Access to specialty mental health care remains challenging for populations with serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In the recent study published in JAMA Network Open, Professors of Health Care Policy, Haiden Huskamp, PhD, and Ateev Mehrotra, PhD, worked with coauthors to assess the association between greater telemedicine use among Medicare beneficiaries with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and quality measures, including regular use of specialty mental health care, outpatient follow up after a psychiatric hospitalization, and medication adherence.

The cohort study examined the variable uptake of telemental health visits across a national sample of fee-for-service claims from Medicare beneficiaries in 2916 nonmetropolitan counties between 2010 and 2018.  The study included beneficiaries with schizophrenia, related psychotic disorders, and/or bipolar I.  They categorized each county based on per capita telemental health service use (none, low, moderate, and high), and then examined the correlation between a county’s telemental health service use and quality measures using a model controlling for both patient characteristics and county fixed effects.

The findings suggest that greater use of telemental health visits in a county was associated with small but significant increases in regular contact with outpatient specialty mental health care professionals and a greater likelihood of outpatient follow-up post hospitalization. While an increase in mental health hospitalizations occurred, no substantive changes in medication adherence were noted.

Visit the HCP website for more information on Haiden Huskamp and Ateev Mehrotra.