Mental Health Dominates Telehealth Usage Across All Age Groups in 2026

The findings arrive as part of the launch of the Quarterly Telehealth Regional Tracker, a new tool monitoring trends among the commercially insured population. Between January and March 2026, the share of medical claim lines attributed to telehealth rose to 5.51 percent, a 10.1 percent relative increase over the final quarter of 2025. While mental health remains the primary driver of this activity, the data shows significant variation by age; patients aged 0-9 and those 65 and older utilized these services at lower rates than other groups.

Usage patterns also reveal a persistent urban-rural divide. While 18.6 percent of urban patients filed telehealth claims, the figure for rural residents stood at 10.3 percent. Despite this gap, rural areas experienced faster growth in telehealth adoption—7.8 percent—compared to 6.2 percent in urban centers. Across all regions, office or outpatient services for established patients remained the most common procedure, closely followed by psychotherapy, cementing the shift toward digital clinical encounters.