Telehealth accounted for 44% of behavioral health visits among traditional Medicare beneficiaries, as of June 2024, according to a new study from the Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.
The analysis, published in Health Affairs Scholar, included nearly 539 million appointments among more than 60 million people from January 2019 through June 2024. Researchers found that despite the rise in virtual visits, overall behavioral health visit volumes — including in-person care — showed a declining trend during the study period. Overall visits did not increase as telehealth became more popular.
Behavioral health was an early adopter of telehealth, following Medicare’s emergency expansion of coverage in March 2020. Lead author James Lee, MD, said declining visit volumes may reflect reduced provider capacity due to burnout rather than decreased demand for care.
“One of the things that is paralyzing the policy debate is uncertainty and concern about whether covering telehealth in parity with in-person care would be associated with runaway utilization,” Dr. Lee said. “But we don’t see that here.”
The study excluded asynchronous patient messages and visits with providers not billing traditional fee-for-service Medicaid. Medicaid Advantage data were also not included.
Current telehealth coverage standards are set to expire at the end of January 2026 unless Congress acts by Jan. 30.
Read the full study here.
