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In March and April 2020, mental health claim lines for people aged 13-18, as a percentage of all medical claim lines, roughly doubled in the same months of the previous year. At the height of the spring wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, that increase in mental health claim lines was 97.0% in March and 103.5% in April. These are among the many findings of FAIR Health’s new white paper, the seventh of its COVID-19 studies, The Impact of COVID-19 on Pediatric Mental Health: A Study of Private Healthcare Claims.
In the same months of March and April 2020, all medical claim lines (including mental health claim lines) declined by about half (53.3% in March 2020 and 53.4% in April 2020), according to FAIR Health. This trend of increasing mental health claim lines and decreasing medical claim lines continued through November 2020, although to a lesser extent.
By defining the pediatric population as those aged 0-22 and focusing on the 13-18 and 19-22 age groups, FAIR Health studied the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric mental health in the United States. To do this, FAIR Health analyzed data from its database of more than 32 billion private health care claims records, tracking the month-to-month changes from January to November 2020 compared to the same months in 2019. Aspects of pediatric mental health studied include overall mental health. , intentional self-harm, overdose and substance use disorders, major mental health diagnoses, reasons for emergency room visits, and state-by-state variations.
The decrease in all medical claim lines is likely due to widespread restrictions on elective medical care in spring 2020 and continued avoidance of such care even after the restrictions were lifted in May. It is therefore striking to note that a component of medical care, mental health care, has increased significantly even as overall medical care has declined.
Other results reported in the white paper include:
- Comparing August 2019 to August 2020 in the Northeast, for the 13-18 age group, there was a 333.93% increase in intentional self-injury claim lines as a percentage of all claim lines. medical claim a higher rate than in any other region in any month studied for this age group.
- Intentional self-injury claim lines as a percentage of all medical claim lines in the 13-18 age group increased 90.71% in March 2020 from March 2019. The increase was even larger in comparing April 2020 to April 2019, almost doubling (99.83 percent).
- For the 13-18 age group, overdose claim lines increased by 94.91% as a percentage of all medical claim lines in March 2020 and by 119.31% in April 2020 over the same month of the previous year. Substance use disorder claim lines also increased as a percentage of all medical claim lines in March (64.64%) and April (62.69%) 2020 compared to corresponding months in 2019 .
- For the 6-12 age group, from Spring to November 2020, OCD and tics claim lines increased as a percentage of all medical claim lines from their level in the corresponding months of 2019 .
- For the 13-18 age group, in April 2020, claim lines for generalized anxiety disorder increased 93.6% as a percentage of all medical claim lines compared to April 2019, while claim lines for major depressive disorders increased by 83.9% and claim lines for adjustment disorders by 89.7%.
- In general, the 19 to 22 age group had similar, but less pronounced, mental health trends to the 13 to 18 age group.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on mental health, particularly that of young people. The findings of our new report have implications for all those responsible for caring for young people, including providers, parents, educators, policy makers and payers. “
Robin Gelburd, President, FAIR Health
This is the seventh in a series of studies published by FAIR Health on the COVID-19 pandemic. The first study examined the projected costs in the United States for patients with COVID-19 requiring hospital stays, the second the impact of the pandemic on hospitals and health systems, the third the impact on professionals health, the fourth key characteristic of COVID-19 patients, the fifth impact on the dental industry and the sixth risk factors for COVID-19 mortality.
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