Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Telemental Health Use Among Publicly Insured Children

AJMC January 21, 2025
Xin Hu, PhD, Ilana Graetz, PhD, Jordan Gilleland Marchak, PhD, ABPP, Ann C. Mertens, PhD, Xu Ji, PhD, Janet R. Cummings, PhD

Among publicly insured children with mental health–related encounters, racial and ethnic disparities in telemental health use widened following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic propelled telemental health utilization among children seeking mental health (MH) services. We examined racial and ethnic disparities in telemental health use among publicly insured children before and following COVID-19.

Methods: We identified 36,877,141 child-year observations among publicly insured children aged 3 to 17 years with MH-related encounters in a given year from 2016 to 2020. Multivariable linear regressions controlling for individual- and county-level confounders estimated changes in telemental health use before (2016-2019) and following the pandemic (2020) and how these changes differed by individual- and county-level race and ethnicity.

Results: The...

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