Federal and state government responses: How telehealth is being harnessed to address the coronavirus pandemic. With the impending surge of COVID patients on the horizon, federal government and state leaders are enacting historic expansions of telehealth. The policy change on the use of telecommunications in patient care could be transformative for the American health care system.
Reprint permission granted. As the health care system braces for a surge of COVID patients, state and federal governments are increasingly looking to telehealth for help. During the last few weeks, medical providers across the United States started, revamped, or expanded their virtual care capabilities. Public health experts, including the Centers for Disease Control CDC , agree that a wider adoption of telecommunications in patient care will improve hospital capacity by preventing the additional spread of the virus.
In the face of a global pandemic, federal legislators, state governors, and regulators around the country are acting in concert to leverage telehealth.
These policy changes reflect the recognition at national and local levels that telehealth will be critical in helping to limit further exposure and stop the spread of COVID in health care settings. In addition, the significant opportunities arising for virtual care, which is at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus, may transform telehealth forever. The lack of Medicare reimbursement for telehealth is a key roadblock to the wider adoption of telehealth.
For decades, Medicare reimbursement for telehealth services was limited to certain circumstances. In other words, telehealth services provided to a patient located at home were not reimbursable by Medicare under this framework. Medicare expanded reimbursement for telehealth services incrementally over the past few years. The new law amended Section of the Social Security Act by authorizing the Department of Health and Human Services HHS to issue waivers that remove traditional limitations for telehealth in an emergency area during an emergency period.
