COVID-19 Pandemic Triggers Shift to Telehealth Therapy Services
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of healthcare providers to stop all non-emergency services in March and April 2020. For patients in need of regular maintenance care and therapy, this caused some interruptions to their treatment plan. In a study published by Virginia Commonwealth University on September 2, 2020, psychologists around the United States successfully transitioned their services from primarily in person to primarily telehealth in a just a few weeks.
How Telehealth Therapy Services Worked Before the COVID-19 Pandemic
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, only about 7.07% of therapy visits offered by psychologists were done through telehealth. There are several reasons for this. Insurance providers may not have covered it. Providers may not have had the technology. It was not the usual way of doing things, so it was rarely offered. Lack of Wi-Fi or broadband may have also been a reason why telehealth was infrequently used for therapy.
Why the Quick Response By State and Federal Governments Made an Impact
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid quickly responded in order to allow providers to get reimbursed for providing telehealth therapy and other types of services. Once Medicare and Medicaid offered reimbursement for therapy via telehealth, this set a precedent for reimbursement that other insurers could follow.
What Private Insurance Companies Did
After Medicare and Medicaid set reimbursement plans for telehealth therapy and mental healthcare services, most private insurers stepped up to the plate and did the same. Medium-size private insurance companies and even smaller ones did this, too. They also incorporated intake consultations and established patient visits into their covered services. This ensured continuity of care so that patients could continue seeing the same therapist. These rapid responses helped patients avoid extended waits between therapy sessions or a disruption of their care.
Providers Invest in New Technology
Providers are committed to providing the best possible level of care to their patients. They quickly adopted the necessary technology to make telehealth possible for therapy visits. The providers had many reasons to move quickly and use telehealth. It allows them to continue earning a living. Telehealth decreases their risk of getting infected or infecting a patient with COVID-19. The technology requirements for telehealth aren't too onerous. Most psychologists already have a smartphone, tablet or laptop with a webcam, so they just needed to gain access to encrypted and secure software for the visits. Tracking visits and billing for them was a challenge for some of the 2,700 psychologists interviewed for the survey. Those who had to figure it out on their own had more challenges, but psychologists who are part of a large practice or network were able to leave those issues to administrators and IT specialists in their organizations.
Therapists Quickly Respond to Shifting Needs
When there's a pandemic, mental health problems don't go away. In fact, the survey found that psychologists were in higher demand than ever throughout the spring and summer months of this year. People became anxious about what was happening. The uncertainty fed anxiety. People who lost their jobs or were worried about losing their jobs experienced worsening of their depression. Most psychologists reported that they felt comfortable shifting from in person to telehealth therapy. By July, more than 85% of therapy sessions were performed through telehealth. An astounding 67.32% of the psychologists surveyed said that they've been doing all of their services through telehealth. Psychologists also report fewer missed appointments and cancellations since switching to telehealth delivery for therapy services.
Patient Satisfaction With Telehealth Therapy Services
Psychologists aren't the only ones happy with the way telehealth therapy services have been implemented. Patients are happy, too. They don't have to travel to their therapist's office. There's no need to go out in public and get exposed to the germs of other people. The convenience of therapy from home or anywhere with Wi-Fi means that people in rural areas have better access to this essential type of healthcare.
Increased Need for Mental Health and Therapy Services
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the nation's mental health. People are still worried about what's yet to come. They fear losing their jobs, income and homes. They worry about what would happen if their spouse, parent or child became ill. They also worry about what their family would do if they died. This leads to an increased need for cognitive behavioral therapy and other types of mental health services through telehealth platforms.