Telehealth utilization increased 10.1% across the U.S. from the fourth quarter of 2025 to the first three months of 2026, a new report from Fair Health found.
Telehealth utilization, measured as a percentage of medical claim lines, increased from 5.01% of medical claim lines in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 5.51% in Q1 2026. The relative increase was 12% in the Midwest, 11.8% in the Northeast, 9% in the South and 8.1% in the West, Fair Health data indicated.
The percentage of patients with a telehealth claim also increased nationally and in all four regions from the fourth quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026. Nationally, that percentage increased from 17.3% in the fourth quarter to 18.4% in the first quarter, a 6.3% rise. The largest relative increase was in the Northeast, at 7.3%.
The data is part of Fair Health’s newly launched Quarterly Telehealth Regional Tracker, building on data from the non-profit’s National Private Insurance Claims database. The database is built on commercial medical and dental claims from more than 75 contributors nationwide, the company says.
The quarterly tracker allows users to view telehealth infographics (PDF) either by U.S. Census region or nationwide. Data includes top five diagnostic categories by age group; percent of medical claim lines; percent of patients with telehealth claims; urban versus rural usage and top five procedure categories.
For Q1 2026, mental health conditions topped each diagnostic category for every age group nationally and in every region. At the national level, the overall share of patients with a telehealth claim for a mental health condition was 52.1%, but the share for children 0-9 was 26.9% and the share for adults 65 and older was 22%.
Following mental health, the other diagnostic categories in the top five were acute respiratory diseases and infections, overweight and obesity, endocrine and metabolic disorders and joint and soft tissue diseases.
Established patient office or outpatient services constituted the top procedure category (57.2%), followed by psychotherapy services and procedures (35%); new patient office or other outpatient services (7.7%); synchronous audio-video evaluation and management (6.8%) and psychiatric diagnostic procedures (6.7%).
Telehealth utilization was also higher in urban areas nationally and in every region. For urban areas, the report notes 18.6% of patients had a telehealth claim compared to 10.3% of patients in rural areas.
However, national growth from the fourth quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026 was greater in rural areas (7.8%) compared to urban areas (6.2%).