental health conditions, there were no changes in the rankings of top mental health diagnoses nationally or regionally.

In April, acute respiratory diseases and infections increased as a percentage of telehealth claim lines nationally and in the Midwest and South. As the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, this suggests a return to non-COVID respiratory conditions, such as colds and bronchitis. Also in April, general signs and symptoms joined the top five telehealth diagnoses in the West, again suggesting a return to more "ordinary," non-COVID conditions such as colds and stomach viruses.

About the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker
Launched in May 2020 as a free service, the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker uses FAIR Health data to track how telehealth is evolving from month to month. An interactive map of the four US census regions allows the user to view an infographic on telehealth in a specific month in the nation as a whole or in individual regions. Each infographic shows month-to-month changes in volume of telehealth claim lines, top five telehealth procedure codes, top five telehealth diagnoses (or diagnostic categories) and top five granular diagnoses within the most common diagnostic category.

FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated: "FAIR Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker continues to reveal changes in the evolution of telehealth as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes. This is one of many ways we pursue our healthcare transparency mission."

For the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, click here.

About FAIR Health
FAIR Health is a national, independent nonprofit organization that qualifies as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code. It is dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 34 billion claim records and is growing at a rate of over 2 billion claim records a year. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data products—including benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics and market indices—to commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national Qualified Entity, FAIR Health also receives data representing the experience of all individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D; FAIR Health includes among the private claims data in its database, data on Medicare Advantage enrollees. FAIR Health can produce insightful analytic reports and data products based on combined Medicare and commercial claims data for government, providers, payors and other authorized users. FAIR Health's systems for processing and storing protected health information have earned HITRUST CSF certification and achieved AICPA SOC 2 compliance by meeting the rigorous data security requirements of these standards. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish, which enables consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenditures and offers a rich educational platform on health insurance. An English/Spanish mobile app offers the same educational platform in a concise format and links to the cost estimation tools. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Dr. Marty Makary's book The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care—and How to Fix It and Elisabeth Rosenthal's book An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org.

Contact:
Rachel Kent
Senior Director of Marketing, Outreach and Communications
FAIR Health
646-396-0795
[email protected]

¹A claim line is an individual service or procedure listed on an insurance claim.
²An E&M is a patient-provider visit, such as for an examination, to diagnose illness or to determine or manage treatment.

SOURCE FAIR Health