Patient Comfort With Virtual Mental Healthcare is High

A majority of healthcare consumers across all age groups are as or more comfortable with app-based virtual therapy than in-person services, according to a new report.

For the report, Evernorth, Cigna's health services portfolio, partnered with Ipsos to conduct a nationwide survey of more than 3,000 healthcare consumers with employer-sponsored health insurance, 575 human resources leaders, and 58 health plan leaders. The survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual behavioral healthcare shot up. About 17 percent of respondents said they used virtual mental health services in 2021, compared with 11 percent in 2020.

"As the importance of behavioral health is increasingly recognized, few dispute its strong connection to overall health, both in the medical community and the general public," wrote Urvashi Patel, PhD, managing director, Evernorth Research Institute, in an online post. "It remains top of mind and a top concern."

Across all age groups, consumer comfort with virtual behavioral healthcare is high. Among Baby Boomers, 45 percent said they are equally comfortable with app-based virtual therapy and in-person mental health services, and 7 percent said they were more comfortable with virtual. With regard to Generation X, 55 percent said they were equally comfortable, while 15 percent said they were more comfortable with receiving virtual than in-person therapy.

Unsurprisingly, Millennials and Generation Z were the most comfortable with app-based virtual therapy, with 28 percent of the former and 23 percent of the latter saying they preferred it to in-person therapy. In addition, 56 percent of Millennials and 55 percent of Gen Z respondents said they were equally comfortable with virtual and in-person therapy.

The reasons consumers cited for greater comfort with virtual behavioral healthcare included being able to remain in their own home (24 percent), the ease of attending sessions from anywhere (18 percent), and feeling like they can be more open and honest than in an in-person setting (15 percent).

Further, consumers displayed a strong preference for video over other types of virtual mental healthcare delivery. More than half (55 percent) of consumers said they would prefer video calls as the point of access, followed by phone calls (22 percent), mobile apps (14 percent), and text messages (9 percent).

As comfort with and demand for virtual mental services rises, HR and health plan leaders are paying attention.

The top area of behavioral health support that HR leaders currently provide (35 percent) is digital cognitive behavioral therapy. Another 33 percent intend to expand access to it, and 15 percent consider it the most urgent area to address. Similarly, 35 percent of payer leaders said their plans offer digital cognitive behavioral therapy.

But, overall, digital mental healthcare is lower on the priority list of investments for health plan leaders. About 38 percent of leaders said they have plans to invest in new management solutions for specific conditions, like diabetes, in the next two to three years, and 22 percent said the same about managing the long-term health ramifications of deferring routine care because of the pandemic. Only 17 percent said that they planned on investing in behavioral health solutions in the next two to three years.

Virtual care has emerged as a vital tool in combating the growing mental health epidemic in the US. Last week, President Joe Biden spoke about expanding virtual mental healthcare options in his first State of the Union address. The White House will work with Congress to ensure coverage of telebehavioral health across health plans, among other efforts.

Further, recent data from the Peterson- KFF Health System Tracker shows that the highest rates of telehealth use relate to mental health and substance use services.