On Thursday, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized the Calendar Year 2019 (CY19) Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), which lays out reimbursement rates for physicians and other health professionals who provide services to Medicare beneficiaries. This year’s rule is another exciting step forward for the telehealth world, with new services like virtual check-ins, [...]
On Friday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule regarding Medicare Part C and Part D benefits. The proposal is the next step in the implementation of the Bipartisan Budget Act which authorized Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to offer, as part of the basic benefit package, additional telehealth benefits beyond [...]
This is the first of two blogs about the telemedicine provisions in the draft CY2019 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule published last week by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). I’ve summarized below what CMS is proposing, and I will follow up with some thoughts about the implications for telehealth coverage and adoption. Each [...]
Over the past several weeks, the House of Representatives passed 58 opioid-related bills. The Senate is in the midst of considering their own legislation. The intent of congressional leaders in both chambers is to reconcile these legislative packages and send a final bill to the President this year. This effort is key to solving a [...]
This past week was big for telemedicine in public programs. Both telehealth and remote patient monitoring (RPM) are proven tools in the commercial marketplace, but reimbursement restrictions have made adoption in Medicare and Medicaid pretty close to non-existent. It is still essential to pass legislation to fix outdated legal barriers in these programs. However, the [...]
February 3, 2016 | Krista Drobac, Executive Director of the Alliance for Connected Care Today represents the first real chance we have had to change Medicare payment policy for telehealth and remote patient monitoring. While the commercial market adopts these tools at a rapid rate, there is virtually no access for seniors in Medicare. This [...]
This year was a busy year for telemedicine at the state level. State legislatures and medical boards across the country considered dozens of measures, most of them aimed at improving the policy environment for telemedicine. In the flurry of activity, you may have missed some major developments at the national level that are going to [...]
PwC's Health Research Institute (HRI) issued its annual projection of the coming year’s health care cost growth. Unfortunately, 2016 is no different than previous years. HRI projects a rise of 6.5 percent in medical cost trend, which continues a leveling of the increases we’ve seen since 2007, but it is still an increase. HRI analyzed [...]
The Los Angeles Convention Center is abuzz this week with discussions about the future of patient care as the American Telemedicine Association brings together entrepreneurs, technology and device companies, health systems, and others for their annual meeting. Treating patients is no longer restricted to regular office hours and judging by the exhibit hall at the [...]
Offering telehealth1 to employees or health plan beneficiaries used to be a differentiator in benefits – an added perk for employees or health care consumers increasingly demanding convenience and accessibility. Today, it is rapidly becoming a necessary addition to benefit packages. Not only do employees and prospective health plan enrollees want it, but it’s also [...]