Utilization of Outpatient Telehealth Services in Parity and Nonparity States 2010–2015

Background and Introduction: Telehealth is a promising approach to improving healthcare access and quality. While coverage for telehealthcare has expanded, reimbursement remains one of the biggest barriers to provider adoption. Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia have enacted parity legislation requiring private insurance companies to provide some level of reimbursement coverage for telehealth services. Materials and Methods: The purpose of this article is to describe the trends in telehealth utilization from 2010 to 2015 for privately insured patients. Using a nationally representative sample of patient data from the 2010–2015 Truven ® MarketScan Commercial Claims dataset, we examine the change over time in the utilization of outpatient telehealth visits between states enacting parity legislation and those who do not. Results: We found the states with parity laws saw significant increases in the number of outpatient telehealth visits. Controlling for year, the odds of receiving a telehealth visit in a parity state were 29.8% greater than in a nonparity state (p