CHAPEL HILL, N.C.–The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has broadly affected how health care is provided in the United States. One notable change is the expanded use of telehealth services, which have been quickly adopted by many health care providers and payers, including Medicare, to ensure patients’ access to care while reducing their risk of […]
During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, venturing outside in New York felt like preparing for battle. Germs were invisible bullets from which we tried to shield ourselves using masks and distancing. Staying home was of course the safest course of action, but for some, going out to see a doctor was crucial to their […]
During the Coronavirus pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has taken unprecedented action to expand telehealth for Medicare beneficiaries. Since people were advised to stay at home to reduce risk of exposure of COVID-19, there was an urgency to increase access to telehealth services to help people who need routine care and […]
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated telemedicine expansions and provisions but as states approach emergency order expirations, the status of coverage and regulations remains uncertain. Five things to know: 1. Over the past few months, CMS Administrator Seema Verma has voiced her support for telemedicine expansions. In June, Ms. Verma confirmed that the agency is in the process of […]
CMS released its telehealth guidance for electronic clinical quality measures for telehealth-eligible clinicians in 2021. The agency listed 39 telehealth-eligible eCQMs for the next reporting period: 1. Preventive care and screening: screening for depression and follow-up plan2. Closing the referral loop: receipt of specialist report3. Functional status assessment for total hip replacement4. Functional status assessment for total […]
The documents released earlier this month offer details on 42 eCQMs for telehealth services during the 2020 performance period and 39 eCQMs for telehealth services during the 2021 performance period. By Eric Wicklund July 13, 2020 – The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released additional details on telehealth reimbursement through quality reporting programs for the 2020 […]
A recent survey found that three-quarters of patients said they were very or completely satisfied with the virtual care they’d received, but many left the visit without understanding the next steps. By Kat Jercich July 13, 2020 Three-quarters of patients who obtained healthcare virtually during the pandemic said they want it to be a standard part […]
AS COVID-19 SPREAD across the nation from March to April 2020, use of telehealth services continued to grow. That surge is shown by FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, which uses our database of over 31 billion private health care claim records – the largest such repository in the nation – to track the month-by-month evolution of […]
Digital health data is growing at such an astronomical rate that its volume is measured in exabytes – 2,314 exabytes, by one projection. (For the record, one exabyte = one billion gigabytes; and “all words ever spoken by human beings” would need 5 exabytes of storage if saved as text.) The value of this digital health […]
The COVID-19 pandemic is increasing the use of telehealth in the United States, with 46 percent of consumers now preferring a telehealth visit over a traditional trip to a doctor’s office, according to a recent McKinsey & Company survey. In contrast, only 11 percent of patients preferred telehealth over office visits prior to the pandemic. […]
On June 25, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced its proposed Home Health Prospective Payment System Rule, for calendar year 2021 (the “Rule”), which aims to increase home health agency Medicare payment rates. This Rule also includes a provision to make permanent the regulatory changes related to telecommunication technologies in providing […]
With the last of the COVID-19 Telehealth Program awards handed out, the Federal Communications Commission is ready to review the $200 million program’s effectiveness and move on to the Connected Care Pilot. By Eric Wicklund July 10, 2020 – The Federal Communications Commission has drained its $200 million COVID-19 Telehealth Program. Wednesday’s announcement of the final 25 funding […]
Despite reimbursement barriers, home health care providers have long used telehealth and mHealth tools to improve care. Could COVID-19 expand those opportunities? July 10, 2020 – With the world stuck in the midst of a pandemic, health systems are looking to telehealth to shift the balance of care out of the hospital or clinic and into the […]
HHS Secretary Alex Azar said during a July 9 virtual The Hill event that he supports expanding telehealth provisions that were lifted during the coronavirus pandemic and the agency plans to work with Congress for greater coverage. “I think we’d have a revolution if anyone tried to go backwards on this,” Mr. Azar said, according to Politico. “This is […]
Since mid-March, the AARC has pushed the Administration to include respiratory therapists as telehealth practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under their wavier authority, CMS announced that it would extend the types of practitioners who could furnish telehealth to those who could bill Medicare directly for their services. That, of course, left RTs out of the […]