Behavioral Health Telehealth Visits Increased 6,500% During The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency; Total Claims Up Slightly

Claims for behavioral health evaluation and management (E&M) telehealth visits increased by 6,500% from January 2020 to February 2021 in the United States. However, during this period, which coincided with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency, the actual number of mental health claims overall increased only slightly.

For behavioral heath E&M, the number of unique consumers per month in January 2020 versus February 2021 was 1.8 million and 1.8 million, respectively. No change. The number of telehealth claims in January 2020 versus February 2021 – about 17,000 to about 1 . . .