Fewer mental health facilities offering telehealth since end of pandemic

Telehealth availability for mental health services has declined since the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, according to a study published online July 10 in JAMA Network Open.

Ryan K. McBain, Ph.D., from RAND Corporation in Washington, D.C., and colleagues evaluated changes in availability of telehealth services at 1,404 U.S. outpatient mental health treatment facilities during (December 2022 to March 2023) and 1,001 facilities after (September to November 2023; wave 2) the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The researchers found that the percentage of facilities offering telehealth declined from 81.6 to 79.0 percent (odds ratio [OR], 0.84; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.72 to 1.00; P < 0.05). Of those offering telehealth, a smaller percentage in wave 2 offered audio-only telehealth (49.3 versus 34.1 percent; OR, 0.53; 95 percent CI, 0.44 to 0.64; P < 0.001) and telehealth for comorbid alcohol use disorder (76.3 versus 66.5 percent; OR, 0.62; 95 percent CI, 0.50 to 0.76; P < 0.001) compared with wave 1. In wave 2, facilities were more likely to report telehealth was only available for medication management (28.0 versus 41.3 percent; OR, 1.81; 95 percent CI, 1.48 to 2.21; P < 0.001). Overall, 72.0 percent of facilities were constituted sustainers of telehealth, 9.9 percent were discontinuers, 11.2 percent were nonadopters, and 7.0 percent were late adopters.

“Telehealth availability has declined since the public health emergency end with respect to scope and modality of services, suggesting targeted policies may be necessary to sustain telehealth access,” the authors write.

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