Summary
Attention continues to mount on telehealth expansion at the federal level. In Congress, lawmakers remain interested in determining what the longer-term fate of Medicare telehealth coverage will be beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). While brief post-PHE expansion of Medicare telehealth coverage was already enacted earlier this year, legislation recently passed by the House would extend several telehealth flexibilities for a longer period of time, regardless of when the PHE ends. Congress also continues to contemplate additional telehealth-related changes as part of its work on behavioral health reform. Such reforms may be likely candidates for inclusion in a forthcoming year-end spending package.
On the regulatory front, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently proposed a new wave of changes that would further expand Medicare coverage of certain telehealth services. Like what is being contemplated in Congress, these intended changes would give CMS additional time to study the effects of expanded telehealth coverage on quality, cost, outcomes, and patient safety.
At the state level, states continue to contemplate how to ensure access to telehealth services for residents, especially against obstacles such as licensure requirements. New model legislation may serve to alleviate some of those concerns.
Last, continued research on telehealth utilization patterns has shed new light on which subpopulations are utilizing telehealth services. Overall, these analyses suggest that it will be important to ensure all communities can access telehealth meaningfully, which means a continued focus on broadband access, cultural competence, access to audio-only services, and other issues will remain important. New evidence also suggests that broad telehealth access does not lead to duplicative services.