Pediatric telehealth for mental health needs filled a critical deficit in the immediate period following the emergence of COVID-19, and continues to account for a substantial portion of pediatric mental health service utilization and spending, according to a new research letter in JAMA Network Open.
Because of that, commercial health insurers should use telehealth to make up for the lack of mental health providers focusing on youth, the research determined.
Focusing on children and youths younger than 19 who have received common pediatric mental health diagnoses (anxiety, adjustment disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, etc.), the team quantifies trends and changes in monthly utilization and spending rates between three phases of COVID-19: pre-pandemic, the midst of the pandemic before vaccine availability, and post-pandemic.
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