CMS expands covered telehealth services

Before the pandemic, Medicare covered telehealth services including office visits, psychotherapy, consultations, and certain other medical or health services only under certain circumstances. The beneficiary receiving those services had to be located in a rural area and in a medical facility designated as an eligible originating site. The beneficiary’s home was generally not considered an eligible originating site but during the emergency Medicare has waived the requirement and telehealth services can be provided in all settings – including at a patient’s home. 


CMS offers telemedicine "toolkits" and fact sheets for providers including nursing homes, ESRD, and state Medicaid and CHIP programs here.

Medicare has also expanded the list of covered services. A very partial accounting of what can now be delivered via telehealth includes radiation therapy management, group psychotherapy, end-stage renal disease services, eye exams, speech therapy, brief behavioral assessments, a wide range of physical therapies, wheelchair and self-care management training, nursing home and home visits, and acute nursing facility care.

While some of these might seem difficult or even impossible to deliver via telemedicine, it's clear CMS is interested in giving people a way to access care without endangering themselves or their care providers. Telehealth/telemedicine has been a hot topic in the medical and insurance communities for several years now and has been making steady but slow inroads into our health care system. The COVID-19 pandemic may turbocharge that progress and cause telemedicine to quickly become a much bigger part of how health care gets delivered in the future.