Since the rapid uptake of telehealth delivered health care services during COVID, there has been an assumption that this shift would improve access to care in rural areas and health care shortage areas. But a new study—Mental Health Specialist Telemedicine Uptake & Patient Location—found that just including telehealth as a covered behavioral health benefit may not be enough.

The study of Medicare fee-for-service claims by over 17,000 behavioral health clinicians over a five-year period (including the pandemic period) found that telehealth utilization for behavioral health services increased dramatically. But most of that increase in telehealth use was due to continuing to serve current consumers who had moved to a new geographic location. The uptake of those services in rural areas and…