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%.