Cover: Utilization and Spending on Mental Health Services Among Children and Youths With Commercial Insurance

Utilization and Spending on Mental Health Services Among Children and Youths With Commercial Insurance

Published in: JAMA Network Open, Volume 6, No, 10 (October 2023). doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.36979

Posted on RAND.org on October 05, 2023

by Mariah Kalmin, Jonathan H. Cantor, Dena M. Bravata, Pen-Che Ho, Christopher M. Whaley, Ryan K. McBain

The COVID-19 pandemic severely tested the mental health of children and youths due to unprecedented school closures, social isolation and distancing, and COVID-19–related mortality among family. In response, health systems offered telehealth to increase access to pediatric mental health care. However, the extent to which telehealth availability led to greater pediatric mental health service utilization and spending is largely unknown. In this study, we examined telehealth, in-person, and overall pediatric mental health service utilization and spending rates from January 2019 through August 2022.

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