Medicare and telemedicine

CMS to Congress: You’re the Impediment to Greater Use of Telehealth

The primary obstacle to Medicare making greater use of telehealth is current laws, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has told Congress in a new report. The report, mandated by the 21st Century Cures Act, outlines the extent of telehealth utilization today, describes its benefits, and suggests potential new and expanded uses for telehelath, but it also notes that Current restrictions on eligible telehealth originating sites appear to be the greatest barrier to preventing the expansion of Medicare telehealth services. The two most significant Medicare restrictions are: 1) requiring the originating site to be located in certain types of [...]

Physicians Push Back Against Medicare Telemedicine Proposal

A proposal to enable Medicare to make greater use of telemedicine as a means of serving patients is receiving surprising pushback from physicians. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed paying doctors $14 for what would amount to a five-minute telephone “check-in” call with patients. Some physicians note that they already have such telephone conversations patients – and do not charge for those calls. Others fear the new service will increase their patients’ health care costs because they would incur a co-pay for such conversations. The chairman of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), himself a physician, has [...]