In a report to Congress, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) stated that telehealth has the potential to provide valuable care without an increase in cost.
Although promising, telehealth has yet to be adopted across Medicare beneficiaries. Within 2014 to 2016, less than one percent of all Medicare beneficiaries, which is estimated to be 90,000 out of 35 million people, used telehealth services.
One obstacle in using telehealth services via Medicare is that telehealth is limited to the original provider site in rural areas and also only for certain health conditions.
Telehealth is an important resource in providing high quality care in that telehealth allows providers to treat patients virtually, via phone or through interactive video calls online.
In an effort to improve telehealth services, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 will allow for telehealth use from a patient’s own home.
Read the original article from Healthcare Finance here.
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