Findings Outpatient visits by telehealth have declined since the early months of the pandemic In particular, this brief examines the share of outpatient visits taking place through telehealth. This brief assesses telehealth use from March 2019 through August 2021 using data from Cosmos, a HIPAA-defined Limited Data Set of more than 126 million patients from over 156 Epic organizations, including 889 hospitals and 19,420 clinics across all 50 states. Some states and payers started paying for telehealth services on parity with in-person care. In order to expand their offerings, some employers contracted with a specialized telehealth provider. Additionally, many employers and private plans reduced or eliminated cost-sharing for telehealth services and increased reimbursements for telehealth providers. Many states expanded telehealth access by allowing or increasing payment for telehealth services under state health programs, changing or suspending licensing rules, and allowing providers to prescribe based on virtual visits. For example, Medicare suspended restrictions on which telehealth services it covered, the geographic location of the beneficiary and whether the visit had to originate in a health care facility. Governments and payers sought to maintain access to care during this period by removing regulatory barriers and reforming payment policies. Social distancing to reduce the spread of COVID-19 led many health providers to deliver more services remotely. Before the pandemic, most employer health plans provided at least some coverage for services delivered through telehealth but very few enrollees used these services. Telehealth services can be delivered in various formats, including through specialized vendors, as a supplement to in-person care delivered by a patient’s physician, or by a provider at a remote location when a patient is at a medical facility. Telehealth visits-patient-provider visits delivered virtually-have been a feature of some physician practices for several years, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying social distancing protocols catalyzed a shift toward remote care.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |