Telemedicine is slowly but surely revolutionizing the way Americans meet their health care needs. Although the cutting-edge technologies of telemedicine generally broaden consumer access to and lower the cost of multiple disciplines of medical care, they seem better suited to delivering certain forms of care than others. And among those health care specialties in which telemedicine truly excels, mental health services sit near the top of the list.
In a recent Forbes article on the upsurge in mental health services offered via telemedicine, health care writer Bruce Japsen reports that some of the nation’s largest telemedicine providers are providing their customers easy access to mental health care. Japsen points out that American Well, MDLive, and Teladoc all see a significant opportunity for growth in this area of healthcare at a time when the nation faces an upsurge in problems related to psychological health.
Mental Health Crisis Bill
Underlining the current mental health crisis in America was the near-unanimous vote to approve the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act in the U.S. House of Representatives in early July 2016. The legislation was born more than three years earlier in the wake of the December 2012 mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. And recent mental health-related news, including an upsurge in suicides, an increase in opioid addictions and overdoses, and other mental health issues, has dominated the headlines in recent months.
As chronicled by Japsen, the private sector is moving quickly to expand the mental health services available to Americans via telemedicine. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced in May 2016 that it was increasing its use of telehealth services to address the needs of veterans with mental health issues. At the 2016 annual conference of the American Telemedicine Association in Minneapolis, David J. Shulkin, M.D., the VA’s undersecretary for health, announced the establishment of five telemental health resource centers.
These five new centers, said Dr. Shulkin, are part of the VA’s broader MyVA program, which is an initiative to revamp the department’s culture, processes, and capabilities in a way that puts veterans in charge of how, when, and where they wish to be served. And increasingly these days, telemedicine offers many veterans a more attractive option than travel to regional VA medical centers that can be both time-consuming and expensive.
To be opened over the summer months of 2016, the new VA telemental health resource centers will be located in West Haven, Connecticut; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Charleston, South Carolina; and Salt Lake City, Utah. The fifth center, designed to serve veterans in the Pacific Northwest, will actually be a consortium of facilities located in Boise, Idaho; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington. The Connecticut center, already operational, is designed to focus on the most complex and severe mental health issues, such as bipolar disorder and chronic depression.
VA Pushing Telemedicine on All Fronts
The establishment of these five telemental health resource centers is just another phase in the VA’s campaign to develop telehealth services to address the health needs of veterans. The department hopes to use telemedicine technologies, including health informatics, to facilitate access to all health care. As of mid-May 2016, the VA estimated that it was serving more than 670,000 veterans through telemedicine. That figure represents just over 12 percent of the 5.6 million veterans the department serves in all.
In the Forbes article, Japsen says that more Americans are suffering from mental health conditions than from such common medical conditions as diabetes and heart disease. Exacerbating the problem for those already under treatment is their apparent reluctance or refusal to take the medications prescribed to treat their mental ills. Japsen cites industry reports estimating that less than half of all Americans who are prescribed such medications are taking them as directed, if at all.
Mental Health Disorders Rampant
In a May 2016 article written in conjunction with the observance of National Mental Health Month, Monika Roots, M.D., Teladoc’s senior medical director for behavioral health, points to some alarming statistics. It is estimated, says Dr. Roots, that one in every five Americans suffers from some form of mental illness. Of those adults with mental illness, almost 60 percent have received no professional care over the past 12 months. Dr. Roots estimates that mental illness accounts for $193.2 billion in lost earnings every year.
A similar and equally alarming estimate of the incidence of mental illness in America comes from Zereana Jess-Huff, Ph.D., vice president of behavioral health at American Well. She told Japsen that nearly one in four Americans suffers from some form of mental health disorder, but less than half of that number actually receive care.
These statistics, says Jess-Huff, are “further complicated by a national shortage of available psychologists and psychiatrists. Behavioral health care is in desperate need of real solutions, and we believe that ‘telemental’ health can bridge that gap.”
To that end, American Well began in July 2016 to introduce its new “telepsychiatry” service, according to Japsen. At that time, the telemedicine provider indicated that it hoped to have the service rolled out in seven states by the end of August and nationwide by year’s end.
For its part, Teladoc in late 2015 introduced a “business-to-business” health program to 6,000 employers and health plans. At the same time, the telemedicine provider’s direct-to-consumer behavioral health services have roughly 10,000 active subscribers who, according to Teladoc, have completed “more than 1 million asynchronous texting sessions per quarter.”
‘Logical Next Step’
Julian Cohen, president of Teladoc Behavioral Health, told Japsen that behavioral health is “the logical next step in providing telemedicine services, as the primary modality is talk therapy, which requires only the ability for the patient and provider to speak by video or phone. If you look at today’s market and the proliferation of technology becoming commonplace, it’s a natural extension for telebehavioral services to fill the gaps in access to quality behavioral health services.”
Telemedicine providers are finding innovative ways to expand behavioral health services not just to employers, insurers, and consumers but to other health care providers as well. Japsen reports that Breakthrough, a subsidiary of MDLive, earlier this year struck a deal with Walgreens that will give the pharmacy chain’s customers access to more than 1,000 licensed psychiatrists and therapists. Under an earlier agreement, established nearly two years ago, MDLive provides Walgreens’ customers with round-the-clock access to physicians.
MDLive Expands Breakthrough Unit
Since its 2014 acquisition of Breakthrough, MDLive has expanded the behavioral health provider’s operations from only 10 states to all 50 states today. Of Breakthrough’s significance to MDLive’s overall operations, Randy Parker, MDLive’s founder and CEO, said the acquisition has “enhanced our presence in the telebehavioral market.”
If you’re interested in reading additional articles about the upsurge in telemedicine and its growing versatility, as well as other updates on consumer health topics, check out our blog.
We specialize in providing our over 1,000,000 customers with relevant product and condition information created by our professional editorial staff which includes our team of medical writers, medical practitioners, and health educators. eDrugStore.com Staff on Facebook