Telemental Health Utilization in Commercial Health Insurance Plans in the United States From 2010 Through 2019.

We sought to characterize patterns of utilization of telemental health among commercially insured individuals over the decade preceding COVID-19. We developed telemental health service groups from the US PharMetrics Plus database, using diagnostic codes to identify those diagnosed with mental health conditions and procedure codes to capture mental health visits delivered via telehealth sessions. We analyzed 2 indicators of utilization between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2019: (1) the percentage of patients with mental health needs who used telemental health services and (2) the percentage of all mental health services provided via telehealth.