Under current law and regulations, Medicare covers a broad scope of services via telehealth without restrictions that were in place prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but, for the most part, this broader coverage is available only temporarily. What is the current scope of Medicare telehealth coverage and how did it change at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic? These FAQs provide answers to questions about Medicare’s current coverage of telehealth, changes made at the outset of the public health emergency, additional changes adopted by Congress and the Administration, and some of the policy considerations that lie ahead.
During the first year of the pandemic, more than 28 million Medicare beneficiaries overall used telehealth services, including almost half (49%) of Medicare Advantage enrollees and nearly 4 in 10 (38%) beneficiaries in traditional Medicare. Between 20, the number of telehealth visits in traditional Medicare increased 63-fold. Prior to the pandemic, telehealth utilization among traditional Medicare beneficiaries was extremely low, with only 0.3% of traditional Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Part B using telehealth services in 2016. Telehealth, the provision of health care services to patients from providers who are not at the same location, has experienced a rapid escalation in use during the COVID-19 pandemic, among both privately-insured patients and Medicare beneficiaries.
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