Latest in health-care tech: Virtual solutions for depression and anxiety are effective, but can increase costs, report says
Patients suffering from mild to moderate depression and anxiety can meaningfully improve their symptoms by using virtual mental health-care tools, according to a new report from the Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI) on Tuesday. However, some of these tools increase total health-care costs for employers and plans.
Depression and anxiety affect more than one in five adults in the U.S., PHTI said. In 2020, the U.S. spent more than $240 billion on treatment for these two disorders alone. Virtual mental health tools have become increasingly popular in recent years, and PHTI evaluated a range of self-guided solutions, prescription digital therapeutics and blended-care solutions for its report on Tuesday.
PHTI is a nonprofit that conducts independent evaluations of digital health solutions. For its latest report, the organization assessed 15 different mental-health care tools from a range of companies, including Teladoc Health, Headspace and Spring Health.
"As a healthcare system, we should champion the success of these virtual solutions at improving access and outcomes, and we must be diligent in supporting thoughtful, financially sustainable, and clinically appropriate growth of these solutions for the people who need them," Caroline Pearson, executive director of PHTI, said in a letter.
Self-guided solutions offer digital content like lessons and activities that patients can access and personalize to meet their individual needs. PHTI found that these tools deliver "clinically meaningful improvements" for patients with depression and anxiety who are not already receiving psychotherapy. These tools also decrease net health spending for commercial payers, the report said.
Prescription digital therapeutics are software-based tools that have been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and must be prescribed to patients. When used in addition to usual care, these tools can help patients with depression and anxiety meaningfully improve their symptoms, PHTI said.
The organization found that prescription digital therapeutics decreased net health spending for commercial payers as well as Medicare at anticipated reimbursement rates.
Blended-care solutions combine self-guided content with virtual care teams of licensed therapists and psychiatrists. These tools make up the largest share of the market, and they are popular with employer purchasers. These tools offer "strong clinical effectiveness," PHTI said, though there is more limited comparative data in this category.
Despite these large clinical improvements, blended-care solutions increase net health spending for payers, PHTI said. The savings do not offset the costs, and estimated spending would be higher if the solutions were deployed in Medicare or Medicaid.
"Most of these solutions currently charge access fees for all employees— not just those who sign up to use the solution," Pearson said. "As a result, even though these solutions deliver strong clinical benefits, the avoided healthcare costs from users cannot offset the overall prices charged for the product."
Read the full report here.
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