The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) on Monday called the two-year extension of telehealth provisions in the recently passed omnibus bill a “vote of confidence” for virtual healthcare.
“There is little doubt of the value of telehealth,” Kyle Zebley, ATA senior vice president of public policy said in a statement. “Our work will now renew in earnest to determine the best path forward for integrating virtual care into an omnichannel healthcare system that includes both in-person and virtual care delivery for the future.”
The path forward for telehealth in home health is still murky. In a recent report from the Government Accountability Office, a government watchdog group found that 43% of home health agencies polled said they wouldn’t use telehealth when the COVID-19 public health emergency expires due to insufficient internet access in some areas. The report called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to ensure benefit transparency and consumer protections for telehealth; strengthen fraud, waste and abuse protections; incentivize provider participation in value-based care and improve data quality for future policymaking.
The Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank, last fall also laid out a list of recommendations for telehealth expansion in a report to CMS. Topping the list of recommendations is ensuring that all Medicare beneficiaries have equitable access to telehealth, regardless of where they live or what their medical diagnosis is. The report found that while telehealth grew from roughly 1% of Medicare services pre-COVID-19 pandemic to a high of 32% during the pandemic, many rural patients couldn’t conduct virtual healthcare visits because they lacked access to connected devices or the internet.
A dearth of telehealth utilization data has been cited as a reason to tap the brakes on further telehealth expansion. There has also been a lack of clarity among providers when they bill for telehealth services, making it difficult to determine whether care was delivered through video or audio-only communications.
In a report to Congress early last year, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommended the Department of Health and Human Services require healthcare organizations to report more information on telehealth use. MedPAC advised CMS to work on simplifying telehealth billing and educate providers on billing practices.
