Medicare telehealth access preserved in physician pay rule—for now
Modern Healthcare/ By MICHAEL BRADY
CMS wants to make it easier for Medicare beneficiaries to use telehealth services, improve its diabetes prevention program and overhaul its Quality Payment Program, according to the proposed 2022 Medicare physician fee schedule released on Tuesday.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS temporarily allowed Medicare providers to deliver a wide range of healthcare services via telehealth until the public health emergency ends. Now, many patients, providers and lawmakers want to make those changes permanent. But some experts worry that CMS doesn't have enough information about how those expanded telehealth services affect the Medicare program and its beneficiaries in terms of healthcare use and quality.
As a result, CMS plans to allow Medicare providers to offer certain services via telehealth until the end of 2023 to alleviate concerns on both sides. The idea is to create a glide path for consumers and providers while the agency decides whether to add those services to the telehealth list permanently.
"Over the past year, the public health emergency has highlighted the disparities in the U.S. health care system, while at the same time demonstrating the positive impact of innovative policies to reduce these disparities," CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a news release. "CMS aims to take the lessons learned during this time and move forward toward a system where no patient is left out, and everyone has access to comprehensive quality health services."
In addition, CMS will allow all Medicare patients to access telehealth services from their homes, as called for in the spending package Congress passed in December. The agency also wants to enable Medicare to pay for mental health visits via telehealth services provided through community health centers...
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