Biden's Plans to Curb Mental Health Crisis Include Virtual Care

President Joe Biden's plans to address the growing mental health crisis in America include expanding virtual mental healthcare options.

In his first State of the Union address, Biden detailed the actions his administration plans to take to combat the mental health epidemic. These include investing in programs to bring providers into behavioral health, expanding and strengthening payment parity between physical and mental healthcare, increasing behavioral health navigation resources, and widening access to telemental healthcare.

The White House will work with Congress to ensure coverage of telebehavioral health across health plans and support the delivery of telemedicine across state lines.

Currently, there are several bills in front of Congress that aim to make permanent telehealth flexibilities enacted during the pandemic, including the Telemental Health Care Access Act. The legislation would provide Medicare coverage for mental healthcare through telehealth regardless of whether the provider has previously seen the beneficiary in person.

Further, research shows that state-level laws governing telehealth are piecemeal, resulting in provider use and patient access barriers. For example, states like New York, California, Connecticut, and Washington, have not joined interstate licensing compacts, which allow providers to practice across state lines without obtaining additional licenses.

The Biden administration also plans to task the Department of Health and Human Services with creating a learning collaborative that includes state insurance departments. The goal of the collaborative is to identify and address state-based barriers, including telehealth restrictions, to mental health services.

In addition, the US Office of Personnel Management will encourage Federal Employees Health Benefits Program carriers to provide sufficient telehealth reimbursement and eliminate or reduce co-payments for consumers seeking telemental healthcare.

"The use of telehealth to address mental health and substance use needs rose dramatically during the height of the pandemic and has remained above pre-pandemic levels even where COVID has waned," a fact sheet released by the White House states. "These tele-mental health services have proven both safe and effective, while reducing barriers to care."

The COVID-19 pandemic drove up rates of anxiety and depression worldwide, with the World Health Organization reporting a 25-percent spike in these conditions during the first year of the pandemic. In the US, 41 percent of adults reported symptoms of anxiety and depression in January 2021, as compared with only 11 percent from January through June 2019.

Even as demand for telehealth dipped from pre-pandemic levels, telemental healthcare usage has persisted. National telehealth use declined by nearly 7 percent last October, but the share of telehealth claims for mental health conditions increased by 1.5 percent, according to data from FAIR Health.

Recent data from Trilliant Health also shows that virtual care was a popular modality for mental health services, with behavioral healthcare being the most common visit type for patients who used telehealth for five or more clinic visits.