CMS Expands Telehealth Services in Medicaid, Medicare

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has expanded the list of telehealth services that Medicare Fee-For-Service will pay for during the coronavirus public health emergency. Since the beginning of the pandemic, CMS has added more than 135 services to the Medicare telehealth services list – such as emergency department visits, initial inpatient and nursing facility visits, and discharge day management services. 
 

CMS also released, for the first time, a preliminary Medicaid and CHIP data snapshot on telehealth utilization during the PHE. This snapshot shows, among other things, that there have been more than 34.5 million services delivered via telehealth to Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries between March and June of this year, representing an increase of more than 2,600% when compared to the same period from the prior year. The data also shows that adults ages 19-64 received the most services delivered via telehealth, although there was substantial variance across both age groups and states.