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Since March, telemedicine has seen skyrocketing utilization, as stay-at-home orders and overall caution drive consumers to look for alternatives to in-person visits. To facilitate patient access, both private insurers and Medicare and relaxed restrictions on telehealth services. On Monday, following an executive order from President Trump, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid announced that it would make its expanded coverage of telehealth permanent.
"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," said HHS Secretary Alex M. Azar said in a statement last week.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS lifted geographic restrictions on health care delivery, expanded its list of eligible telehealth services and relaxed restrictions on what services practitioners could provide. The result was a substantial uptick in utilization of telehealth services by Medicare beneficiaries, from 14,000 a week pre-pandemic to more than 10 million over a four-month period from March to July.
What Medicare coverage of telemedicine will look like, exactly, will be determined in the coming months, with the CMS inviting stakeholders to share their input by October 5.
One area of particular concern will be increasing access to services for consumers in rural areas, where the technology required for telehealth services may be lacking. According to an HHS report, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York saw the highest increases in telehealth primary care visits after regulations were relaxed, while rural states like Iowa, South Dakota and Oklahoma, saw much smaller increases. As such, President Trump's executive order directs HHS to work with the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Communications Commission to expand broadband access in rural areas.
"Telehealth expansions granted under the CARES Act prove that technology lessens the gap between rural patients and their access to high-quality health care," physician and senator Bill Cassidy said in a statement.
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Emily Payne
Emily Payne is director, content analytics for ALM's Business & Finance Markets and former managing editor for BenefitsPRO. A Wisconsin native, she has spent the past decade writing and editing for various athletic and fitness publications. She holds an English degree and Business certificate from the University of Wisconsin.
