The amount Americans with employer-provided health insurance have spent on mental health services rose 53 percent from March 2020 to August 2022, and that number is continuing to grow.
While the spending of individuals with employer-provided insurance has increased, mental health services use has also increased by 39 percent, according to study results Rand Corp. and Castlight Health shared with Becker's. The findings were published in JAMA Health Forum.
The study examined insurance claims from 7 million adults from January 2019 to August 2022, covering anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and PTSD.
It found there was an overall increase in the use of mental health services during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 to December 2020. Regarding this increase, in-person mental health services declined by 40 percent and telehealth services for mental health conditions increased about tenfold in comparison to the previous year.
When looking at the post-acute period of the pandemic — December 2020 to August 2022 — telehealth services for mental health conditions were consistently used at a rate 10 times higher than before the pandemic. Meanwhile, in-person mental health services saw a monthly increase of 2.2 percent and had returned to 80 percent of their utilization levels seen before the pandemic.
Overall, the rate at which individuals were seeking mental health services across various conditions in August 2022 was 39 percent higher than before the pandemic. The spending rates for these services increased by $1.2 million per 10,000 beneficiaries per month in the post-acute period.
Spending in these areas is still on the rise, but researchers are uncertain whether the trend will continue, as the end of the public health emergency in May resulted in the expiration of rules that expanded telehealth services.
"If greater utilization of health services drives higher healthcare spending, insurers may begin pushing back on the new status quo," Jonathan Cantor, PhD, lead author of the study and a policy researcher at Rand, said in the release. "Insurers may look for ways to curb costs, and that could mean less flexibility about using telehealth for mental health services."