In hopes that the COVID-19 public well being emergency (PHE) will quickly finish, Congress and the administration are evaluating the telehealth expansions and flexibilities put in place to reply to the PHE. In consequence, the long run for telehealth stakeholders stays unsure. This text outlines varied modifications in Medicare telehealth reimbursement coverage in impact throughout the PHE and identifies what actions could be required to make these modifications everlasting.
Because the implementation of the PHE, there was a major uptick within the provision of telehealth providers by Medicare, different public payers and industrial payers. In response to this elevated utilization and outreach by stakeholders, Congress has actively explored methods to make some, or all, of the PHE flexibilities everlasting.
Throughout the PHE, telehealth suppliers have been in a position to obtain reimbursement for a higher number of telehealth providers, leverage extra kinds of healthcare suppliers, and deal with sufferers in additional places than ever earlier than. Telehealth suppliers have been energized by these modifications and are voicing resistance to the prospect of dropping these new reimbursement alternatives post-PHE.
The pathways to creating telehealth flexibilities everlasting, nonetheless, are neither easy nor clear. Reimbursement for telehealth providers is ruled by complicated statutory, regulatory and subregulatory necessities on the state and federal stage. On the federal stage, the PHE-driven modifications have come through each federal laws and regulatory modifications. This text describes what steps could be essential to make federal telehealth reimbursement coverage modifications everlasting because the healthcare system recovers and rebuilds from the COVID-19 pandemic.
