The Military Health System (MHS) was already taking steps to expand the integration of telehealth for the treatment of behavioral health (BH) conditions when the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020. The MHS, like the rest of the U.S. health care sector, adopted protocols to allow physical distancing and keep service members and providers safe. The public health crisis represented a potential major disruption in care for service members who required treatment for such BH conditions as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and substance use disorder (SUD). How did patterns of BH care utilization change following the onset of the pandemic? Under what circumstances and to what extent was telehealth incorporated into BH treatment? Were there declines in the quality of care that service members received during this period?

This report presents a preliminary examination of changes in BH care delivery in the MHS following the onset of the pandemic, including BH care utilization patterns, use of telehealth, and the quality of BH care. We compared BH care in two six-month periods: April– September 2019, prior to the onset of the pandemic, and April–September 2020, following pandemic-related restrictions on care delivery. Drawing on the findings from these preliminary analyses, we developed recommendations to help the MHS continue to improve BH care and mitigate the potential effects of the pandemic, with a focus on implications for the ongoing integration of telehealth.