“Federal efforts to expand Medicare’s telehealth coverage during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic ‘played a critical role in helping to maintain access to primary care services,’ says a new report from the Health and Human Services Department.”
“The issue brief, released on Tuesday by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, credits federal officials with creating new opportunities for telehealth at a time when access to in-person care was sharply restricted. According to the report, which analyzes Medicare claims from January through June, the percentage of fee-for-service Medicare services accessed via telehealth jumped from 0.1 percent in February to almost 44 percent in April.”
“’As soon as we declared COVID-19 a public health emergency, the Trump Administration took bold and rapid action to dramatically expand services that can be provided via telehealth and make it far more convenient for patients and providers,’ HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a press release accompanying the 24-page brief. ‘Today’s ASPE report shows that Medicare providers and beneficiaries rapidly embraced these new opportunities. The meteoric rise of telehealth during the pandemic has not only helped us combat the virus, but also prompted a new conversation around the future of patient-centered care…’”
“Along with Verma’s blog, the report offers more evidence that CMS is moving toward permanently expanding telehealth coverage, though when and by how much remain unclear. Officials had hinted that the agency might unveil some or all of the proposed changes this month, but nothing has been found in the Federal register just yet.”
“Congress, meanwhile, is under pressure to make those changes more expansive through new laws…” Read the full article here.
Source: New HHS Report Makes the Case for Continued Telehealth Coverage – By Eric Wicklund, July 29, 2020. mHealth Intelligence.
