National Telehealth Use Skyrocketed Amid Omicron Surge

Telehealth utilization increased nationally by 11.4 percent between November and December 2021 and rose from 4.4 to 4.9 percent of all medical claim lines, according to FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker.

The tracker is a complimentary service that researches and analyzes how telehealth usage changes month to month, tracking various statistics such as claim lines, procedure codes, and diagnostic categories. The service began in May 2020 and reports data on the US as a whole and four separate US regions.

Primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth utilization has experienced an upward trend in the last several years. Though there were some dips in use in the second half of 2021, the tracker reported a significant increase in telehealth utilization between November and December. Researchers believe this increase relates to the first detection of the Omicron variant, which took place around this time.

The 11.4 percent increase is a large margin compared to previous months. Though December was the second month in a row that national telehealth use grew, the November tracker revealed only a 7.3 percent increase.

The increase in telehealth use occurred in all US regions in December. The South experienced the highest jump at an 18.2 percent increase in use. COVID-19 also rose from fifth to third among national telehealth diagnoses between the last two months of the year.

The December report further provided updated information regarding the share of telehealth claim lines for various diagnoses. Mental health conditions remained at No. 1 nationally, but their share of telehealth claim lines dropped to lower than 50 percent in the South.

Acute respiratory disease was another diagnosis taking up a large share of telehealth claim lines in all regions during this time. Meanwhile, hypertension entered the top five telehealth diagnoses in the South, as did joint and soft tissue diseases in the Northeast.

Updates in procedure code rankings also took place in December, but the procedure code for 60-minute psychotherapy, CPT 90837, retained the top spot.

Prior to this increase in telehealth use during the omicron variant spike, a gradual decline has occurred asCOVID-19 cases dropped. A Peterson- KFF Health System Tracker update describes telehealth making up less than 1 percent of outpatient visits before the COVID-19 pandemic, rising to 13 percent in 2020 and then falling to 8 percent in 2021.

This decrease in telehealth utilization could indicate a lack of trust in its effectiveness.

According to a poll conducted in November 2021, 38 percent of 1,000 respondents claimed they would not consider using telehealth following the COVID-19 pandemic, and 31 percent expressed doubt that telehealth is as effective as in-person healthcare.